If ten million fireflies
Lit up the world as I fell asleep
And leave teardrops everywhere
You'd think me rude but I would just stand and stare
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep
'Cause everything is never as it seems
From ten thousand lightning bugs
As they tried to teach me how to dance
A sock hop beneath my bed
A disco ball is just hanging by a thread (thread, thread)
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep
'Cause everything is never as it seems (when I fall asleep)
Please take me away from here
'Cause I feel like such an insomniac
Please take me away from here
Why do I tire of counting sheep
Please take me away from here
When I'm far too tired to fall asleep
I'm weird cause I hate goodbyes
I got misty eyes as they said farewell (said farewell)
If my dreams get real bizarre
'Cause I saved a few and I keep them in a jar (jar, jar)
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep
'Cause everything is never as it seems (when I fall asleep)
It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep
'Cause everything is never as it seems (when I fall asleep)
(It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep)
(Because my dreams are bursting at the seams)
Brilliant song! Kudos to Adam.
I think this song is about the growing up and letting go of childhood, while still embracing our dreams and acting upon a few of them ("I saved a few and kept them in a jar"), with the fireflies representing those dreams.
Just a thought... Less than a day left until Ocean Eyes :)
I agree with you there.
I agree with you there.
couldn't have said it better myself. seriously, I was gonna say that but i just couldn't figure out how to phrase it.
couldn't have said it better myself. seriously, I was gonna say that but i just couldn't figure out how to phrase it.
you said it perfectly, it reminds me of my little sister and brothers wild imaginations.
you said it perfectly, it reminds me of my little sister and brothers wild imaginations.
My memory of this song will always be from earlier this summer while I was camping. I couldn't sleep (because I have insomnia) and I was dealing with losing one of my friends. So I went outside, where it was completely silent and black (except for the unimaginable amount of stars) and I laid down on my back, and put my iPod on shuffle. This song played right away, and I just froze for a couple minutes, watching the stars and listening. And I know it sounds cheesy, but it was as if nothing else existed in that moment.
It was one of those memories that you can never completely explain to anyone, but it sticks with you none the less. Amazing song.
i can completely understand that. :)
i can completely understand that. :)
that is called finding God in your everyday life.
that is called finding God in your everyday life.
Really laxer4? Really?
Really laxer4? Really?
it is rare that music is this purely happy and good it makes me feel like everything is going to be okay
thts generally how adam is with his music. its so relieving. not that neone really cares but ive been having THE shitiest week and then i finally got Ocean Eyes and i hadnt listened to Owl City in forever and its like nothing ever happened to me the past week. the kids got a amazing gift.
thts generally how adam is with his music. its so relieving. not that neone really cares but ive been having THE shitiest week and then i finally got Ocean Eyes and i hadnt listened to Owl City in forever and its like nothing ever happened to me the past week. the kids got a amazing gift.
I totally agree, but those jerks that don't like popular songs will ruin it for us.
I totally agree, but those jerks that don't like popular songs will ruin it for us.
Don't let those jerks ruin it for you, listen to whatever the fuck you want. and you can get some real good pop music these days, radio is still going strong i reckon.
Don't let those jerks ruin it for you, listen to whatever the fuck you want. and you can get some real good pop music these days, radio is still going strong i reckon.
This isn't a song about insomnia. Quite the opposite. The songs meaning is about lucid dreaming or astral projection which is one in the same. For those that have never experienced it, it is absolutely wonderful. The song translates to exactly to what one experiences. You see lights everywhere and yes they look like fireflies. The verse "It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep" Means that because the experience is so wonderful you want to be in that state all the time and stay asleep. I know this all sounds like BS, I would have said it a year ago myself. I'm a 41 yo construction worker that just recently started lucid dreaming, and it's changed my whole outlook on life. listen or read the song again, and look at it from a perspective of someone that just saw and experienced something great, loving and wholesome for the first time. Check out patch parables and expand your minds.
@SGITU Indeed it is to me as well. astral projection "Please take me away from here" and "When i am too tired to fall asleep" and when in astral projection dreaming, "staying awake when im asleep cause everything isnt want it seems." usually in astral dreaming, i would always fly around and i see the "earth turns slowly" from outer space. And this song ended with "cause my dreams are bursting at the seas" reason being when you astral dream, i find myself flying touching the sea while going godspeed. So i do believe this song is explaining the...
