Lyrics for Running Up That Hill as interpreted by Novartza

Running Up That Hill Lyrics
If I only could, I'd be running up that hill.
If I only could, I'd be running up that hill.

It doesn't hurt me.
Do you want to feel how it feels?
Do you want to know that it doesn't hurt me?
Do you want to hear about the deal that I'm making?
You, it's you and me.

And if I only could,
I'd make a deal with God,
And I'd get him to swap our places,
Be running up that road,
Be running up that hill,
Be running up that building.
If I only could, oh...

You don't want to hurt me,
But see how deep the bullet lies.
Unaware I'm tearing you asunder.
Ooh, there is thunder in our hearts.

Is there so much hate for the ones we love?
Tell me, we both matter, don't we?
You, it's you and me.
It's you and me won't be unhappy.

And if I only could,
I'd make a deal with God,
And I'd get him to swap our places,
Be running up that road,
Be running up that hill,
Be running up that building,
Say, if I only could, oh...

You,
It's you and me,
It's you and me won't be unhappy.

"C'mon, baby, c'mon darling,
Let me steal this moment from you now.
C'mon, angel, c'mon, c'mon, darling,
Let's exchange the experience, oh..."

And if I only could,
I'd make a deal with God,
And I'd get him to swap our places,
Be running up that road,
Be running up that hill,
With no problems.

And if I only could,
I'd make a deal with God,
And I'd get him to swap our places,
Be running up that road,
Be running up that hill,
With no problems.

And if I only could,
I'd make a deal with God,
And I'd get him to swap our places,
Be running up that road,
Be running up that hill,
With no problems.

If I only could
Be running up that hill
With no problems...

"If I only could, I'd be running up that hill.
If I only could, I'd be running up that hill."

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Lyricist88
05-22-2007

Rated 0 
this song is p.h.e.n.o.m.e.n.a.l

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placebohearts
06-02-2007

Rated 0 
i think that its about someone being really depressed, and suicidal

and the narrator wants to help by change places.

i think that "running up that hill" is kind of metaphoric, because generally running up a hill is difficult. and it could be in relation to the other persons feelings

basically he is saying that he wants to swap places, and deal with the persons problems for them, and that


You don't want to hurt me, (she's keeping something from him because she thinks it will hurt him)
But see how deep the bullet lies. (but he knows that something is wrong)
Unaware that I'm tearing you asunder.( he keeps asking her, and she doesnt want to say anything, because it hurts her too much.)
There is thunder in our hearts, baby.(they both know that there's pain)
So much hate for the ones we love?( he loves her, and wants to know what's wrong, but she wont say anything, and she hates him for bringing it up)
Tell me, we both matter, don't we?(he want's to know what's wrong)

running up that hill (dealing with the issues)
with no problems, (he would do it quickly and without pain)

it also makes me think that it could be about who was sexually abused, and when he 'loves her' he;s hurting her more, even though she says its okay.

that's what i think.




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kimidragon
06-06-2007

Rated 0 
i think the song is about someone how is dying....a sort of exchange to let the person that she loves live, while she doesn't mind dying in his place.
gosh, i don't know....i'm all confused with other peoples ideas as well

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maximekuh
06-10-2007

Rated 0 
For me its about a relationship, with very much difficulties, and very heavy weight to bear.
She suffers and suffers, wich tears her partner "asunder", but she denies it (it doesnt hurt me...) She denies it so much just to reassure herself she is'nt suffering, but she is.
"You dont want to hurt me".
She is losing strenth, the weight is getting way to heavy to bear, it makes her hate him sometimes, and she begs him to reassure her everything is fine (Tell me we both don't matter, dont we?)
She needs to hear him saying everything is going to be allright, just to regain strenth, to be running up that hill, to run against all the difficulties, to bear it. 'With no problems"

Just my idea... ^^

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Maline
06-13-2007

Rated 0 
To me, it's about wanting to help someone you love, maybe a friend, a lover, a familymember.. or just anyone(!) who's got some sort of difficulty in their life.

