1
I'd like to see you just one more time
I give or take an inch or two, now what's the crime?
The dogs tore into him until
There was nothing left except what was left
I imagine that's not much
I'd like to be your cathedral
To feel all the people
Swelling inside me
I'd like to be your cathedral
To feel all the people
Maybe the time isn't right
Maybe the time isn't right
Maybe the time isn't right
She ripped it open with a plastic knife
I'd been waiting for something like that for all my life
You push your buttons, lock your doors
Your velvet screens they don't love anymore
It's the way that you see it
It's what you see
I'd like to be your cathedral
To feel all the people
Swelling inside me
I'd like to be your cathedral
To feel all the people
Maybe the time isn't right
Maybe the time isn't right
They beat her black and blue
They would have done me to
If I'd a stuck around
I'm a stranger in this town
They beat her black and blue
They would have done me to
If I'd a stuck around
I'm a stranger in this town
I'd like...
They beat her black and blue
To be your cathedral...
They would have done me to
To feel all the people...
If I'd a stuck around
Maybe the time isn't right
Maybe the time isn't right
I give or take an inch or two, now what's the crime?
The dogs tore into him until
There was nothing left except what was left
I imagine that's not much
I'd like to be your cathedral
To feel all the people
Swelling inside me
I'd like to be your cathedral
To feel all the people
Maybe the time isn't right
Maybe the time isn't right
Maybe the time isn't right
She ripped it open with a plastic knife
I'd been waiting for something like that for all my life
You push your buttons, lock your doors
Your velvet screens they don't love anymore
It's the way that you see it
It's what you see
I'd like to be your cathedral
To feel all the people
Swelling inside me
I'd like to be your cathedral
To feel all the people
Maybe the time isn't right
Maybe the time isn't right
They beat her black and blue
They would have done me to
If I'd a stuck around
I'm a stranger in this town
They beat her black and blue
They would have done me to
If I'd a stuck around
I'm a stranger in this town
I'd like...
They beat her black and blue
To be your cathedral...
They would have done me to
To feel all the people...
If I'd a stuck around
Maybe the time isn't right
Maybe the time isn't right
Lyrics submitted by overthinkingit
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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.
I think the song is about like a corrupted cult leader or holy man.
The first verse is about how someone confided in him about some crime he committed and he how he turns the man in gaining all the love of everyone without caring what happens to the man... he's becoming a cathedral that everyone worships. But maybe the time isn't right to proclaim himself as a god or prophet.
The second verse is about a suicidal girl that he comforts. He takes advantage of her and gets her paranoid about everything and faithful only to him, gaining her love and the love of everyone again for taking in such a damaged girl. Still the time isn't right to proclaim himself as a god.
The last verse is how he started having relations with a girl... maybe an affair.. but they got caught. They punished her while he ran away to a new town where no one knew him... and started all over again.