So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
He taps at my window
Willing that I let him in
I don't think I will though
My heart's taken, I won't tell him again.
Maybe I'll write him a story
And maybe I'll fall asleep in his arms.
Maybe I'll wake up lonely and fall unawake again.
And until you calm me down
Race around this town
Trying to find, oh, an emotion you cannot deny.
I will not have him treat me this way.
And Mother, I blame you.
Therein trying to be you again
For I have become you,
And I know every part of the game
And Father, I love you
But how can you watch as I push her away?
I cannot forgive you for bringing me up this way.
Maybe I'll write them a story
And maybe I'll fall asleep in his arms.
Maybe I'll wake up lonely and fall un-awake again.
And until you calm me down
I race around this town
Until you calm me down
I race around this town
Trying to find, oh, an emotion you cannot deny
I will not have them treat me this way.
So tap at my window,
Maybe I might let you in.
I don't think I will though,
My heart's taken, I won't tell you again
Willing that I let him in
I don't think I will though
My heart's taken, I won't tell him again.
Maybe I'll write him a story
And maybe I'll fall asleep in his arms.
Maybe I'll wake up lonely and fall unawake again.
And until you calm me down
Race around this town
Trying to find, oh, an emotion you cannot deny.
I will not have him treat me this way.
And Mother, I blame you.
Therein trying to be you again
For I have become you,
And I know every part of the game
And Father, I love you
But how can you watch as I push her away?
I cannot forgive you for bringing me up this way.
Maybe I'll write them a story
And maybe I'll fall asleep in his arms.
Maybe I'll wake up lonely and fall un-awake again.
And until you calm me down
I race around this town
Until you calm me down
I race around this town
Trying to find, oh, an emotion you cannot deny
I will not have them treat me this way.
So tap at my window,
Maybe I might let you in.
I don't think I will though,
My heart's taken, I won't tell you again
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Ave Grave
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Love in a Vacuum
'Til Tuesday
'Til Tuesday
Well, in my opinion this song is about being a young & maybe a little naive &/or introverted girl and finding yourself loving a man who is at first very charming, carefree & outgoing, and seems at first to be without limits, as in
"There was a time
you opened up every doorway
you didn't mind if everything
wasn't your way"
then that man starts to gradually become more introverted & shows their more possessive/obsessive side to you as the relationship progresses, even while they keep up the appearance of being carefree & outgoing to everyone else,
"Don't pull away
that goes against what you told me
I look in your eyes
I realize what you've sold me
is love in a vacuum"
so you confront them about the way they're acting and of course they deny it,
"I think you've changed
but you insist that
that's not true"
quite possibly they are an addict of some sort, my guess would be cocaine, &/or showing very obsessive behavior towards you (early on in the video for this song we see the man hanging a picture up, it is a very large portrait of Aimee & it is prominently displayed in his/their apartment for the duration of the song), thus their "love in a vacuum",
"You look so strange, so distant
that you're hardly you
Now I can see
how you have been acting different
You say it's me
but I know
that it isn't
it's love in a vacuum"
but still you are in love with them and don't want to leave them and you know that they are truly in love with you and they don't want you to leave them either, maybe they are convinced you can save them from themself, maybe they are so broken that the possibility of an overdose &/or suicide attempt is very real and you want to get through to them that their behavior not only dangerous but it is also just pissing you off and if they don't wise up they run the risk of loosing you, as in the lines
"You will be lonely
if you leave me alone", so you want to save them but can't get through to them due to the addiction &/or emotional problems they have,
"Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
love in a vacuum
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
You will be lonely
if you leave me alone
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough"
you want them to understand that the love they are giving you is not enough when it is filtered through the vacuum of their drug addiction &/or emotional impairment,
"You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough
and just wait
you will be lonely
Love in a vacuum
Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
Love in a vacuum".
'Love In A Vacuum' for me is a hauntingly truthful acute argument on the loneliness of obsession and almost inevitable loss of love that follows people who are broken in some way or another; the obsessives, the coke heads, the drunks, addicts or the just-plain-old emotionally broken; a razor sharp, lyrically driven, deceptively poppy, yet ultimately-depressing-in-the-best-way song.
Quintessential Aimee Mann.
