1
She can do anything at all
Have anything she pleases
The power to change what she thinks is wrong
What could she want with me yeah
Wait just one minute here
I can see that she's trying to read me
Suddenly I know
She's going to change the world
She's going to change the world
She's going to change the world
But she can't change me
No, she can't change me
She has the daylight at her command
She gives the night its dreams, yeah
She can uncover your darkest fears
Make you forget you feel them
Wait just one minute more
I can see that she's trying to free me
Suddenly I know
She's going to change the world
She's going to change the world
She's going to change the world
But she can't change me
No, she can't change me
Suddenly I can see everything that's wrong
With me yeah
What can I do I'm the only thing I really have
At all
But wait just one minute here
I can see that she's trying to need me
Suddenly I know
She's going to change the world
She's going to change the world
She's going to change the world
But she can't change me
No, she can't
Change
Me
Have anything she pleases
The power to change what she thinks is wrong
What could she want with me yeah
Wait just one minute here
I can see that she's trying to read me
Suddenly I know
She's going to change the world
She's going to change the world
She's going to change the world
But she can't change me
No, she can't change me
She has the daylight at her command
She gives the night its dreams, yeah
She can uncover your darkest fears
Make you forget you feel them
Wait just one minute more
I can see that she's trying to free me
Suddenly I know
She's going to change the world
She's going to change the world
She's going to change the world
But she can't change me
No, she can't change me
Suddenly I can see everything that's wrong
With me yeah
What can I do I'm the only thing I really have
At all
But wait just one minute here
I can see that she's trying to need me
Suddenly I know
She's going to change the world
She's going to change the world
She's going to change the world
But she can't change me
No, she can't
Change
Me
Lyrics submitted by mattsaunders
Can't Change Me Lyrics as written by Chris Cornell
Lyrics © Hipgnosis Songs Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I read an interview with Chris Cornell about the album and he indicated that it is sung in a lamenting tone...due to the fact that he can't be changed.
Because in being obstinate and unable to see that change can be positive and for the betterment of oneself...he is inevitably going to lose her. She will get fed up and move on...and she should.
@altamber8, lol none of that was said in the interview. The change could be anything from preferences, to hobbies and shit. You are not entitled to make a guy into your personal toy to do whatever you want. If she gets fed up by not being able to change the guy, then they are not compatible.
@Tricepts obviously someone hurt you dude, and for that I'm sorry, but don't come in here getting salty with me over it. I didn't shit on your Wheaties man. I never said anything about someone being entitled to making someone their toy, just that she will get fed up and leave, as she should. AKA they are not compatible. It is possible for someone to have cared and tried to do everything in their power to help someone else and they just have a different idea of how they wanna do things and not be compatible and yet BOTH people were good people that sadly just weren't right together. I had three serious relationships like this before I met my husband. They were good guys, but just not going the same direction as me. I don't hate them for it, and I still wish them love and happiness, if anything I'm just sad about the time wasted trying to make something work that didn't. In the end though, even those thins come full circle and bring us to the people and places we are meant to be.
@altamber, eh ... You may interpret the interview that way, but you might've missed the point behind it. I bid you good'ay.
maybe girls can change u for good.. what if chris meant the positive side of what they can do..and how much he doesnt need that positive side..cuz then if he loses that..well..nevermind.. i just try to see it..in a positive way.. maybe thats because im a girl=) u know.
peace
"if he loses that...well...nevermind.."<br /> <br /> Yes! And, of course, he knows full well what the implications would be.
@isobel, "change u for (their) good" perhaps, that is a positive for you, not necessarily them.
im in love with this song, this album, this guy is a musical genious...next to brandon boydd...hes def my favorite singer ever
Pretty much I think its what you've all said. It's about a girl that can do everything, succeeded at everything. The "power to change what she thinks is wrong - what could she want with me?" So, obviously he doesn't want to be changed unless he sees the fault, not what someone else does, no matter how great they are.
I don't think he wants to change...period. He sees his own flaws and the necessity for the change even and is still obstinately unable to change at his own personal peril.
@altamber8, the lyrics do admit that he sees everything that is wrong with him, though it has nothing to do with his own personal peril. He may very well feel as though there is something wrong with him, but it's because she makes him feel that way to try and change him. Everyone's got faults, but it appears as though the girl is faultless and never to blame for anything, she's just mrs perfect and he's always at fault so he can't ever change and even so it won't ever please her. She is simply never satisfied, which leads to his song 'What You Are' by Audioslave describing a relationship with a woman who is never pleased by his sacrifices.
