i always felt this song is dealing with the fact that we're all alone in this world no matter how you slice it and that the only one you can depend on is yourself.that you should realize that this is all there is and so you better make the most of it doing what makes you happy and not depend on the after life or someone else.
@tennisluvr71 I agree to an extent. Your statement that the song addresses, and “means”, that the only thing upon which you can depend in this world is yourself is true, but the song is more involved than that, I believe so anyway…
@tennisluvr71 I agree to an extent. Your statement that the song addresses, and “means”, that the only thing upon which you can depend in this world is yourself is true, but the song is more involved than that, I believe so anyway…
Neil’s narrator here is having what some might call a “dark
Night of the soul”, he’s at the end of a relationship - yet ANOTHER one, if the narrator’s really “reliable” - and it’s possibly a relationship that he’d had a lot of hopes/dreams tied up in, but now it’s over, and Neil’s feeling the strain. So, he’s facing...
Neil’s narrator here is having what some might call a “dark
Night of the soul”, he’s at the end of a relationship - yet ANOTHER one, if the narrator’s really “reliable” - and it’s possibly a relationship that he’d had a lot of hopes/dreams tied up in, but now it’s over, and Neil’s feeling the strain. So, he’s facing some HARD truths, some uncomfortable realities… and as he thinks more and more deeply, and those “dark” truths about life & love create changes in his mind, SCARY changes, ones that make him feel as if he will never truly “connect” with another person in this world. But then, those realities eventually come around to NEW realizations, makes me think of Springsteen’s ‘Two Hearts’:
“Once I spent my time playing tough guy scenes
But I was living in a world of childish dreams.
Someday these childish dreams must end,
To become a man and grow up
To DREAM AGAIN”
We humans are taught to “put away childish things”, but for me, as well as many others I’m sure, when we first hear this in life, it’s like, “oh, I get it, the fun is over”. And it can seem Sometimes as if The entire world has lost its sense of humor, and that, depending on yr personality, can be a devastating discovery…and it can seem like “Life”, at least the GOOD part, is gone forever…but it’s not!
The final verse, Neil brings it home…but, the “lamp on down the hall” is not the “new” SoB. No, Neil has discovered, happily, that whatever the hell the Star Of Bethlehem USED TO BE, or used to “mean”, the NEW understanding within Neil shows the Star of Bethlehem to be something you can NEVER lose…
In fact it’s entirely Possible that what Neil calls the “Star of Bethlehem” also goes by the phrase/name The Will To Love…
i always felt this song is dealing with the fact that we're all alone in this world no matter how you slice it and that the only one you can depend on is yourself.that you should realize that this is all there is and so you better make the most of it doing what makes you happy and not depend on the after life or someone else.
@tennisluvr71 I agree to an extent. Your statement that the song addresses, and “means”, that the only thing upon which you can depend in this world is yourself is true, but the song is more involved than that, I believe so anyway…
@tennisluvr71 I agree to an extent. Your statement that the song addresses, and “means”, that the only thing upon which you can depend in this world is yourself is true, but the song is more involved than that, I believe so anyway…
Neil’s narrator here is having what some might call a “dark Night of the soul”, he’s at the end of a relationship - yet ANOTHER one, if the narrator’s really “reliable” - and it’s possibly a relationship that he’d had a lot of hopes/dreams tied up in, but now it’s over, and Neil’s feeling the strain. So, he’s facing...
Neil’s narrator here is having what some might call a “dark Night of the soul”, he’s at the end of a relationship - yet ANOTHER one, if the narrator’s really “reliable” - and it’s possibly a relationship that he’d had a lot of hopes/dreams tied up in, but now it’s over, and Neil’s feeling the strain. So, he’s facing some HARD truths, some uncomfortable realities… and as he thinks more and more deeply, and those “dark” truths about life & love create changes in his mind, SCARY changes, ones that make him feel as if he will never truly “connect” with another person in this world. But then, those realities eventually come around to NEW realizations, makes me think of Springsteen’s ‘Two Hearts’:
“Once I spent my time playing tough guy scenes But I was living in a world of childish dreams. Someday these childish dreams must end, To become a man and grow up To DREAM AGAIN”
We humans are taught to “put away childish things”, but for me, as well as many others I’m sure, when we first hear this in life, it’s like, “oh, I get it, the fun is over”. And it can seem Sometimes as if The entire world has lost its sense of humor, and that, depending on yr personality, can be a devastating discovery…and it can seem like “Life”, at least the GOOD part, is gone forever…but it’s not!
The final verse, Neil brings it home…but, the “lamp on down the hall” is not the “new” SoB. No, Neil has discovered, happily, that whatever the hell the Star Of Bethlehem USED TO BE, or used to “mean”, the NEW understanding within Neil shows the Star of Bethlehem to be something you can NEVER lose…
In fact it’s entirely Possible that what Neil calls the “Star of Bethlehem” also goes by the phrase/name The Will To Love…
That’s right, I said it.