Well, in my opinion this song is about being a young & maybe a little naive &/or introverted girl and finding yourself loving a man who is at first very charming, carefree & outgoing, and seems at first to be without limits, as in
"There was a time
you opened up every doorway
you didn't mind if everything
wasn't your way"
then that man starts to gradually become more introverted & shows their more possessive/obsessive side to you as the relationship progresses, even while they keep up the appearance of being carefree & outgoing to everyone else,
"Don't pull away
that goes against what you told me
I look in your eyes
I realize what you've sold me
is love in a vacuum"
so you confront them about the way they're acting and of course they deny it,
"I think you've changed
but you insist that
that's not true"
quite possibly they are an addict of some sort, my guess would be cocaine, &/or showing very obsessive behavior towards you (early on in the video for this song we see the man hanging a picture up, it is a very large portrait of Aimee & it is prominently displayed in his/their apartment for the duration of the song), thus their "love in a vacuum",
"You look so strange, so distant
that you're hardly you
Now I can see
how you have been acting different
You say it's me
but I know
that it isn't
it's love in a vacuum"
but still you are in love with them and don't want to leave them and you know that they are truly in love with you and they don't want you to leave them either, maybe they are convinced you can save them from themself, maybe they are so broken that the possibility of an overdose &/or suicide attempt is very real and you want to get through to them that their behavior not only dangerous but it is also just pissing you off and if they don't wise up they run the risk of loosing you, as in the lines
"You will be lonely
if you leave me alone", so you want to save them but can't get through to them due to the addiction &/or emotional problems they have,
"Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
love in a vacuum
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
You will be lonely
if you leave me alone
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough"
you want them to understand that the love they are giving you is not enough when it is filtered through the vacuum of their drug addiction &/or emotional impairment,
"You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough
and just wait
you will be lonely
Love in a vacuum
Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
Love in a vacuum".
'Love In A Vacuum' for me is a hauntingly truthful acute argument on the loneliness of obsession and almost inevitable loss of love that follows people who are broken in some way or another; the obsessives, the coke heads, the drunks, addicts or the just-plain-old emotionally broken; a razor sharp, lyrically driven, deceptively poppy, yet ultimately-depressing-in-the-best-way song.
Quintessential Aimee Mann.
"Start tha movie."
"I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For
his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye. Yes it was this. One of his eyes
resembled that of a vulture. A pale blue eye with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me my
blood ran cold. And so by degrees very gradually I made up my mind to take the life of
the old man and thus rid myself of the eye forever."
So I'm headed door to door
With my grandmother's cookie jar.
I'm sellin' cookies, 12 for a dollar.
I ring the doorbell, nobody wants any.
I resort to goin' cheaper - 2 for a penny.
Anybody, everybody, they hate me.
I can tell when they spit and degrade me.
There's only one house left, the last on the block.
Old Man Willie on the hilltop.
I ring the doorbell, the door creeps open.
And there it was starin' and scopin'.
The man's left eye, red, big, and drippin'
I was trippin'. "Ahh, seeya!"
I ran home. I couldn't stop thinking
About his eyeball winking and blinking.
And it looked not a damn thing like the other. Ugh!
Shoulda wore a patch on the motherfucker.
It hypnotized me, mesmerized me.
Traumatized, paralyzed, terrorized me.
Creepers, where'd you get that ball?
And tell me how it even fits in your skull.
I want a big long knife to stick it in.
I want to lift up the eyelid and kick it in.
He's gotta die. I want his eye buried in my backyard.
It ain't hard, I'm killin' Old Evil Eye!
[Chorus]
Evil eye...
Oh-Oh-Eye (The bitch gon' die! Die-die-die-die-die-die-die)
Evil eye...
Oh Oh
"Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you
should've seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded with caution with
what
foresight, with what patience I went to work. I was never kinder to the old man
than
during the whole week before I killed him."
A day gone pass since I heard about J.O.
Met up in this sleigh, 'cause I don't fuckin' play.
Anyway, I gotta do him in. Got a rusty revolver
Put the silver bullets in.
I'm plannin' on playin' one right to his nugget.
Down my drawers with the bucket.
It's time to go, fuck it.
I stuck it up... to his neck when he came to the door.
I really didn't know what I was in for.
First the cold man stared, no a gaze, no a stare.
Kinda like there was no one there.
How weird, my body froze with the blink of his eye.
Evil eye, sendin' chills up my spine.
What to do? What to do? I gotta try to break.
I gotta try to make.. my way to the gate.
Wait. I can't move, I'm stuck to the ground.
W-What the fuck was that? I think I heard a sound,
Turned around, there it was, starin' at my face.
This little old man's eye's a make me a mental case.
That's when I felt the pain deep inside,
Deep inside, now his eye's open wide.
I want a big long knife to stick it in.
