This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Sitting on a hillside
Watching all the people die
I'll feel much better on the other side
I'll thumb a ride
I believe in magic
Why because it is so quick
I don't need power when I'm hypnotized
Look in my eyes
What are you seeing (I see)
How do you feel?
I feel real phony when my name is Phil
Or was that Bill?
Life goes on here
Day after day
I don't know if I'm living or if I'm supposed to be
Sometimes my life is so eerie
And if you think I'm happy paint me (white) (yellow)
I've been here once
I've been here twice
I don't know if the third's the fourth or if the
The fifth's to fix
Sometimes I deal with numbers
And if you wanna count me
Count me out
I don't need the times of day
Anytime with me's okay
I just don't want you using up my time
'Cause that's not right
They're locking them up today
They're throwing away the key
I wonder who it'll be tomorrow, you or me?
They're locking them up today
They're throwing away the key
I wonder who it'll be tomorrow, you or me?
They're locking them up today
They're throwing away the key
I wonder who it'll be tomorrow, you or me?
We're all normal and we want our freedom
Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, I want my freedom
Watching all the people die
I'll feel much better on the other side
I'll thumb a ride
I believe in magic
Why because it is so quick
I don't need power when I'm hypnotized
Look in my eyes
What are you seeing (I see)
How do you feel?
I feel real phony when my name is Phil
Or was that Bill?
Life goes on here
Day after day
I don't know if I'm living or if I'm supposed to be
Sometimes my life is so eerie
And if you think I'm happy paint me (white) (yellow)
I've been here once
I've been here twice
I don't know if the third's the fourth or if the
The fifth's to fix
Sometimes I deal with numbers
And if you wanna count me
Count me out
I don't need the times of day
Anytime with me's okay
I just don't want you using up my time
'Cause that's not right
They're locking them up today
They're throwing away the key
I wonder who it'll be tomorrow, you or me?
They're locking them up today
They're throwing away the key
I wonder who it'll be tomorrow, you or me?
They're locking them up today
They're throwing away the key
I wonder who it'll be tomorrow, you or me?
We're all normal and we want our freedom
Freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, I want my freedom
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However, the phrase they posted more closely reflects the accent of the speaker.
The "red telephone" was a famous hotline which linked the White House via the National Military Command Center with the Kremlin during the Cold War.
I'm also pretty sure I heard Arthur Lee say in an interview that most businesses in Russia were also fitted with red telephones which would be used to pass down orders from the state. The phone would ring and it would be whoever was regarded as your superior passing on orders, them having received a call on their red telephone from their superiors.
Ahhh totalitarian governments eh?
last part should be: "And all of God's children gotta have their freedom".
I think this songs about freedom? and probably something to do with the government haha
love this song. relate to any line you feel.
for an interpretation...this is just what the artist wanted to express, i guess.
really all there is to it.
Oh and the first part was about how Arthur would sit alone up in his house on the hillside watching the people of LA. Feeling much better alone and isolated from whatever madness was going on.
You are correct about the first line, sitting on a hillside. I feel much better on the other side meant leaving this life for the next. The line "I'll thumb a ride" was about the hitchhiking fad that was happening at that time. "I believe in magic/Why because it is so quick/I don't need power when I'm hypnotized was a message in a sense to all the power seeking people who are here today and gone tomorrow. I feel real phony when my name is Phil was about Phil Tanzani and Bill Clark. Bill broke in Arthurs house. <br /> You can read more about Arthur Lee's lyrics in the book Forever Changes by John Einarson. It's a Great read.
It's a reference to the former band member "Cupid" and his downfall as far as the lock and key go. The reference to the red telephone came from the Colburn "Our man Flint" movie. The secrets and powers that be of that day are being relived in or current race for space. Soviets/Capitalists... It's an international de ja vu ...
This song is bleeding into our timeline and should not exist here. It caused a race war in a neighboring timeline- The race war spoken of within their milieu by Manson (one of Manson's "family" played in the band for a time in our time-line). This Forever Changes album had another name which I will not say here.
So, GMan: you're saying that this authoritarian system (i.e. superiors passing down orders, with their right to do this - because the business is their property, or they have been assigned this role by those who own it) is not replicated under the despotic capitalist business?