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.
Say my name, and his in the same breath,
I dare you to say they taste the same,
Let the leaves fall off in the summer
And let December glow in flames
Erase myself and let go,
Start it over again in Mexico
These friends, they don't love you
They just love the hotel suites, now
I don't care what you think,
As long as it's about me
The best of us can find happiness, in misery
I don't care what you think,
As long as it's about me
The best of us can find happiness, in misery
Oh, take a chance, let your body get a tolerance,
I'm not a chance, but a heat wave in your pants
Pull a breath like another cigarette,
Pawn shop heart trading up, said no
I'm the oracle in my chest,
Let the guitar scream like a fascist,
Sweat it out, shut your mouth,
Free love on the streets, but
In the alley it ain't that cheap now
I don't care what you think,
As long as it's about me
The best of us can find happiness, in misery
I don't care what you think,
As long as it's about me
The best of us can find happiness, in misery
Said-a, I don't care just a-what you think,
As long as it's about me, you said-a
I don't care just what you think,
As long as it's about me, you said-a
I don't care (I don't care)
You said I don't care (I don't care)
Said I don't care, I don't care
I don't care (I don't care), I said-a, I don't care
I don't care what you think,
As long as it's about me
The best of us can find happiness, in misery
I don't care what you think,
As long as it's about me
The best of us can find happiness, in misery
I dare you to say they taste the same,
Let the leaves fall off in the summer
And let December glow in flames
Erase myself and let go,
Start it over again in Mexico
These friends, they don't love you
They just love the hotel suites, now
I don't care what you think,
As long as it's about me
The best of us can find happiness, in misery
I don't care what you think,
As long as it's about me
The best of us can find happiness, in misery
Oh, take a chance, let your body get a tolerance,
I'm not a chance, but a heat wave in your pants
Pull a breath like another cigarette,
Pawn shop heart trading up, said no
I'm the oracle in my chest,
Let the guitar scream like a fascist,
Sweat it out, shut your mouth,
Free love on the streets, but
In the alley it ain't that cheap now
I don't care what you think,
As long as it's about me
The best of us can find happiness, in misery
I don't care what you think,
As long as it's about me
The best of us can find happiness, in misery
Said-a, I don't care just a-what you think,
As long as it's about me, you said-a
I don't care just what you think,
As long as it's about me, you said-a
I don't care (I don't care)
You said I don't care (I don't care)
Said I don't care, I don't care
I don't care (I don't care), I said-a, I don't care
I don't care what you think,
As long as it's about me
The best of us can find happiness, in misery
I don't care what you think,
As long as it's about me
The best of us can find happiness, in misery
Lyrics submitted by knockout000
I Don't Care Lyrics as written by Patrick Stump Peter Wentz
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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.
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also, in an article today on mtv.com patrick said...
"Like the chorus says, 'I don't care what you think as long as it's about me.' It's that pop culture thing again, where people don't care about anything but the superficial, and I think there's something so tragic about that," he laughed. "I also thought there was something so ironically anthemic about the chorus, where it's not something you want to sing along to, because it's vacuous and empty. So I wanted something really anthemic underneath it, like something you'd hear at sports games or whatever, because I wanted people to hear it and be confronted with how empty that is. I didn't want anything to be superficial on this record unless the point was to point out superficiality."
What article please?