I always get 2 different possible meanings out of this song, and now I see that I have even found a third from watching their Behind the Music episode on VH-1. When I was younger and really into my feminist days, I always thought this was a bored housewife crying out against the monotony she lived all day long and then going crazy on her husband when he got home from work at night. And there WAS true love involved in spite of all the obstacles and the state of the world, etc. However, generally men are thought to not be all that responsive when their wives want to go "crazy" on them and do something like ... uh... talk about their relationship. Plus maybe they she feels trapped by having a lot of young children too fast and now she has to take care of them and there is no time for her youth any longer. But she does love him and sexually they relate to each other.
Another thing I read into this is that Anne Wilson is talking to her audience about the down side of the music business and touring, etc. is and how it is robbing her of her youth and fun -- "the kids keep coming", "no time to be young". So, at concerts, at night there is nothing left to do but go crazy on them. Then she speaks to the audience as though they were a collective lover, their love keeping her going in spite of the monotony:
I sang you the song that I heard up above
And you kept me alive with your sweet, flowing love
I also think the reference to "bombs and the devil" was about her relationship with the guy "Magic Man" was about who had run off to Canada to avoid the nightmare of the Viet Nam War. She joined him there and they had an idyllic existence until he fell in love with someone else. So, perhaps this whole song is really just dedicated to him personally about their relationship.
There are some lyrics missing up there. The part that starts out
"Wild man's world's crying in pain
Whatcha gonna do when everybody's insane
So afraid of __, so afraid of you
Whatcha gonna do-oooooh?"
I'm not sure exactly what the lyric to fill in the blank is. I always used to think it was the work woman -- so afraid of woman and that's why men can't talk to their wives - out of fear. Since then I have seen it on plenty of lyric sites as "to wonder" as in "so afraid to wonder whatcha gonna do?" Which I am not sure exactly what that would mean but possibly it is a tie in to the previous lyric:
You don't need to wonder, you're doing fine
Which I take to mean he's not (or if it's the audience they're not) pondering life, or relationships, or the world, he is/they are just being and doing fine.
But anyway, my main interpretation no matter what the motif is that she wants more and it's got to come out somehow! She has to go crazy or else!
I always get 2 different possible meanings out of this song, and now I see that I have even found a third from watching their Behind the Music episode on VH-1. When I was younger and really into my feminist days, I always thought this was a bored housewife crying out against the monotony she lived all day long and then going crazy on her husband when he got home from work at night. And there WAS true love involved in spite of all the obstacles and the state of the world, etc. However, generally men are thought to not be all that responsive when their wives want to go "crazy" on them and do something like ... uh... talk about their relationship. Plus maybe they she feels trapped by having a lot of young children too fast and now she has to take care of them and there is no time for her youth any longer. But she does love him and sexually they relate to each other.
Another thing I read into this is that Anne Wilson is talking to her audience about the down side of the music business and touring, etc. is and how it is robbing her of her youth and fun -- "the kids keep coming", "no time to be young". So, at concerts, at night there is nothing left to do but go crazy on them. Then she speaks to the audience as though they were a collective lover, their love keeping her going in spite of the monotony:
I sang you the song that I heard up above And you kept me alive with your sweet, flowing love
I also think the reference to "bombs and the devil" was about her relationship with the guy "Magic Man" was about who had run off to Canada to avoid the nightmare of the Viet Nam War. She joined him there and they had an idyllic existence until he fell in love with someone else. So, perhaps this whole song is really just dedicated to him personally about their relationship.
There are some lyrics missing up there. The part that starts out
"Wild man's world's crying in pain Whatcha gonna do when everybody's insane So afraid of __, so afraid of you Whatcha gonna do-oooooh?"
I'm not sure exactly what the lyric to fill in the blank is. I always used to think it was the work woman -- so afraid of woman and that's why men can't talk to their wives - out of fear. Since then I have seen it on plenty of lyric sites as "to wonder" as in "so afraid to wonder whatcha gonna do?" Which I am not sure exactly what that would mean but possibly it is a tie in to the previous lyric:
You don't need to wonder, you're doing fine
Which I take to mean he's not (or if it's the audience they're not) pondering life, or relationships, or the world, he is/they are just being and doing fine.
But anyway, my main interpretation no matter what the motif is that she wants more and it's got to come out somehow! She has to go crazy or else!