I was just listening to this song because it makes me super emotional. I had no idea what this song was other than it completely related to me as just this hopeless, pitiful romance he was trying to brew up but was failing.
I was interested in the meaning when I looked up the song on wikipedia and read what Roland himself said:
"It is basically a love song and one of the most simple tracks that Tears for Fears have ever recorded. It is a love song that goes a bit perverse at the end."
So I'm like. All right, what's so perverse about it.
So like 20 minutes later it hits me in the head like a FRIGGIN' BRICK.
Anyway, I think the 'perverseness' he's talking about is... well, suicide.
I made a fire and watching it burn
Thought of your future
With one foot in the past now just how long will it last?
No, no, no, have you no ambition?
My mother and my brothers used to breathing clean air
And dreaming I'm a doctor
It's hard to be man when there's a gun in your hand
Oh, I feel so . . .
~~ He's musing about both the past and the future. He's thinking about his own past, and his own ambitions (he wanted to be a doctor, and the clean air I figure is some sort of allusion to 'back in the good times'). He sees that this girl he's hopelessly in love with, she has no ambition, yet she's still stuck in the past just like him. This is quite conflicting, really; and he thinks about what their future would be like together. It simply maddens him, the thought of all this, swirls and confusion, I mean from the tone of this song it doesn't seem to be working out. So it drives him to the point of taking out a gun...
And it's my four leaf clover
I'm on the line, one open mind
This is my four leaf clover
~~ This I interpreted as two things; the gun to his head either means he'll live or die. Also, it could be like his lucky star, as he says, his four leaf clover; his ticket out of this hell, all this madness and confusion. I could understand that, because if the relationship is so bad and not working out, yet you're still so confused and in love, it can drive you insane (I've been there).
In my mind's eye
One little boy, one little man
Funny how time flies
~~ Here he's reminiscing about the past again, about the good times before all this mess and chaos happened. He's thinking about his entire life before he pulls the trigger, and even though he's grown, he's still just a confused guy.
Please tell me what you think. I honestly got these ideas as a spur-of-the-moment "the muse hit me!" kind of thing.
@zaWARUDO Hey, sorry for a reply many years later, but I thought the EXACT same thing as you! When I read Roland's comments on this one, I didn't quite know what he meant. I listened to it and the "gun in your hand" lyric made me think right away about suicide. I thought maybe suicide or, as odd as it sounds, the writer contemplating even killing the girl he is singing about. One thing that made me think that was the part in the video when Roland pulls the comic gun on the librarian and instead of the "BANG" having...
@zaWARUDO Hey, sorry for a reply many years later, but I thought the EXACT same thing as you! When I read Roland's comments on this one, I didn't quite know what he meant. I listened to it and the "gun in your hand" lyric made me think right away about suicide. I thought maybe suicide or, as odd as it sounds, the writer contemplating even killing the girl he is singing about. One thing that made me think that was the part in the video when Roland pulls the comic gun on the librarian and instead of the "BANG" having an exclamation point after it, it had a question mark. Could possibly mean him considering what he should do. Not sure if that was what was intended or not, just something I observed and seemed to fit with possibly what was being said in the lyrics. Either way, Roland is amazing and I think Tears for Fears always mastered having an upbeat tune with lyrics that are actually very gloomy.
I was just listening to this song because it makes me super emotional. I had no idea what this song was other than it completely related to me as just this hopeless, pitiful romance he was trying to brew up but was failing.
I was interested in the meaning when I looked up the song on wikipedia and read what Roland himself said: "It is basically a love song and one of the most simple tracks that Tears for Fears have ever recorded. It is a love song that goes a bit perverse at the end."
So I'm like. All right, what's so perverse about it.
So like 20 minutes later it hits me in the head like a FRIGGIN' BRICK.
Anyway, I think the 'perverseness' he's talking about is... well, suicide.
I made a fire and watching it burn Thought of your future With one foot in the past now just how long will it last? No, no, no, have you no ambition? My mother and my brothers used to breathing clean air And dreaming I'm a doctor It's hard to be man when there's a gun in your hand Oh, I feel so . . . ~~ He's musing about both the past and the future. He's thinking about his own past, and his own ambitions (he wanted to be a doctor, and the clean air I figure is some sort of allusion to 'back in the good times'). He sees that this girl he's hopelessly in love with, she has no ambition, yet she's still stuck in the past just like him. This is quite conflicting, really; and he thinks about what their future would be like together. It simply maddens him, the thought of all this, swirls and confusion, I mean from the tone of this song it doesn't seem to be working out. So it drives him to the point of taking out a gun...
And it's my four leaf clover I'm on the line, one open mind This is my four leaf clover ~~ This I interpreted as two things; the gun to his head either means he'll live or die. Also, it could be like his lucky star, as he says, his four leaf clover; his ticket out of this hell, all this madness and confusion. I could understand that, because if the relationship is so bad and not working out, yet you're still so confused and in love, it can drive you insane (I've been there).
In my mind's eye One little boy, one little man Funny how time flies ~~ Here he's reminiscing about the past again, about the good times before all this mess and chaos happened. He's thinking about his entire life before he pulls the trigger, and even though he's grown, he's still just a confused guy.
Please tell me what you think. I honestly got these ideas as a spur-of-the-moment "the muse hit me!" kind of thing.
@zaWARUDO Hey, sorry for a reply many years later, but I thought the EXACT same thing as you! When I read Roland's comments on this one, I didn't quite know what he meant. I listened to it and the "gun in your hand" lyric made me think right away about suicide. I thought maybe suicide or, as odd as it sounds, the writer contemplating even killing the girl he is singing about. One thing that made me think that was the part in the video when Roland pulls the comic gun on the librarian and instead of the "BANG" having...
@zaWARUDO Hey, sorry for a reply many years later, but I thought the EXACT same thing as you! When I read Roland's comments on this one, I didn't quite know what he meant. I listened to it and the "gun in your hand" lyric made me think right away about suicide. I thought maybe suicide or, as odd as it sounds, the writer contemplating even killing the girl he is singing about. One thing that made me think that was the part in the video when Roland pulls the comic gun on the librarian and instead of the "BANG" having an exclamation point after it, it had a question mark. Could possibly mean him considering what he should do. Not sure if that was what was intended or not, just something I observed and seemed to fit with possibly what was being said in the lyrics. Either way, Roland is amazing and I think Tears for Fears always mastered having an upbeat tune with lyrics that are actually very gloomy.