Hozier – Like Real People Do

General CommentI agree that this song could speak be about past relationship of a each person now forming a new couple... about the baggage, and experience they had in the past and are not ready or don't want to speak about

I was wondering though why they are not 'real people'...
Well, if you are not real person you could be... a zombie. ;) Yeah, laugh.
But if you think about it, after ending a relationship you may feel like a dead person, especially if it 'sucked all life out of you'. And in the lyrics there is a part saying 'before you pulled me from earth' meaning that person was burried and then brought me back to life again. However, after coming back to life you are not real person anymore, you are... a zombie?
So I imagine that one person from the song was devastated by a relationship that ended, felt like dead and now was trying to come back to life, to love again, but can't forget about the past, about the fact that he or she lived once before...

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  @artystka
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  @artystka Sometimes after an intense relationship and a tough breakup you don't feel like a real person anymore.
  I agree with your interpretation.

  Flag simpledespriton February 11, 2015  

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  @artystka such a good analysis!!!!!
  

  Flag kalli12345on March 13, 2015  

My InterpretationI agree with one of the older comments, and think this song is about being in a relationship where both have a past. It doesn't have to be a previous relationship, but it could be something else. With the way the song sounds, I feel like it's something darker(but that may just be my past talking).
I believe it starts with him thinking to the beginning of the relationship, where he was in a really dark place, and she pulled him out of there while she was also in that place:
I had a thought, dear
However scary
About that night
The bugs and the dirt
Why were you digging?
What did you bury
Before those hands pulled me
From the earth?

Then, when he goes on to say:
I will not ask you where you came from
I will not ask you, neither should you
Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips
We should just kiss like real people do

I don't really think it's about avoiding their past, but it's something more. When you know that someone has a dark past you don't just come out and ask about it. I believe that they're waiting for the relationship to get to a point where you trust the other with your past. So, they move on with their relationship, trying to move forward and away from their dark pasts.

I knew that look dear
Eyes always seeking
Was there in someone
That dug long ago
So I will not ask you
Why you were creeping
In some sad way I already know

In this verse, what I imagine is this:
He recognizes the look in her eyes from someone else he once knew, I think it's an anxious or scared look where you look around waiting for your past to catch up with you. He's saying he he won't ask her about the past or why she's the way she is because he already guessed(and it's not a lovely guess).

I don't know, I could be completely wrong, but as someone who has a past that has more dark than light, it's what I invision. Surprisingly, instead of this song making me sad, it gives me hope that I'll someday meet someone like that who understands and let's me go my own pace.

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  @jlynn24

General CommentHozier discussed in one interview that it was based on the idea of a fairy tale involving the bog people of Ireland. Sort of young girl burying her secrets and releasing a buried soul of a a bog person. He won't ask about her digging and she wont ask where he came from. Two people with secrets finding each other.

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  @mimdani

My InterpretationHozier has spoken of his love of folk and fairy tales, and this feels like an exploration of some common folk themes to me. Many ballads and folk songs describe the daemon lover, the unquiet grave, the living lover pining for one kiss from the lost even while knowing that kiss would be fatal. Over the years folk songs morph in many ways, with a ballad's details chopped off or a single beautiful verse or image becoming a song of its own. This feels like that to me. You're not sure which ballad this came from because only the bones of the story remain attached to the achingly beautiful plea for a kiss from a ghost. An interesting twist is that the living lover, perhaps out of extreme loneliness, seems to have exhumed a stranger. Or it could also be the sad situation that the dead lover has only the vaguest memory of life. The stories that could be woven from this lyric are endless.

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  @marycb

My InterpretationFor me the song discusses the (possible dark) past of a new love and how it effects their current relationship. The singer wishes to ignore their pasts or why they were exploring them and pretend everything is ok.

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  @JimmyIreland

My InterpretationI believe the song writer is expressing his curiosity in his lover's past. He wonders why she thinks about it ("Why were you digging?" "What did you bury?") but then realizes he has a past too, but that shouldn't stop them from loving (and kissing)

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  @Jillmitchell2

General CommentThis song is beautiful. It seems to be a metaphor for not wondering about the (dark) past of another but simply accepting who they are now with love and respect.

I had a thought, dear
However scary
It's the Intro, he's had a thought, where had this person trying to love him come from?

