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.
Two boys on a playground
Tryin' to push each other down
See the crowd gather 'round
Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd
Black gold in a white plight
Won't you fill up the tank, let's go for a ride
I don't care 'bout no wheelchair
I've got so much left to do with my life
Moving backwards through time
Never learn, never mind
That side's yours, this side's mine
Brother you ain't my kind
You're a black soldier, white fight
Won't you fill up the tank, let's go for a ride
Sure like to feel some pride
But this place just makes me feel sad inside
Mother, do you know where your kids are tonight?
Keeps the kids off the streets
Gives 'em something to do, something to eat
This spot was a playground
This flat land used to be a town
Black gold in a white plight
Won't you fill up the tank, let's go for a ride
Sure like to feel some pride
But this place just makes me feel sad inside
Black gold in a white plight
Won't you fill up the tank, let's go for a ride
I don't care 'bout no wheelchair
I've got so much left to do with my life
Tryin' to push each other down
See the crowd gather 'round
Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd
Black gold in a white plight
Won't you fill up the tank, let's go for a ride
I don't care 'bout no wheelchair
I've got so much left to do with my life
Moving backwards through time
Never learn, never mind
That side's yours, this side's mine
Brother you ain't my kind
You're a black soldier, white fight
Won't you fill up the tank, let's go for a ride
Sure like to feel some pride
But this place just makes me feel sad inside
Mother, do you know where your kids are tonight?
Keeps the kids off the streets
Gives 'em something to do, something to eat
This spot was a playground
This flat land used to be a town
Black gold in a white plight
Won't you fill up the tank, let's go for a ride
Sure like to feel some pride
But this place just makes me feel sad inside
Black gold in a white plight
Won't you fill up the tank, let's go for a ride
I don't care 'bout no wheelchair
I've got so much left to do with my life
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This song is def a twin to "Unfair" (a song she has been quoted as saying is about falling in love with someone who is already in a relationship) so it is presumably about the same person. Given the references to buying an apartment and not being able to see her love interest "after tonight," it's most likely that she's moving away and she'll "wait a day to break the bad news" (i.e. notifying him that she's leaving once she's already gone).
And, of course, the fact that she sees in him a fellow "idealist" and "dreamer" (terms commonly given to people with the INFP personality on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)) portends that she'll always be left wondering if they would've been perfect together.
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Both as a standalone and as part of the DSOTS album, you can take this lyric as read. As a matter of public record, Jourgensen's drug intake was legendary even in the 1980s. By the late 90s, in his own words, he was grappling with massive addiction issues and had lost almost everything: friends, spouse, money and had nearly died more than once. "Dark Side of the Spoon" is a both funny & sad title for an album made by a musical genius who was losing the plot; and this song is a message to his fans & friends saying he knows it. It's painful to listen to so I'm glad the "Keith Richards of industrial metals" wised up and cleaned up. Well done sir.
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
This song is about white supremacy, and a pretty disgusting endorsement of it. The song longs for the days of old when blacks were subservient to the white man. The 'black gold' is the black man's labor being exploited for the benefit of the capital gains of whites. The first verse gives an image of a seemingly meaningless fight between two kids on a playground. However, the first chorus summarizes what is happening in this fight--it's between and white and black boy/man, on both a literal and figurative level. The speaker in the chorus that is handicapped and wants to go for a ride is speaking of lynching. Although he is handicapped (perhaps caused by a black man), his hateful pride still burns and propels him to participate in these acts of intimidation to suppress blacks.
The second verse refers to the golden age that the speaker remembers, when blacks were segregated. The second chorus then refers to the black man as a 'soldier,' however, this is a 'white fight,' and therefore, he has no place in it. The 'going for a ride' line here can be thought of as when lynch mobs would tie blacks to their vehicles and drag them through the street. The 'feel some pride...' part speaks of the sadness propelling the speaker to commit these hateful acts--the sadness is at seeing blacks being treated equally.
The 'mother do you know where your kids are tonite?' line is a mocking reference to the possible kidnapping and maiming of several black children by the speaker.
The final verse calls for this hatred to be adopted by the white children of today--it will give them 'something to do' and feed their hateful hunger. The final two lines is the speaker reflecting on when 'this spot' used to be a much more racially pure place, free of the tainting presence of blacks.
A very horrific song indeed. The fact that it got so much radio play in the 90's is quite offensive to much of the unsuspecting public. People always speak of hidden meanings in songs--voices that are played backwards insinuating evil acts. Well, the hate is usually as plain as day. Dave Pirner should be tried for hate crimes for some of the horrific acts he endorses.
You have an over active imagination. Watch the video. It's about the Gulf War.<br /> <br /> The meaning of the song has been the topic of many debates. Some fans state that it simply is about racism and/or black soldiers fighting in a war ("You're a black soldier, white fight"). Other disagree and claim it is about the greed for oil (Black Gold is another term for oil). One other theory maintains that it is about the Gulf War and the obvious references to the Persian Gulf in the music video supports this theory. Dave Pirner is shown in the reflection of a pool which mirrors the shape of the Persian Gulf. Many lyrics from the song do match this idea. The lyrics "Two boys on a playground/trying to push each other down" could possibly mean the USA and Iraq fighting over "Black Gold". It has been theorized that the lines "Keeps the kids off the streets/gives 'em something to do, something to eat" could mean young men and women ("kids") joining the military. And there is the fact that at about 1:56 various noises are heard: ambulance sirens, screams, cries, and what appears to be a news cast, which could represent the war. Pirner himself stated that the song was about war at the Dogwood Festival in Fayetteville, NC on April 24, 2010. He also stated that he was against war.