@SGITU Indeed it is to me as well. astral projection "Please take me away from here" and "When i am too tired to fall asleep" and when in astral projection dreaming, "staying awake when im asleep cause everything isnt want it seems." usually in astral dreaming, i would always fly around and i see the "earth turns slowly" from outer space. And this song ended with "cause my dreams are bursting at the seas" reason being when you astral dream, i find myself flying touching the sea while going godspeed. So i do believe this song is explaining the wonders of astral dreaming. I looked it up on youtube and came across this, it also explains astral projection quite well :D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VB6h_bWR3Y
@SGITU yea I see what you mean, but then how do you explain the 'cause everything is never as it seems' line? I think there's more to it than a song about lucid dreaming. I think there's also this idea that while you sleep, there might be incredible things happening around you. I think the imagery of many fireflies doing their thing while you sleep might have some metaphorical meaning - perhaps that there are complexities in the world that we don't know. We can only imagine, or dream about them.
@SGITU yea I see what you mean, but then how do you explain the 'cause everything is never as it seems' line? I think there's more to it than a song about lucid dreaming. I think there's also this idea that while you sleep, there might be incredible things happening around you. I think the imagery of many fireflies doing their thing while you sleep might have some metaphorical meaning - perhaps that there are complexities in the world that we don't know. We can only imagine, or dream about them.
@SGITU hippie
@SGITU hippie
i feel like this may also have a sadder mood to it. like how he keeps saying "please take me away from here"
and also "Its hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep 'Cause everything is never as it seems"
to me he is kinda saying something is going wrong for him, and he cant sleep because he is so tired of it, but he would rather be asleep when he is awake.
i agree! maybe he's saying that all those moments of childhood like all the firefly references.. were his escape, and he wishes he could go back to those days..
i agree! maybe he's saying that all those moments of childhood like all the firefly references.. were his escape, and he wishes he could go back to those days..
I kinda interpreted the "stay awake" part as that he doesn't like to sleep, because when he wakes up he knows that everything good and magical that happened to him while he was asleep was all a dream, and it's hard to take that reality.
I kinda interpreted the "stay awake" part as that he doesn't like to sleep, because when he wakes up he knows that everything good and magical that happened to him while he was asleep was all a dream, and it's hard to take that reality.
I totally agree with your idea
I totally agree with your idea
I think its about having a dream world, or an ideal world that one can escape to, maybe in a dream at night or in a daydream, but knowing that this fantasy isn't reality and that it won't ever be reality is heartbreaking. So as much as the speaker wants to live in that fantasy world, he or she cannot because they're stuck in reality.
It's hard to say what Young meant outta this song, but this is what it means to me.
It's a song about how one night, when you're lying in bed and can't sleep, it hits you how fast time is moving and you reminisce about your childhood, teen years, dreams, etc.
"You would not believe your eyes, if ten million fireflies lit up the world as I fell asleep." The fireflies represent thoughts, memories, etc.
"They fill the open air, and leave teardrops everywhere, you'd think me rude but I would just stand and stare." Some of these memories are sad, some you wish could come back, and even though you should go to sleep and forget them, you can't help but continue.
"I'd like to make myself believe, that planet Earth turns slowly." We'd all like to think that time moves slowly and life is long, but in reality it is short.
"I get a thousand hugs from ten thousand lightening bugs, as they try to teach me how to dance." Reliving these memories and dreams are comforting.
"A fox trot above my head, a sock hop beneath my bed, a disco ball is just hanging by a thread." Various examples of memories that had meaning in the past.
"Leave my door open just a crack, cuz I feel like such an insomniac, why do I tire of counting sheep when I'm far too tired to fall asleep." More of the can't sleep problem.
"To ten million fireflies, I'm weird cuz I hate goodbyes." While it only makes sense to move on from our past, we can't help but relive the memories.
"I got misty eyes as they said farewell." As the thoughts slip away, they leave us feeling nostalgic.
"But I'll know where several are, cuz my dreams get real bizzare. I saved a few and I keep them in a jar." All of us have packed away some of our dreams or memories in a safe place, so we can always have them ready to explore again.
"Because my dreams are bursting at the seams." The last line, in my opinion the most striking, speaks for itself.
"
Omg WOW, I think this is EXACTLY what this song's about. Thanks for the post!
Omg WOW, I think this is EXACTLY what this song's about. Thanks for the post!
i think that it has to do with the freedom he gets from life when he can actually fall asleep. because of his insomnia, his brain is constantly working and thinking about things like time going by too fast, and all he wants is an escape. this is hinted in the "please take me away from here", he wants to be able to take a break from the reality and think about fantastic things like millions of fireflies dancing around him. "it's hard to say that i'd rather stay awake when i'm asleep", he wouldn't give up the time he actually gets to sleep, because in his dreams, nothing is as it seems. which to him, is a good thing. he is sad when the fireflies leave because it means he has to go back to the same, sensical life he's been living.
