One Hundred Years

Firstly, you have to bare in mind that so many of the songs on Pornography were so psychedelically drug-fuelled, lacking in context, often attempting to merely sound dark and depressing for the sake of it - and often meaningless in reality. R. Smith said himself that he wanted to album to sound "virtually unbearable".

My interpretation of the song is, taking the name literally - One Hundred Years - It's essentially about a century of bloodshed, bloodlust, anger, greed and darkness. All the downfalls of human nature and their consequences. The different stanzas could be seen as referring to a different period from the last century - 'Ambition in the back of black car' (which might be metaphorical), 'In a high building [office block] there is so much to do' - suicidal or terrorist connotations. 'Going home time, A story on the radio' - Returning from the meaningless job you hate, a short-lived break from harsh reality, and listening to the radio to hear the same awful news stories about war or suffering in the world - the insignificance of a working man's life in the modern day.

In the following stanzas - references to soldiers and war, take your pick from the many political conflicts and wars which have occurred over the last century (Baring in mind it was the past hundred years from when the song was written).

The lyrics could be seen as revealing short stories in their own right, but I don't think there's any deep, meaningful, revealing context to be gleamed from the lyrics. The whole song is just a despairing look everything wrong in the world. The human race makes advances on the surface, but nothing really changes with time; human greed and selfishness and suffering are ever-present. All the same problems that plague humanity continue to exist over an entire century, just as they have for the already centuries past. One Hundred Years of darkness, suffering, inquality and despair. The opening line is essentially a summary of the whole song 'It doesn't matter if we all die' - and the world probably wouldn't suffer one bit from it.

The way the guitars and lyrics revolve and twist dismally around each other in this song...it pulls me into that hopeless hellbound spiral that Robert Smith was caught up in as a younger man. For the duration of this song, I feel like I'll never be free. "One Hundred Years" is the most brilliant and deliciously agonized, unabashed display of self-loathing I've ever heard...I love how it opens Pornography with it's utter hopelessness, but as the album progresses, there develops just a tiny glimmer of hope entwined in all of the blackness. There's nothing like it.

Omg i had a long, in-depth interpretation of this song but i lost it x[ The song in general is about the meaninglessness of life, and how we will all die anyway. But i took a more literal look at the lyrics and this is what i came up with:

The song switches POVs between a soldier and his daughter. The daughter had once been depressed about life thinking it was pointless, but once her father died at war, she again adopted this way of thinking and freed herself from her horrible life by killing herself. The soldier, her father, also thought the world was pointless too because he was at war, where he could be killed any moment, and not at home with his family. He ends up getting killed, and later more of his fellow soldiers get killed too, making the meaning of the song "It doesn't matter if we all die" even more true.

Of course, i could be wrong but lyrics are subjective anyway. Very depressing and haunting song. I adore the Cure especially their goth era!

This is essential Cure right here! Beautiful song about the futility of life, love, and death.

this has to be their best song, besides "fascination street". it's full darkness, it's just wonderful.

This song has the coolest beat and pretty much sums up my life. Sad, isnt it?

I applaud to Gay Christmas Tree. That's all that needs to be said. This song makes me wanna spin around like a maniac.

In my opinion the first few lines to this song are suggestive of Suicide. "It doesn't matter if we all die" is a general statement about hopelessness in life. "Ambition in the back of a black car" Black symbolizing death, the car could be a hearse, and ambition is in the back of it because of those suicidal feelings of never being able to amount to anything. "In a high building there is so much to do" now emphasis is being put on the size of the building, with depressing lyrics preceding this. Likely he (Smith) is hinting at jumping to one's own death. And the "Going home time, the story on the radio" would be suggestive of how the News would broadcast the suicide incident, and how even though the individual took his life, all he is to the rest of the world is just another story to sell. One Hundred Years definately sets the tone and theme of Pornography, one of The Cure's Darkest and brooding albums that deals with the decay of life, the fall into madness, and general hopelessness in living. Well, that's how i see it anways.

As soon as he finishes singing "one hundred years.." I believe the music sounds like a nervous breakdown, filled in every layer with despair. It's just amazing.

I agree somewhat with other postings here.

The first verse eludes to a rich or powerful person heading to work in the back of a limo, woks in a high rise, busy day, finally time to go home, unhappy or apathetic about his job, he is depressed. He listens to the radio...

But here is where there is something different. I don't think he and his beloved are married yet. I think they are living together in a forbidden relationship. One that has serious issues. One is living with the other out of need, the other, in love is desperate for reciprocation. They sit over dinner and, like the other reader said, they find a common amusing situation (something small falls out of your mouth and we laugh) but that is the small glimmer of light that night (pray for something better)

That night they are watching the invasion of their country, or possibly footage of a war where their countrymen fell, watching the patriots get shot. Perhaps they are watching footage of a war where the father was killed, and then a flashback to receiving the body of their father.

The pain of losing a parent never dies and the most simple things can trigger a memory and lead to depression.

Caressing an old man, painting the face... a mortuary and the preparation of the body.

New meat - soldiers are commonly referred to as this when they first engage in battle.

Yellow moon, the plunge taken just before death and movement into the next form of life. The soldiers closing in may be the haunting of the memory of the father's death and the yellow moon symbolizing the knowledge of what the person is about to do (commit suicide)

All shadows and deliverance... Clouded judgement and release of pain.

Under a black flag - the black flag symbolizes resistance, the opposition of repression (of the pain) and then of course, the ribbon slipping around the neck is the suicide...

I didn't explain it all, but thats all I could get from it... what do you think?

JFK