Nobody Loves You Like Me

Such a beautiful song. I think it's about divorce.

Sounds like he might have gotten shot in the parking lot as he was leaving. "Move along, nothing to see" is often associated with police officers trying to keep a crowd from gathering.

To me, the song was about a stalker who had an imaginary life with someone until he finally dies violently, probably killed by the person s/he was stalking.

I believe that "Nobody Loves You Like Me," by Jonathan Coulton, is about a man in a bar who eventually commits suicide because he thinks he is worthless and because the woman he loves does not seem to notice him. HERE'S WHY. (2k MMR, plz no flame)

Here at the bar who cares what I do I'm all alone but I'm drinking for two Drowning the man that I used to be Nobody loves you like me

The man in question spends his last night drinking away his troubles. He feels dejected and regretful, pointing out that nobody "cares what [he] does," and how worthless he thinks his own life is. -Alcohol is involved over a quarter of all suicides in the US (approximately 7500 per year). -Suicide is 120 times more prevalent among adult alcoholics than in the general population. -Alcohol abusers have higher rates of both attempted and completed suicide than non-abusers. -More than one-third of suicide victims used alcohol just prior to death (http://www.mces.org/pages/suicide_fact_alcohol.php)

I won't sign a thing, or else if I do I'll use a pencil and that will show you How nothing lasts, how nothing is free Nobody loves you like me

The man further justifies his suicide by pointing out "How nothing lasts [and] how nothing is free." This shows how he believes that living is pointless since we will eventually die anyway.

I shouldn't stay, I think you'll agree It's no good for you, no better for me In the morning I'll go to a place far away Somewhere you'll never find me

I'm sure we've all heard the common phrase when people are talking about a deceased loved one, they will often say their loved one "has gone to a better place" in order to be more polite. The man says that he will go to a place far away, possibly to the great beyond, where the person this song is directed to will "never find?"

I catch a look, a thing that you say Out on the fire escape smoking all day Missing someone, now who could it be Nobody loves you like me

I honestly have no idea what this verse means. The person he is talking about seems to be traumatized in some way if they feel the need to stand "out on the fire escape smoking all day." They may even be troubled by the loss of a loved one, as hinted by the line, "missing someone, now who could it be."

Noises outside, the trucks in the street Will cover my flight, my hero's retreat I'm supposed to feel bad but I don't anymore Only when you remind me

This is the part where things get interesting. Up until now, we have seen motive for suicide, but he hasn't actually talked about specifically doing it. The words, "the trucks in the street will cover my flight, my hero's retreat," seem to suggest the man's preferred way of suicide. He no longer wants to live, driven mad by love and the notion of his own worthlessness. Therefore, he decides to 'retreat' from his unwanted life, into death. He acknowledges that he is "supposed to feel bad" about taking his own life, but doesn't. The only time that he second guesses himself is when "[she] reminds [him]" that he can't be with her unless he is in the world of the living.

Air in my lungs, a cough and a wheeze Holes in the bellows and blood on the keys You move along, there's nothing to see Nobody loves you like me Nobody loves you like me

This verse is after his suicide, in his final moments and possibly beyond. This is suggested by the words "a cough and a wheeze," which show that the man is injured. "Holes in the bellows" is likely talking about his lungs, as they were referenced in the first line: "Air in my lungs." Some theories propose that these words prove the man has a lung disease, but I believe the suicidal thoughts in the previous verses of the song suggest otherwise. We can confirm that the man is injured with the line, "blood on the keys." This also connects with the first lines in the previous verse, which said, "the trucks in the street will cover my flight, my hero's retreat." The keys of a truck or car are likely what the man is talking about. We said earlier that these lines likely meant that the man was going to kill himself in some way involving "the trucks in the street." This further supports that theory with the word 'blood' referencing his suicide, and the word 'keys' referencing the keys in a car or truck. The man now brings us back to the woman (or man, but most likely woman) this song is intended for, by saying "[She] move[s] along, there's nothing to see." This might suggest that she walks away after looking at the man's dead body at the suicide site, the morgue, or the funeral.

Thanks for reading! This is one of my favorite songs, and once I was convinced it was about suicide, it became one of my favorite S A D songs...2001 :(

This song is about divorce.

Divorce is common in the USA and what it comes from is Consumerism and paying more attention to making money than to figuring out how to live a good life. I know the answers, I found them. But people despise me, because they're all part of the cycle.

There might be obscure references to suicide.

People just get increasingly selfish each generation here, as marriages fall further and further apart and people sublimate their failures into things that will just make for more failures.

So then, seek out the way to have happy and lasting marriages: it's worth it, many people benefit from it. I have one, they exist. (See my other comments, perhaps.)

I took it as a dramatic song about a one night stand.

Or perhaps a narcissistic relationship ending with a "self righteous playing the victim" discard.

In all the interpretations I've read of this song, I've yet to see anyone examine it from the broader context of the album, Artificial Heart.

JoCo's albums tend to include several songs that, put together, tell an overarching sci-fi story. This is a lot more obvious in his other album, Solid State, but I see a lot of story in Artificial Heart, too.

The title track is about a man who has part of his body replaced with artificial parts - assumably due to terminal illness ("they knew all along that there was something wrong with me"). It's clear that the narrator loses significant amount of his emotions in this process, and he seems to lose his sense of connection to the world around him and finds himself essentially a different person ("once I was him, but now he's me.")

It's also implied in Artificial Heart that the narrator has a partner/spouse, and he is going through the motions of a human relationship without sincerity ("You're happy again, I nod and pretend to think it through/I don't need to think at all if I don't care for you").

Several other songs in the album have themes of domestic life and unhappy or failing marriages that illustrate attempts to assimilate back into his old life (I think "Today With Your Wife" is from the perspective of the couple's otherwise uninvolved friend or family member).

So, I think "Nobody Loves You Like Me" is the conclusion of the story.

The narrator is struggling for control between his present sense of self and the remnants of the person he was before ("I'm all alone but I'm drinking for two/drowning the man that I used to be").

Meanwhile, his partner seems to regret the life-saving procedure that turned him into who he is now, realizing the man she loved died, after all ("out on the fire escape smoking all day/missing someone, now who could it be?") and intends to leave him.

Deep down, his human half still loves her, and feels intense grief at losing her while his new, improved mind is struggling to quash those unpleasant, irrational emotions.

I think the line "Nobody loves you like me" is fairly literal - the way he experiences love is now warped beyond what a human would recognize as love, a bone-deep sense of need and possessiveness he feels for his partner at odds with a machine heart that is incapable of actual affection or empathy. Nobody else is capable of love in the form in which he experiences it, so of course nobody loves her like he does.

As for the end, suicide is the obvious explanation, but I think it's a little more complicated than that.

He refers to distractions outside covering "my flight, my hero's retreat." What makes this heroic? My theory is that his machine's half solution to dealing with these uncomfortable emotions is to murder his partner, but the remains of his human consciousness manage to seize enough control to get himself away from her. He tears out the computerized parts that keep him alive at the expense of his humanity ("holes in the bellows and blood on the keys"), ultimately killing himself, not out of despair, but to keep the woman he loves safe.

Meanwhile, his partner will never know the sacrifice he made for her, and feels nothing to learn that he’s dead ("you move along/there's nothing to see,"). In his dying thought, the title phrase takes on a new meaning. "Nobody loves you like me" from the perspective of his fully human self, who can die happy with the knowledge he has protected her, even if she won't ever know it.

[Edit: readability ]