| Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I think at its heart, this a song about the nature of gender equality. It is a commentary on the 'woman as second class citizen' sentiment (You want to know it doesn't hurt me? Well, it does, and here's what I'm willing to do about it. Listen to this deal I'm working). Perhaps she's saying this notion stems from the belief that it has always been men who have changed the world. "God" has always been considered male. It was a man ( Jesus) who supposedly gave his life for humanity. I think she is offering to take that challenge - to sacrifice herself - in historical and modern contexts. If she only could, she'd make a deal with god to swap places with Jesus. She'd run up that road with a cross strapped to her back. She'd run up that hill (Golgatha, the place of the skulls, where Jesus was supposedly crucified). She'd run up that (office) building and forsake her family the way men have for generations. And she'd do it with no problem if that's what it takes for the world to value her (women) as we do men. |
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| Coldplay – Viva la Vida Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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If we "zoom out" a little bit, and perhaps take a broader look across the sweep of history, this song could be about the transitory nature of power itself. The realpolitik of actual governance can never live up to the soaring rhetoric of the seizure of power (whether through democratic or violent means). If a leader's reign is long enough, in almost every instance, the acts (from violence to compromise) required to remain in power ultimately erode the his/her base of support and lead to their downfall. The once beloved (or feared) king, queen, president, prime minister, etc., becomes the goat - voted, exiled ... or worse. That's my thought. |
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