The person in the song is saying that they would be able to help
"running up that hill" beeing the hard part, the problem,
"With no problems." and saying that that he/she would be able to solve it.

"You don't want to hurt me,
But see how deep the bullet lies.
Unaware I'm tearing you asunder."
- This part makes me think, that part of the problem is that the other person doesn't dare to talk to anybody about the problem. But you can tell there is one. He's afraid it would just hurt the other person as well if he told someone...

"Is there so much hate for the ones we love?
Tell me, we both matter, don't we?
You, it's you and me.
It's you and me won't be unhappy. "
- And this is the person that doesn't know about the problem, feeling leftout because the other person won't let her in, and saying that together they can make it.
It's always easier when you're not alone.

I love both Kate Bush and Placebo's versions :)
Not so fond of Within Temptations version though... it's to much, (like someone else wrote earlier) it doens't feel special.

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SphagnumEsplanade
07-05-2007

Rated 0 
I've never heard this song before but I still get the metaphor. I've met two people that had switched places before.

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radiofuck
07-17-2007

Rated 0 
Thee Heavenly Music Association did an excellent cover...I thought it was sort of about two friends who are both suffering and are trying hiding it from the other one.
But I don't know, I like some of the explanations people have given.

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gnowxela
08-01-2007

Rated 0 
PBS here in the US has an interesting interpretation of Placebo’s version. They’re using a part of the song in their advertisements for “The War”, Ken Burns' multi-part documentary on World War II. The combination of the song with the war footage is quite powerful, interpreting the lyrics as the thoughts of a soldier and his friends about to march to their deaths.

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R4CH3L
08-11-2007

Rated +1 
all these interpretations of the song are so cool :) the song is about a relationship. A man and a woman, who can't understand each other because they are a man and a woman. And if they could swap each others places for a while, they would be able to understand each others feelings better..i think the video is very expressive.The masks made me understand the theme of the song right away..really cool idea, the thought of swapping roles with the opposite sex, and see the world through their eyes..very beautiful song

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whiterabbit88
09-14-2007

Rated 0 
i think its about revenge... it honestly sounds like kates the one who's been left and wants to say you think you affected me, you think you've hurt me, come see...

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Grave
10-05-2007

Rated 0 
Revenge?? No way. Her lover is dying but she wants him to know that it's not hurting her as much as she feels it's hurting him. She wants him to know that she's gladly swap places... "no problem". He may NOT be dying... but that where the songs gains the most meaning. Otherwise it's simple misunderstandings. But everyone should take what they feel means most for them from EVERY song. Isn't that the point of music?

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spiiike
10-15-2007

Rated 0 
wow so only rachel got it almost exactly right, this song has been misinterpreted many many times. but the song is, and it came from kate herself, about the fact that men and women don´t understand eachother. and someone wrote about the fact that it was supposed to be called deal with god at the beginning and that´s correct. they were afraid radiostations in different countries wouldn´t play the song. she chose to sing "make a deal with god" instead of the phrase so often used "make a deal with the devil" cause it was more beautiful to make a deal with god instead of the devil.

and seeing as brian molko, singer of placebo has breasts and obviously a torn sexuality it´s kind of obvious why they made a cover about this song.

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Ralbs
11-18-2007

Rated 0 
Natalie Gauci Covered this on Australian Idol. Did a decent job too.

http://www.australianidol.com.au/video.html

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cojo727
11-20-2007

Rated 0 
I agree that this song is about revenge.... the narrator wanting to trade positions with the partner that has moved on. I've always supposed that in true Kate style, the song relates to a very specific incident, I choose to imagine a crippling car accident that has left the narrator bitter, alone and physically destroyed - wishing to trade places with the lover who still has a normal life, while she is ruined and alone. NO other version can hold a candle to Kate's original... they don't even come close.