About that night
The bugs and the dirt
Why were you digging?
What did you bury
Before those hands pulled me
From the earth?
This night, the one where she starts to love him, that night, the bugs and dirt go with the theme of burying and earth, what love has she just buried, said goodbye to?
My favourite line, 'before those hands pulled me from the earth' says how he felt dead and buried without a love, but has been pulled from the earth by those hands, her hands, and brought to life.

I will not ask you where you came from
I will not ask and neither should you
He's realizing he shouldn't ask from where did she come from, better yet, from what she has come from, and neither should she ask him.

Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips
We should just kiss like real people do
He's saying, just give up, don't ask question, just love, and they should just kiss like real people do, real people with love and without these worries.

I knew that look dear
Eyes always seeking
Was there in someone
That dug long ago
He knows that look, of someone trying to figure out a person, always seeking to know them and their past, he knows, for he's seen it too, in past lovers and himself.

So I will not ask you
Why you were creeping
In some sad way I already know
So, he won't ask why she's had this look, and never truly felt safe, always creeping, looking around, because in such a sad way, he already knows. Other people can have a past too.

So I will not ask you where you came from
I would not ask and neither would you
Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips
We should just kiss like real people do
I could not ask you where you came from
I could not ask and neither could you
Honey just put your sweet lips on my lips
We could just kiss like real people do
If you noticed, the chorus has changed from 'I will not ask' to 'I would not' to 'I could not'. The last being the largest change, he's gone from just not doing something to being unable to do it, because it could taint a love.

Beautiful.

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  @Mochemon

General CommentThis song is personal for me. It helped with cope with a difficult time.
I interpret the lyrics as two people with significant pasts. For some reason, they have become jaded, and cynical of love. They come with baggage, and are afraid of vulnerability. The vulnerability it takes to let someone have all of you. The vulnerability it takes to realize that you could be destroyed if things go wrong. Two people, afraid of vulnerability meet, and they’re scared to take the plunge.

To me, Hozier is insinuating that sometimes it’s better not to ask too many questions. Overanalyzing wounds causes more pain. You must be able to overlook the pain of the past, and fall freely into a new relationship. Let love develop organically, and authentically. Don’t let the cynicism and heartbreak of a past relationship shadow new love. Be able to take someone as they are, with all of their baggage and yours, and grow together. Be vulnerable, and learn how to follow your heart again.

“honey just put your sweet lips on my lips, we should just kiss like real people do”

To me “real people” constitutes people who aren’t jaded yet. They haven’t had love rip them apart and challenge everything they’ve ever believed. They allow themselves to be vulnerable, and still believe that love can conquer all. After a while, it becomes almost impossible to approach love as “real people”, but it’s the only way to find true, all-encompassing love. Hozier wants to put away all the doubt, and fall in love the way that innocent “real people” do.

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  @infatuation

My InterpretationI agree that this song is about the baggage of old loves in a new relationship. What is especially interesting about this song, which I love, is that they decide to not ask about each other's baggage. They realize that they should just love each other for the now and not "dig" up the buried baggage which they have hidden in the Earth.

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  @cyntismusic

General CommentThis song is about two people that are trying to work on being with each other but simply couldn't forget their past. I'm assuming one couldn't move on from a past relationship and the other has some baggage nevertheless both have an equally dark past. My ànalysis of the song is that when these two people meet they both agree on no strings attached and just casual though they meet under unnatural circumstances ( from the first paragraph). They try to just focus on the present and tend to forget the past or rather not to dig up the past while they find comfort in each other's embrace. I think when the speaker says " like real people do", he actually means normal people, people who are lucky enough to be carefree and easy and happy and who are simply able to forget and move on. And their relationship slowly starts to develop into something more. We understand that from how the speaker goes from "I will not ask you where you came from , I will not ask and neither should you ", to " i will not ask and neither would you" . From this I'm assuming that first they both agreed on not to bring up their past, but as the relationship progresses ,the speaker wants to share his/ her past but the other person never seemed to ask. And then I think their relationship ends because neither of them were able to move on from the past that haunted them cause in the end the speaker says "I could not ask you and neither could you", As in, they never got to ask reach other about it in the time they were together. And now they never could.

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  @jessicawmx