Superpowers

its not just about being able to empathize with others, i think its literally feeling what everyone else in the world is feeling...and i get the feeling he is considering what it would feel like to be God. except its not a good feeling to him, and he doesnt think anyone can actually get to God, as evidenced by the "silvery towers" surrounded by endless rocks, and all the awful feelings that others feel.

crazy song.

"i guess you could call it superpowers but no one is going to save the world with what I've got..." i love that line!

So, so sad, the remix makes it even more bitter-sweet

"I have seized with the ice cold rage of a lover betrayed, half a million miles away I have cried so hard for hours and not known why, I never do" its extra creepy how close these lines are, and the who le song for that matter, to my life.

wow thats really sad.

you know my superpower is to be radiantly awesome at all times while i am awake.

So I guess that means you're asleep whenever you post here?

Song's obviously about being bipolar. Hahaha.

He has the power to empathise with others, however it's not enough to save anyone.

"I guess you could call it superpowers but no one is going to save the world with what I've got an indigo light from silvery towers surrounded by rocks and stones as far as the eye can see"

All he can do is be there, and the silvery towers is a lighthouse that he is comparing himself with. He'll be there to show people a safe route but it's no guarantee to save them because they are subject to the water's will, which he has no control over.

I agree mostly with the two posters above about it concerning an ability to empathize, but a feeling of not being able to do much else.

To me, the "indigo light from silver towers" makes me think of TV, as TV light is a blue glow and is broadcast from transmission towers, and I think the narrator is able to lose himself totally in a story from a TV show (or movie) to reach that level of identifying completely with the characters and feeling the emotions that they feel. This may feel like some sort of superpower (maybe no one around the speaker can get quite so absorbed in the story), but isn't very useful, and can leave the narrator feeling isolated or otherworldly afterwards, as indicated by the isolation that "surrounded by rocks and stones as far as the eye can see" connotes.

The phrase "indigo light from silver towers" also makes me think a bit of Superman's Fortress of Solitude or something similar, and "surrounded by rocks and stones..." fits in with this, as well as the theme of superpowers in general. So, perhaps it is referring to some sort of superhero hideout, but with a mostly useless superhero.

In general, I think the song is fairly open to interpretation, like most good poetry. It does have a general theme of feeling sort of useless and isolated, but whatever else we read into it is what we bring to it individually.

I agree with the top comment here: this song is about the strange ability to aptly empathize, and how it could be seen as useful, but not really that great. But, when I first listened to it, I drew strong parallels from what was being described here to my own episodes of depressions, which eventually led me to believe it was kind of an ironic song about the strange things depression and heartbreak do, though, now that I think about it, the first idea about it being a song about empathy makes more sense with lines like "a lover, half a million miles a way." In general, absolutely beautiful song lyrics anyway.