As a devoted fan of the Cure, this song means an awful lot to me. Now, I am aware that songs may have just one literal meaning (depending on the artist), such as a specific wartime event, or a known ex-lover, or the birth of the writer's child, but no one ever takes into consideration that the best songs are of a general meaning that ANYONE can identify with. This is perhaps my favorite example of just that. When I hear this song--Robert's strained voice coinciding with the perfect notes from the instruments, just the right amount of cymbal and snare--it gives me an awesome feeling of self-pity and guilt and despair...pretty much all those emotions associated with depressed moods. I can hear this song and feel childish and petty again--no sense in quoting the first half of the song--and immediately I feel that same sense of self sabotage and anger that one get's when you reach the age where you realize you can't have it all. I think this feeling comes and goes throughout your life and in any aspect of life, be it money or love or drugs or head...it's just a song meant to make the listener feel the way that the writer did at that point. Isn't music really just a way of expressing your thoughts and feelings? and not necessarily a narrative?
As a devoted fan of the Cure, this song means an awful lot to me. Now, I am aware that songs may have just one literal meaning (depending on the artist), such as a specific wartime event, or a known ex-lover, or the birth of the writer's child, but no one ever takes into consideration that the best songs are of a general meaning that ANYONE can identify with. This is perhaps my favorite example of just that. When I hear this song--Robert's strained voice coinciding with the perfect notes from the instruments, just the right amount of cymbal and snare--it gives me an awesome feeling of self-pity and guilt and despair...pretty much all those emotions associated with depressed moods. I can hear this song and feel childish and petty again--no sense in quoting the first half of the song--and immediately I feel that same sense of self sabotage and anger that one get's when you reach the age where you realize you can't have it all. I think this feeling comes and goes throughout your life and in any aspect of life, be it money or love or drugs or head...it's just a song meant to make the listener feel the way that the writer did at that point. Isn't music really just a way of expressing your thoughts and feelings? and not necessarily a narrative?