I want to lift up the eyelid and kick it in.
He's gotta die. I want his eye buried in my backyard.
It ain't hard, I'm killin' Old Evil Eye!
[Chorus]
"That night it ceased. The old man was dead. I placed my hands on the heart and
there for many minutes there was no pulsation. He was stone dead. His eye will
trouble me
no longer. His eye will trouble me no longer."
[Chorus: x4]
"I loved the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For
his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye. Yes it was this. One of his eyes
resembled that of a vulture. A pale blue eye with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me my
blood ran cold. And so by degrees very gradually I made up my mind to take the life of
the old man and thus rid myself of the eye forever."
So I'm headed door to door
With my grandmother's cookie jar.
I'm sellin' cookies, 12 for a dollar.
I ring the doorbell, nobody wants any.
I resort to goin' cheaper - 2 for a penny.
Anybody, everybody, they hate me.
I can tell when they spit and degrade me.
There's only one house left, the last on the block.
Old Man Willie on the hilltop.
I ring the doorbell, the door creeps open.
And there it was starin' and scopin'.
The man's left eye, red, big, and drippin'
I was trippin'. "Ahh, seeya!"
I ran home. I couldn't stop thinking
About his eyeball winking and blinking.
And it looked not a damn thing like the other. Ugh!
Shoulda wore a patch on the motherfucker.
It hypnotized me, mesmerized me.
Traumatized, paralyzed, terrorized me.
Creepers, where'd you get that ball?
And tell me how it even fits in your skull.
I want a big long knife to stick it in.
I want to lift up the eyelid and kick it in.
He's gotta die. I want his eye buried in my backyard.
It ain't hard, I'm killin' Old Evil Eye!
[Chorus]
Evil eye...
Oh-Oh-Eye (The bitch gon' die! Die-die-die-die-die-die-die)
Evil eye...
Oh Oh
"Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you
should've seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded with caution with
what
foresight, with what patience I went to work. I was never kinder to the old man
than
during the whole week before I killed him."
A day gone pass since I heard about J.O.
Met up in this sleigh, 'cause I don't fuckin' play.
Anyway, I gotta do him in. Got a rusty revolver
Put the silver bullets in.
I'm plannin' on playin' one right to his nugget.
Down my drawers with the bucket.
It's time to go, fuck it.
I stuck it up... to his neck when he came to the door.
I really didn't know what I was in for.
First the cold man stared, no a gaze, no a stare.
Kinda like there was no one there.
How weird, my body froze with the blink of his eye.
Evil eye, sendin' chills up my spine.
What to do? What to do? I gotta try to break.
I gotta try to make.. my way to the gate.
Wait. I can't move, I'm stuck to the ground.
W-What the fuck was that? I think I heard a sound,
Turned around, there it was, starin' at my face.
This little old man's eye's a make me a mental case.
That's when I felt the pain deep inside,
Deep inside, now his eye's open wide.
I want a big long knife to stick it in.
I want to lift up the eyelid and kick it in.
He's gotta die. I want his eye buried in my backyard.
It ain't hard, I'm killin' Old Evil Eye!
[Chorus]
"That night it ceased. The old man was dead. I placed my hands on the heart and
there for many minutes there was no pulsation. He was stone dead. His eye will
trouble me
no longer. His eye will trouble me no longer."
[Chorus: x4]
Lyrics submitted by MyAntiDrugIsSuicide, edited by BobDDstryr
Ol' Evil Eye Lyrics as written by Mike E. Clark Joseph Bruce
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This song is def a twin to "Unfair" (a song she has been quoted as saying is about falling in love with someone who is already in a relationship) so it is presumably about the same person. Given the references to buying an apartment and not being able to see her love interest "after tonight," it's most likely that she's moving away and she'll "wait a day to break the bad news" (i.e. notifying him that she's leaving once she's already gone).
And, of course, the fact that she sees in him a fellow "idealist" and "dreamer" (terms commonly given to people with the INFP personality on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)) portends that she'll always be left wondering if they would've been perfect together.
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Both as a standalone and as part of the DSOTS album, you can take this lyric as read. As a matter of public record, Jourgensen's drug intake was legendary even in the 1980s. By the late 90s, in his own words, he was grappling with massive addiction issues and had lost almost everything: friends, spouse, money and had nearly died more than once. "Dark Side of the Spoon" is a both funny & sad title for an album made by a musical genius who was losing the plot; and this song is a message to his fans & friends saying he knows it. It's painful to listen to so I'm glad the "Keith Richards of industrial metals" wised up and cleaned up. Well done sir.
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Just a small correction to the lyrics:
Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you should've seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded with caution with what foresight, with what "dissimulation" I went to work. I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.
Took me a long time to figure that out, but its not patience, its dissimulation - which means "to conceal the truth" - ie. that he's preparing to kill the old man.