Never You Mind

no comments yet?? i love this song. sounds like something carole king and paul mccartney might write together. :) the meaning...? it sounds like a bad relationship. the guy stays with this person even though he's being abused emotionally...he's trained to obey. "i react like you're ringing a bell" and he's trying to figure out why he stays... i love the slow verse abouting memories he'd be better off without. it's really pretty and meaningful

yes, the slow part about memories (which i am listening to right now...) reminds me of 'A Day in the Life.' I love that and then he says 'i believe you know me well' slow too. its awesome. i kind of agree with alisonlm7. it seems like its about a guy who is in a bad relationship, but he's kind of 'in denial.' then suddenly he realizes how bad he's being treated, but is indecisive about what to do, and what it is like from the girl's (or whatever) perspective.

i agree that this song concerns a guy in a emotionally bad relationship, but does anyone have any idea what the verse about mr. spock and dr. mccoy pertains to???

Ah, the classic Star Trek reference in this song is most amusing of all such references that I have heard on record. This refers to perhaps the absolutely worst episode filmed for that original series. The singer has switched on the tube to this episode and the setup is that Spock’s brain has been removed from his head but still alive and used to power an alien computer. Dr. McCoy attempts to put his brain back in his head after he has been given the knowledge to do the operation. However the knowledge given him is only temporarily and while in the middle of the operation, he begins to lose the understanding of the process. He mumbles something like in the song “Seemed so simple at the time”. Hilarious!

I like this song simply because of the above reference but it still is an interesting relationship song. I am not sure how the Star Trek reference fits with the rest of the song except that perhaps the protagonist is thinking that putting his relationship back together is like putting Spock’s brain back.

Very obviously a song about a man who feels psychologically trapped in this dysfunctional relationship.

"Rolling along to the song that aggravates us Beckoned on by the mirage of an oasis"

The only thing that keeps him in is this delusion that as bad as things are in this relationship, it will all get better. But it's obvious by his reference to a mirage that he's not totally sold on that idea and deep down, he knows he needs to get out.

"I believe you know me well I react like you're rining a bell"

An obvious reference to the 'Pavlov's Dog' experiments regarding conditioned response. In short: everytime researchers rang a bell, they fed a dog a treat. Pretty soon, everytime the bell rang, the dog would begin to salivate in response to the bell ringing. Just google "Pavlov's Dog" As it relates to the relationship in the song, she has our protagonist wrapped around her finger in a bad way. Conditioned to respond to her every whim.

as for the reference to the classic Star Trek episode entitled "Spock's Brain": I'm going to take a stab at it. I believe that what is being suggested is that our protagonist is, with regard to the relationship, of two minds. He is BOTH McCoy AND Spock. On the one hand, he knows that this woman has stolen his mind/will and is merely using him (Spock) and his more rational part (McCoy) knows basically what he needs to do to get out of this bad relationship but he just doesn't know quite how to go about it. Thus he's having a lot of anxiety "Sweatin' and Strainin'" over what to do next.

i agree with everyone else but drlondon's bit about the star trek reference i think all it means is that after his realisation that hes being emotionally aboused her trys to escape his problem but turning on star trek and blanking out anything meaningful

"never you mind" .... indifference towards a deteriorating relationship