This and "Born in the U.S.A." by Bruce Springsteen are two of the most famously misinterpreted songs of all time. It's not so hard to understand what he's saying here. The music isn't that of a love song, and neither are the lyrics. I think he could be talking to someone he used to love and now he's dismissing his past feelings as a "simple prop to occupy my time", in denial. Or, he could be insulting his former feelings and seeing through them, and seeing what they really were (something to make him happy). In this way, it may be about seeing how he thought it was love, but it was really a search for happiness, or even a quest to quell his boredom.
This and "Born in the U.S.A." by Bruce Springsteen are two of the most famously misinterpreted songs of all time. It's not so hard to understand what he's saying here. The music isn't that of a love song, and neither are the lyrics. I think he could be talking to someone he used to love and now he's dismissing his past feelings as a "simple prop to occupy my time", in denial. Or, he could be insulting his former feelings and seeing through them, and seeing what they really were (something to make him happy). In this way, it may be about seeing how he thought it was love, but it was really a search for happiness, or even a quest to quell his boredom.