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.
Four and twenty years ago, I come into this life,
the son of a woman and a man who lived in strife.
He was tired of being poor and he wasn't into selling door to door
and he worked like the devil to be more.
A different kind of poverty now upsets me so.
Night after sleepless night, I walk the floor and I want to know- why am I so alone?
Where is my woman can I bring her home? Have I driven her away? Is she gone?
Morning comes to sunrise and I'm driven to my bed.
I see that it is empty and there's devils in my head.
I embrace the many colored beast. I grow weary of the torment, can there be no peace?
And I find myself just wishing that my life would simply cease.
the son of a woman and a man who lived in strife.
He was tired of being poor and he wasn't into selling door to door
and he worked like the devil to be more.
A different kind of poverty now upsets me so.
Night after sleepless night, I walk the floor and I want to know- why am I so alone?
Where is my woman can I bring her home? Have I driven her away? Is she gone?
Morning comes to sunrise and I'm driven to my bed.
I see that it is empty and there's devils in my head.
I embrace the many colored beast. I grow weary of the torment, can there be no peace?
And I find myself just wishing that my life would simply cease.
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This song is not hard to understand at all, and it really needs no interpretation. There isn't any layered symbolism, or multi-hued metaphors, or complex artistic constructions beyond an honest description of one person's pain. I'll describe the song in the first person, the way it is sung. I'm 24 years old. All during my childhood when I was growing up we were poor. My dad tried hard to support us, but his life had been hard and he was a broken man by the time he'd married my mom and had us kids.
Now that I'm 24 years old and a grown man, I find that my childhood experience of coming from a broken home has defined my young adult life. I'm repeating all of my dads mistakes, and the poverty I'm experiencing now is exactly the same as when I was a child - but my own and not my dads, and not physical, but of the soul. I'm broken and dysfunctional, and lonely, and my only refuge is that of drugs and alcohol. And I'm oh, so tired of entertaining this monster which clings to me and will never ever let go, which only serves to distract me from my despair with the false hues of fake satisfaction and happiness, that I just want to kill myself.
I think that sums it up. ☺️
@eliash <br /> "I embrace the multicolored beast"<br /> Is masturbation.
Only 3 comments? Wow. This is such a beautiful song - lyrics, chords, vocals and all.
I think it's about a man who sacrifice a lot to become rich: "and he worked like the devil to be more." He makes it: "A different kind of poverty now upsets me so. " but loses his woman on the way and realises that money doesn't make you happy: "I see that it is empty and there's devils in my head"
When he see that he has devils in his head it could be a metaphore for him realising that he has done some wrong things on his way to the top.
4+20 is an autobiographical song about Stephen Stills’ life. His Father is a “man who lived in strife.” Stephen was tired of growing up poor so he “worked like a devil to be more” like all of us do. Then, he finds a “different kind of poverty” when he finds himself alone. About his lover, he wonders has he “driven her away?” Maybe he’s too intense for his lovely woman! The loneliness drives him to torment with “devils in my head.” Finally, he gives up and embraces “the many colored beast” which is a description of his depression, despair, and demons in his mind. They overpower him making his existence unbearable, and he wishes his “life would simply cease.”
@MLouis <br /> The "multicolored beast" is a poetic reference to masturbation
Man, Steven was obviously down after losing his woman. The lyric is actually..
Four and twenty years ago, I come into this life, the SON of a woman and a man who lived in strife
I was wondering if there's any "4:20" connection to it but the term was used since 1971 and the album came out in 1970... ?
First real use as a pot holiday was in 1990 or 91. High times magazine.
I tend to agree with jim68ny, though as many songs tend to, this one seems to be somewhat abstract
4 20 is his age.The many coloured beast is TV,which many people embrace to escape real life
@Bob67 <br /> Embrace the multicolored beast<br /> Is a reference to masturbstion.
This song is not hard to understand at all, and it really needs no interpretation. There isn't any layered symbolism, or multi-hued metaphors, or complex artistic constructions beyond an honest description of one person's pain. I'll describe the song in the first person, the way it is sung. I'm 24 years old. All during my childhood when I was growing up we were poor. My dad tried hard to support us, but his life had been hard and he was a broken man by the time he'd married my mom and had us kids.
Now that I'm 24 years old and a grown man, I find that my childhood experience of coming from a broken home has defined my young adult life. I'm repeating all of my dads mistakes, and the poverty I'm experiencing now is exactly the same as when I was a child - but my own and not my dads, and not physical, but of the soul. I'm broken and dysfunctional, and lonely, and my only refuge is that of drugs and alcohol. And I'm oh, so tired of entertaining this monster which clings to me and will never ever let go, which only serves to distract me from my despair with the false hues of fake satisfaction and happiness, that I just want to kill myself.
In my experience, similar to what I believe the song is about (already described well here by others, I think), "the many colored beast" was neither TV nor drugs, but a huge, fancy, crocheted blanket, big enough to cover a queen-sized bed, that an ex-girlfriend's grandmother had made for the two of us.
The girl gave it to me as a kind of "parting gift" - although I had actually been the one who rejected her and "our future together," not the other way around - and I understood why she did not want it any longer. I accepted the blanket. So, while I knew that she and I were not meant to be together, in ensuing times as a single man, occasionally, when I felt "so alone" and wondered why, wondering "Where is my woman?" (not my ex, but just, "the one for me"), I wrapped myself in that blanket. Its multi-colored design reminded me of this song. It kept me warm, gave me an "embraced" feeling, and so it became "the beast" - a reminder that I had a pretty good girl and relationship, but, there was then, both before and after the breakup, "no peace" in me about having the girl and relationship I was meant to have.
That peace came a couple of years later, when I met the girl who I've been with since, over 35 years. Now I can't remember where that blanket is! I believe we still have it, in storage since we rarely need blankets like it in our warm climate. I am sure I have never told my wife this whole "inside story." It doesn't matter anymore. It's a beautiful blanket. And the memory now is just like a quilt-scrap piece, a fragment of my life.