@Tricepts sure that may be lots of girls out there...but I don't get the feeling at all by the lyrics that he was talking about just ANY girl here. He was talking about one who was very successful and surely gonna make something very special and profound with her life, and he full well knew it. She had ideas of how to help him too. She din't want to just help and change him, she wielded the power to change the world. That's not just some average chick who thinks she knows everything. I loved Chris Cornell, he was an ultimate talent and poet. But even he with all of his success may have very well had missed opportunities with movers and shakers. You're free to see it through your own eyes, as am I. What I envision is a woman who would go on to work for Greenpeace or Amnesties and really change things literally in the world, but try as she might, she just couldn't succeed at changing them. Obviously that means they weren't compatible, but I think this is his forlorn view for unrequited love because it was still sad to part with someone so special that was destined to do great things and not have felt good enough. I imagine he also dated plenty of women who felt the same about him because he went on to rock stardom and they were just Jan working at Starbucks or something...lol.
sounds like it's about Hillary Clinton, or Marge Simpson, from the husband's perspective.
Actually I listened to this song for the first time right at the time when I was arguing with my girlfriend because she kept on saying how I will never change and how we'll always fight about the same stupid bull crap.
Well, the meaning i get from this song was given to me by my girlfriend. She used our situation. She believes that I have a lot going for me(meaning i'm in the "she" position lol and vice versa), and that I can do a lot to "change" the world, but she would always say that she would never change(even though she has :P). She always felt inferior to me.
it seems to me a little like it's about a guy who completly lost his faith in himself, and then out of nowhere comes a dream girl and find in him a lot of interest. it's hard for him to exept that such a girl is now near him and in the song he declares that he can't be changed or doesn't want to. Maybe he don't want to cause he got used to be what he became before she came
I tend to think that it could have dual meanings here. The obvious, which is a girl that is trying to change a guy into being a better version of himself for the good of him, or her, as she sees the world and everyone in it, should be. However, the deeper meaning, I believe is the tug of war for a mans soul. The female mentioned is really God who wants to save Chris, but Chris is (as so many are) stubborn and wants to hold on to all of himself because it's all that he has and is...(which isnt the truth, God has more for him). She wants to READ him, FREE him, then NEED him...This is what God does READS (knows your heart), FREE (by being saved we are freed from the bonds of this world) and NEED ( well, God wants to hold you accountable and therefore that could feel like someone depending on/ needing you). But, Chris is determined to stay himself, not be moved, because if he sheds the worldly self he thinks he will get lost. But he doesnt understand that is when you really find yourself. In the music video, at the end Chris is walking on fire (because everything the girl, in the video, touches catches on fire (God is an all consuming fire, when you are reborn, you hopefully are on fire for the Lord). He walks in to a lake/pond with a Jesus Christ Pose and douses the fire, which could represent rebirth or putting out the fire intentionally. I think the answer is not clear (on purpose) in the video. I've read and heard a few old interviews and comments on Chris to imply that he did have a kind of dbl minded view of God or uncertain...he seemed to be such a good fair deep intelligent kind thoughtful man...a man that was struggling with the truth of his own beliefs adopted from the world he grew up in and the nature he was born with. Just my thoughts...not claiming to know for sure. :)
Interesting perspective.
@lori101547 I like your interpretation, maybe it can change my view on it as for me is more of a pill (Xanax) as I suffer anxiety, it can change the world but no matter what it can't change me, I will always be like this, even controlled as I've learned to do it, but still, I will always have it.
@lori101547 loved your interpretation! I do also think that there could be something related to using drugs and the power of addiction (or trying not to be consumed by the powerfull seduction of a drug, even when you're high and it "tries" to seduce you to go further).
This song has always ment a lot to me. It always reminds me of girls and what they can do to you it you let them. I've learned one thing about this, don't let them do that stuff and get over on you. It's your worst mistake...
Most girls are trying to help you realize your strengths and help you to change for your own betterment...not for your demise. I hope that you eventually see that (as I am sure one really did a number on you recently and that's a shame). We aren't all your enemy. Most of us want to make a life and love with our partner and help be his rock and build him into the man we know he can be.
gsmiller24, that's ultimately right minus the details: Apparently she is perfect, nothing is wrong with her, and so his failure to change, that is please her, makes him the one who is wrong, so he can now "see everything that is wrong" with him, but no matter what, he will never change because she is never pleased. That's also the whole premise of his other song 'What You Are' since he is never able to please the woman, except now he is free from what she wants.