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Theresa_Gionoffrio
11-21-2007

Rated 0 
On the 'revenge' theme... Maybe this song is from her perspective as she deals with (or shuts out) an abuse of trust - through violence? drugs? sex? paranoia? death? entrapment? etc... The relationship could be messy co-dependency, or the abusive experience could be socio-political-institutional... The trauma restructures and imprisons her identity; she feels defined by the abuse(r), too angry to feel... The revengeful 'Do you want to feel how it feels/hear about the deal' ... The essential twisting of Love & Hate excludes all else and all others - This song is about A and B and (the defense mechanism/opiate?) GOD, such is the intense psychological concentration... She is too vulnerable and too disturbed to escape/forget the relationship/situation; and the idea of (a deal with) God dysfunctionally 'enables' her to cope... But they are so entwined, that revenge and freedom also seem pointless - like there's a warped stokholmesque psychosexual entanglement... 'You don't want to hurt me' ... But the cut is already deep, and she curses the Other every moment of every single day... Her thunder, her deep-rooted human tenacity, her determined necessity not to be unhappy; and her fragile need that they both matter, so that her miserable suffering matters...
Then the darkly climactic desire to "steal" the experience of freedom... but with the resigned hopelessness and doomed futility of 'If only...'

Then again, sometimes I think that RUTH is about Kate talking to her former self, the KB of Wuthering Heights/Babooshka/etc... and her wanting to swap places, to relive the experience of youth with the wisdom of Time... Don't we all? ... :o)

RUTH continues the brilliance of THE DREAMING...

PS... and the PLACEBO video treatment is very good!

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Theresa_Gionoffrio
11-21-2007

Rated 0 
Thanks gnowxela ... youtube 'Ken Burns | The War PBS' -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVQXJQREXZg
- soldiers/family/gvt/battlefield/'enemies'/futility/WAR...
A powerful interpretation...

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Theresa_Gionoffrio
11-22-2007

Rated 0 
RUNNING UP THAT HILL... and WAR...
- marching War Drums...
- Heroism, Pride, Nationalism, reassurance, illusion Vs Realism, resignation, fear, coping, aloneness...
- Brave smiles and nervous hearts...
- Battlefield, vilification of enemy, way cry, man's inhumanity to man, infantry sent to meaningless frontline slaughter...
(see Rosenberg's 'Break of Day in the Trenches')
- Horror of war and the intense desire to fly, run, drive, get away from the experience...
- The Dream Deal - swapping places with anything or anyone... father-son, soldier-nature, soldier-you, now-then...

(...and Kate deals with war in Pull Out The Pin, Army Dreamers...)

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Theresa_Gionoffrio
11-22-2007

Rated 0 
PPS... The song could also be about Kate's relationship with Fame/Fans. WITHIN TEMPTATIONS's Anthem cover brings this interpretation to video.
- The desire to give up fame doesn't hurt me... So you can try it, with all its personal limitations... Fans/media attack privacy and unintentionally wound... Love-Hate relationship with press... etc...

"I think you're all completely mad! —and thank you very much..." - KB to her fans!

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Theresa_Gionoffrio
11-22-2007

Rated 0 
"I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free; and laughing at injuries, not maddening under them!" - Catherine Earnshaw.

One final thought... Is RUTH "Wuthering Heights Revisited"? ... Maybe RUTH is Cathy's ruthless, dual nature teasing Heathcliff! ... It has the perverse cruelty, the tormented passion, the defiant obsession, the torturous disregard, and the eternal love for the Moors...
'It doesn't hurt me' because life without Heathcliff and the Moors is no life! ... The defiant 'you and me won't be unhappy' ... The wicked 'tearing you asunder' ... The eternal longing to 'be running up that hill' ...
Her shocking deal even disturbs the dead, unleashing ghostly, purgatorial voices! ... Yes, Hate and Love tore them both asunder... And if she only could, Cathy would have made such a spiteful deal for her beloved moors! ... And he would have obliged her! ... But, as Nelly remarked: "The greatest punishment we could invent for her, was to keep her separate from him" ... So 'with no problems'? Even God couldn't manage that!