My memory of this song dates back to somewhere in the middle/end of August 2007. I was still living in New York at the time, and it because a tradition to visit my family out in Jersey every summer. This particular summer, I met this girl. My brother, cousin, and I were sitting outside the pizzaria when I was talking to my cousin and I heard this girl start talking to my brother. I turned in his direction and seen her give him a hug. When I looked at her, everything around me started spinning but in slow motion and my focus was all on her. I went deaf, I don't even remember what my cousin was saying to me. After the hug, she walked away from my brother, and I asked him who that girl was. Her name was Tiffany. I was so jealous when she hugged my brother, even though I knew it was just a friendly hug. I wanted her to be mine.
She was trying to help my brother get with one of her friends, who is now his current girlfriend (we moved to Jersey the next summer). Everytime I hear this song it makes me feel like I was 13 again (I'm 16 now). Whenever I hear the intro beat to this song, it puts me back in time to when I was sitting in the silver metal chair outside Antonio's pizzaria on Main St. watching her give my brother a hug. I wish you guys could see her, she had (and STILL has) the most beautiful smile ever.
Later that week, I added her on MySpace, and with my luck out of no where, she began telling people that me and her were best friends! I don't know where that came from, but I liked it. We talked all the time on MySpace until I moved to her town in Jersey in November 2008. We fell in love, and she's all mine now. This song makes me feel young again, and although she's mine now, I wish I could go back to the day I first laid my eyes on her and tell her she was beautiful, because she really is the greatest.
@BK520 I doubt you (or anyone else) is going to see this, but this comment made me really sad. Your comment was written in 2010, 11 years ago. it's crazy how fast time flies, and how the person who wrote this comment when they were 16. they're now 27 and well into life and that makes me wonder how they're doing. like are they still with the girl from myspace ?? this song came out when I was VERY young, but my brother was a bit older and introduced me to this song. i grew up with it but never really looked...
@BK520 I doubt you (or anyone else) is going to see this, but this comment made me really sad. Your comment was written in 2010, 11 years ago. it's crazy how fast time flies, and how the person who wrote this comment when they were 16. they're now 27 and well into life and that makes me wonder how they're doing. like are they still with the girl from myspace ?? this song came out when I was VERY young, but my brother was a bit older and introduced me to this song. i grew up with it but never really looked into the meaning behind the song. 11 years later and I'm finally curious enough to look into it..and I find this comment. idk why it makes me so sad, its just kinda crazy how time flies. this story about the Myspace girl is just really wholesome and pure to me and makes me feel kinda hopeful.
11 years.
I think Adam's been quoted as saying that this is a song about his insomnia. I understand though that music is there for people to derive their own meanings, but the following is what I think based on what Adam has said. There is certainly enough evidence:
He tries to asleep, but he is unable to do so (metaphorically represented by the "ten million fireflies"). The rest of the song seems pretty much an extension of this metaphor. The fireflies performing the "foxtrot about [his] head", a "sockhop" etc.
The seemingly happy tune of the song is juxtaposed to the background vocals: "(please take me away from here)", which may suggest that he wishes for the insomnia to stop, as fun and bizarre the "fireflies" or dreams he sees may be.
I was thinking it might've been about innocence or transitioning into adulthood or something but I couldn't see it and didn't understand how it fit. I was worried it was a song with a bunch of meaningless pretty phrases (loove this site, glad it exists) but I'm glad I know now. Poor guy. I had trouble going to sleep as a kid - I'm not sure about now, I end up thinking for hours till I sleep or get mentally tired - sometimes I end up laying there afterwards angry if I'm still awake - and my sleep schedule is...
I was thinking it might've been about innocence or transitioning into adulthood or something but I couldn't see it and didn't understand how it fit. I was worried it was a song with a bunch of meaningless pretty phrases (loove this site, glad it exists) but I'm glad I know now. Poor guy. I had trouble going to sleep as a kid - I'm not sure about now, I end up thinking for hours till I sleep or get mentally tired - sometimes I end up laying there afterwards angry if I'm still awake - and my sleep schedule is way outta whack and the random coffee and candy also influences it. I don't know what'd happen if I was balanced again, but I think I'd have trouble sleeping like when I was younger.
this seems like a really reasonable meaning
this seems like a really reasonable meaning
I believe it could be about his insomnia too, poor guy. I don't know what I'd do not being able to sleep! D=
I believe it could be about his insomnia too, poor guy. I don't know what I'd do not being able to sleep! D=
Who wrote the lyrics to 'Fireflies' by Owl City?