To me this song is about the end of an intense relationship with someone who is deeply embedded in your life, and the ways we try to use our minds to rationalize the end when sometimes there is no reason. It's about the human tendency to scramble for answers and to neatly fit life and heartbreak into tidy boxes that we can understand better. It's about looking in hindsight after the end of the relationship and wondering if the love was even real, if they even really loved you and confronting our tendency to diminish or explain away what cannot...
To me this song is about the end of an intense relationship with someone who is deeply embedded in your life, and the ways we try to use our minds to rationalize the end when sometimes there is no reason. It's about the human tendency to scramble for answers and to neatly fit life and heartbreak into tidy boxes that we can understand better. It's about looking in hindsight after the end of the relationship and wondering if the love was even real, if they even really loved you and confronting our tendency to diminish or explain away what cannot be explained: "Do not say the moment was imagined, Do not stoop to strategies like this," and "Do not choose a coward's explanation, That hides behind the cause and the effect." This is one of my favourite Leonard Cohen songs and it has been my salve through time of deep sadness.
This song to me sounds like reflection and guidance. A few thoughts on some of the lyrics:
This song to me sounds like reflection and guidance. A few thoughts on some of the lyrics:
"My tool for inspiration turned into a handicap" I think this is about marijuana, and I relate to it because weed can be like that. You think you need it for (x) art, enjoyment, relaxation, etc... but it can become a handicap ... for example if you need to be stoned to enjoy anything.
"My tool for inspiration turned into a handicap" I think this is about marijuana, and I relate to it because weed can be like that. You think you need it for (x) art, enjoyment, relaxation, etc... but it can become a handicap ... for example if you need to be stoned to enjoy anything.
Also I have always loved this lyrics in the chorus: "Substance dulls the mind Traife wine clouds the heart You can't sew a stitch with one hand While you're taking it apart"...
Also I have always loved this lyrics in the chorus: "Substance dulls the mind Traife wine clouds the heart You can't sew a stitch with one hand While you're taking it apart"
I have felt a gravitational pull towards that lyric since I was in my late teens and abusing marijuana and other substances. How beautiful and concise though, and true. You can't sew a stitch with one hand while you're taking it apart.
Alcohol and cannabis and substances can trick you into thinking you need them. If you wind up abusing them like me, they can pull the string apart of your life. You can't fix the problem until you take a step back and perhaps shelf the substances. Thanks Matisyahu for a great tune.
I think the biggest misconception people have with this song is that it’s a prayer of sorts, or a blasphemy (wanting to trade places with God). But you know how that goes. Meatloaf was told repeatedly that, by the end of his song, no one would know what he wouldn’t do for love, but still a lot of people don’t know what “that” is!
I think the biggest misconception people have with this song is that it’s a prayer of sorts, or a blasphemy (wanting to trade places with God). But you know how that goes. Meatloaf was told repeatedly that, by the end of his song, no one would know what he wouldn’t do for love, but still a lot of people don’t know what “that” is!
Kate Bush said she at first wanted it to be a deal with the devil, but that wouldn’t fit the flow of the song, and that probably would have come off as a...
Kate Bush said she at first wanted it to be a deal with the devil, but that wouldn’t fit the flow of the song, and that probably would have come off as a little bizarre.
My interpretation is that the song is about a woman about to get married and having second thoughts. The building is a church. A lot of churches are built on hills, so that’s easy. She’s with someone who has hurt her a lot and although she isn’t going to back out of it, she wishes he could understand her point of view if only briefly.
Some say love consumes you, but I say it traps you, changes you, exposes you.
Some say love consumes you, but I say it traps you, changes you, exposes you.
I opened myself up to that kind of love, a love that made me struggle so in its cage. But I won't do it again.
I opened myself up to that kind of love, a love that made me struggle so in its cage. But I won't do it again.
When I'm free of this love. I will not ever be trapped in its cage again, but instead be free to run light and unchained, not caged and waiting to be killed by such a fickle thing as love.
When I'm free of this love. I will not ever be trapped in its cage again, but instead be free to run light and unchained, not caged and waiting to be killed by such a fickle thing as love.
All of you who have been burned by love...standing there in the glass created by that fiery ring of your own...
All of you who have been burned by love...standing there in the glass created by that fiery ring of your own love...will see me unburdened by it. If I was free from this love, you would see me strong again. A killer myself, not victim of one.
This reads like a reflective, almost lyrical poem about memory and time—how summer erases the sting of winter, how childhood dreams shift into adult realities, and how lived experience gives you authority over your own truth.
This reads like a reflective, almost lyrical poem about memory and time—how summer erases the sting of winter, how childhood dreams shift into adult realities, and how lived experience gives you authority over your own truth.
This song kind of highlights the contradiction of control: control over oneself is pure love, but control over others is void of love. I think James is kind of speaking to the irony of the inescapable anger and hate that manifests in those who seek control over others. That is, people who seek control over others are fooled into the perception that controlling others is necessary for love, when the exact opposite is true. The desire to control others comes from a victim mindset, and only self-empowerment can bring love and peace.
This song kind of highlights the contradiction of control: control over oneself is pure love, but control over others is void of love. I think James is kind of speaking to the irony of the inescapable anger and hate that manifests in those who seek control over others. That is, people who seek control over others are fooled into the perception that controlling others is necessary for love, when the exact opposite is true. The desire to control others comes from a victim mindset, and only self-empowerment can bring love and peace.
Absolutely obsessed with this song right now, specifically the line "I never have and never will pledge allegiance" and the way it is sung. These lyrics feel very relevant to the government now even if the song is really old :)
Absolutely obsessed with this song right now, specifically the line "I never have and never will pledge allegiance" and the way it is sung. These lyrics feel very relevant to the government now even if the song is really old :)