Corpse I Fell In Love With
Gadjits, The
Gadjits, The
He reuses the verse melody from the previous album's "Dirty Little Religion", the topics of the verses are all over the place, and he packs too many words into one line (goes to show...) and too few in another (it's pretty hard to find), and rhymes "Henley Regatta" with "Persona non grata", but gets away with it all as only he could.
Grand Theft Auto
Insane Ian
Insane Ian
The way this song speaks to me🥺🥺when I sing it I feel like I relate
Techno Ted
Audioslave
Audioslave
Techno Ted may be a person who caused Chris incredible emotional pain & trepidation as well as moments of peace & happiness but now is removed and awaiting his fate. Darling may be a different person who is also free of him and can live her life free of Ted's tyranny. "In between all the laughing, and daydreams ... lies: a desert of truth" Lies are like a desert or the omission of Truth: Where there were Lies then Truth was absent. The song, "Techno Ted", may be a cathartic celebration of the downfall of this person.
Found this in an interview with Marling,with the Telegraph.. she's talking on this song...
"I had to sit my parents down and play that to them and say 'Guys, don't worry, I don't hate you'," she laughs. "That song is based on the Philip Larkin line, 'They fuck you up, your mum and dad'. I bet everyone in the world thinks like that. In fact, my parents were bloody good to me, picking me up from the station at one o'clock in the morning when I was coming back from a gig. Obviously they weren't too pleased about me dropping out of school, but it was just the way things were moving."
Part of me thinks that the 'he taps at my window, willing that i let him in' is maybe a slight reference to wuthering heights, possibly with the roles of cathy and heathcliff reversed. Also the turbulence of the relationship in wuthering heights could be reflected in the 'until you calm me down, i race around this town, trying to find, an emotion you cannot deny, i will not have him treat me this way' i could be wrong but the first time i heard it that was my first instinct. as well as the quite obvious parental issues highlighted.
I think the lyrics posted here are wrong.
Instead of the line:
"And Mother, I blame you. Therein trying to be you again"
I believe it's:
"And Mother, I blame you With every inch of the being you gave"
This song directly says to me that this person is conflicted by their own emotions. In context of a relationship, she's saying that this boy pursues her, and she wants to refuse him because she's with another, but at the same time, she feels something for him. Empathy perhaps.
"Maybe I'll let you in" - "My heart's taken, I wont tell you again" But I think she does let him in, despite herself.
"Trying to find an emotion you can not deny" Searching her behavior for love. A desperate attempt to connect them undeniably, as though to prove that they belong together.
"I will not have him treat me this way" could be taken in different ways. I see it meaning, not that he treats her badly, but that she's becoming spoiled by his affections, or feeling more strongly towards him, because of the way he treats her. Again, despite her efforts to refuse, she can't.
The parental blame is saying "It must be your fault that I am the way I am." The reason she's so conflicted, why she's empathetic and why, though she knows she shouldn't, she does feel something towards him. She blames her mother, particularly, for the way her mind works and in turn, blames her father for letting her do that.
Beautiful
Laura Marling is pretty amazing!
good old blame the parents for messing up relationships. to me this song is less about the lyrics and more about how she sings it. great song.
good old blame the parents for messing up relationships. to me this song is less about the lyrics and more about how she sings it. great song.
I thought the same with the Wuthering Heights reference. The whole 'tap at the window' idea as well as the idea of the 'emotion you can not deny' always reminds me of the Cathy/Heathcliff relationship.
I think the song is about a woman falling for another man, she contradicts herself in thr first bit by saying 'i don't think i will though' and then 'my heart's taken, i won't tell him again' because she's thinking about letting him in and she seems to be reassuring herself that her heart's taken even though she's thinking about letting him in. I also think the imagery of letting him in the window is actually her letting him in to her heart, this would also make sense of 'my heart's taken' meaning maybe that there isn't room for 3 in her heart.. 'The emotion she cannot deny' is the love between she two of them and how she can't deny that she feels it.. i think perhaps the reference to the mother and father may mean that the mother had an affair and the woman knows this game.. she says though that her father pushed her away.. I believe it's not actually about Laura's parents. Saying she might wake up alone means that if she leaves her partner and goes to this bou that she could end up without either