I think perhaps, after about a million listens, that this is a song about the ways in which our expectations of what being a woman can often mean--that women are meant to be caretakers, to be nurturers, to sacrifice themselves and their expectations to those of their children and family--may erode a woman's identity if she isn't careful to fight to be recognized as her own entity, separate of what she can offer to others. The protagonist of this song sees how easy it is to be subsumed by others' needs and expectations of what it means to be female, and is determined to break away from them and forge her own sense of power and worth--hence the lines--"And the weak need to be lead/and the tender hearts carried to their beds/and it's a pale and cold affair/And I'll be damned if I'll be found there." Instead, she wants to either follow the example of a rambling man--a creature who by definition has learned to break away from domestic convention and pursue his own fate--and/or to be with one romantically, although if she does decide to commit to someone, she still wants it to "always be known that I was who I am", meaning that she doesn't want him to be able to take the credit for her adventurous spirit any more than she wants to spend her life catering to society's view of what a woman should be. She recognizes that life can batter us all down in different ways, but that those who cannot accept that we're all fated to die, and so must live our lives passionately while we still have them, are doomed to stay vulnerable and in their own heads, too consumed with angst to really live. While she knows that it can be easy to be consumed by doubt, depression and the like--"it's funny how the first chords you come to/are the minor notes that come to serenade you"--she also knows that it is or should be equally difficult to accept a half-fulfilled life--"It's hard to accept yourself as someone you don't desire/As someone you don't want to be." For all these reasons and more, I will always love this song. I'm not sure, but I think that the official video, with it's images of things and people submerging and emerging from water, cryptic boxes, etc...tends to bear out my theories at least a little, I hope.
You nailed the meaning IMO. The images on the video tell the story as you discribe...Song is a great writing the music brings drama at where it really grabs the listener ...peace
You nailed the meaning IMO. The images on the video tell the story as you discribe...Song is a great writing the music brings drama at where it really grabs the listener ...peace
I think perhaps, after about a million listens, that this is a song about the ways in which our expectations of what being a woman can often mean--that women are meant to be caretakers, to be nurturers, to sacrifice themselves and their expectations to those of their children and family--may erode a woman's identity if she isn't careful to fight to be recognized as her own entity, separate of what she can offer to others. The protagonist of this song sees how easy it is to be subsumed by others' needs and expectations of what it means to be female, and is determined to break away from them and forge her own sense of power and worth--hence the lines--"And the weak need to be lead/and the tender hearts carried to their beds/and it's a pale and cold affair/And I'll be damned if I'll be found there." Instead, she wants to either follow the example of a rambling man--a creature who by definition has learned to break away from domestic convention and pursue his own fate--and/or to be with one romantically, although if she does decide to commit to someone, she still wants it to "always be known that I was who I am", meaning that she doesn't want him to be able to take the credit for her adventurous spirit any more than she wants to spend her life catering to society's view of what a woman should be. She recognizes that life can batter us all down in different ways, but that those who cannot accept that we're all fated to die, and so must live our lives passionately while we still have them, are doomed to stay vulnerable and in their own heads, too consumed with angst to really live. While she knows that it can be easy to be consumed by doubt, depression and the like--"it's funny how the first chords you come to/are the minor notes that come to serenade you"--she also knows that it is or should be equally difficult to accept a half-fulfilled life--"It's hard to accept yourself as someone you don't desire/As someone you don't want to be." For all these reasons and more, I will always love this song. I'm not sure, but I think that the official video, with it's images of things and people submerging and emerging from water, cryptic boxes, etc...tends to bear out my theories at least a little, I hope.
You nailed the meaning IMO. The images on the video tell the story as you discribe...Song is a great writing the music brings drama at where it really grabs the listener ...peace
You nailed the meaning IMO. The images on the video tell the story as you discribe...Song is a great writing the music brings drama at where it really grabs the listener ...peace
@carpeomniachica Fantastic interpretation, that's a beautiful mind.
@carpeomniachica Fantastic interpretation, that's a beautiful mind.