Cathy: 'I wish I could hold you,' she continued, bitterly, 'till we were both dead! I shouldn't care what you suffered. I care nothing for your sufferings. Why shouldn't you suffer? I do!'
Heathcliff: ''WHY did you despise me? WHY did you betray your own heart, Cathy? ...nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, YOU, of your own will, did it. I have not broken your heart - YOU have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine!'

KATE BUSH is p.h.e.n.o.m.e.n.a.l ... :o)

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Theresa_Gionoffrio
11-23-2007

Rated 0 
PPPS... The "Come on, Baby..." is Heathcliff! ... These are his words as he embraces the dying Cathy, desperate to grant her wish... Such is the power of deluded love! ...
Unfulfilled, her 'If I only could' continues to torment Heathcliff... amidst the cries of her own tormented spirit...

Cathy: 'I am Heathcliff! ... So don't talk of our separation again: it is impracticable...'
Heathcliff: 'Be with me always—take any form—drive me mad! ... I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!'

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dronia
01-11-2008

Rated 0 
I was always under the impression that this song was about an abusive relationship. She loves him yet willing to withstand the pain to be with him, however, she wants it to end.

"It doesn't hurt me." - She is lying to herself
"Do you want to feel how it feels?" - She is thinking about her lover.
"Do you want to know that it doesn't hurt me?" - Lying to him now
"Do you want to hear about the deal that I'm making?" - She is willing to put up with abuse for love.
"You, it's you and me." - Her commitment

Then the chorus:
"I'd make a deal with God, And I'd get him to swap our places," - She wants him in her shoes, hoping he will stop the abuse.
"Be running up that road, Be running up that hill, With no problems. " - Life would be better then.

Always been my take on the song. Especially considering the context. Another song released that very same year is Til Tuesdays' "Voices Carry" (very obviously about abuse.)

Relational abuse was a hot topic at this time and many artists (especially women) were voicing against it.

Any thoughts?

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lexingtonseabrook
02-04-2008

Rated 0 
www.myspace.com/chromaticsmusics

if you want another modern take on this awesome song, much smoother than kate bush or placebo version

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Annique
02-12-2008

Rated 0 
My interpretation:

I think it means that the speaker (person A) says "it doesn't hurt me" because they are understanding more how the other person (person B) feels and sees B doesn't mean to hurt them even though it might have hurt before they could see what's really going on. B might have been harsh on A and said things they didn't mean, or maybe they just let their relationship drift.

B probably is going through a bad time and isn't telling A about it but A understands and wants to help but can't because B won't open up. So A thinks that swapping places might be the best way to deal with things because A can deal with those things better as their personality traits allow them that.

There's a gap forming in A and B's relationship because of the secrets and the unawareness of each other's lives. This leads to hating each other even though they really love each other. Why else would they be together?

B is unaware of anything going on in A's mind so A wants to swap so B could open their eyes and see what's really going on and that their secrets won't keep forever. If only A could run up that hill for B?

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lovex
02-13-2008

Rated -1 
the placebo version is sooo much better

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katievanish
02-15-2008

Rated 0 
he song itself has often been misinterpreted. Kate Bush herself has said, "I was trying to say that, really, a man and a woman, can't understand each other because we are a man and a woman. And if we could actually swap each others roles, if we could actually be in each others place for a while, I think we'd both be very surprised! [Laughs] And I think it would be lead to a greater understanding. And really the only way I could think it could be done was either... you know, I thought a deal with the devil, you know. And I thought, 'well, no, why not a deal with God!' You know, because in a way it's so much more powerful the whole idea of asking God to make a deal with you. You see, for me it is still called "Deal With God", that was its title. But we were told that if we kept this title that it wouldn't be played in any of the religious countries, Italy wouldn't play it, France wouldn't play it, and Australia wouldn't play it! Ireland wouldn't play it, and that generally we might get it blacked purely because it had 'God' in the title."
-kate bush


i found that on wikipedia...not sure how valid that is but it sounds reasonable.

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