Pixies – Levitate Me

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  General Comment:I always thought that at least during some of the "Won't you please..."s he said "Won't you please one over me", especially at the end. One over meaning to fool or lie, to put one over on someone. So it would be saying "If all is true, won't you please lie to me?"

  Flag ImDrewon January 08, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:Religion was my first thought, I think it might be more.

  Flag WaveNo.13on July 25, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:"Come on Pilgrim you know he loves you." is a quote from a tv evangelistic said all the time. Frank Black would watch him late at night, and he always liked how he said it with such passion. So he says it like the TV evangelist. The "he" who loves the "pilgrim" is Jesus. Now I think that "hose" is corret it makes sence that he would be telling a woman to take off her wedding ring and pantie hose. Jesus holes is just to much of an over interpretation.

  Flag dawltie5on April 24, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:whoa! the religion perspective is a good explanation i had never thought about it.
  when i first listened to this song i thought it was about drugs. couldnt it be? i mean
  "Give me help
  Give me help
  You can... levitate me" --> drugs make you feel high, you feel like they help you.
  
  "Higher please
  Levitate me"
  
  i think this song is about a depressed person who uses drugs to feel better, to feel high.
  what do you think?

  Flag tefon January 01, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:I always interpreted this as a love song (personally).
  The Elevator Lady is whom the speaker desires, and wants her to "please fawn over me", and "Lady levitate me", to a higher plain of happiness and existence. He feels she could be his saviour, as he feels he is unworthy of her (deeming her the "Elevator" lady) as she exists on a higher plain (almost angelic).
  The pleading in the lines, "If all in all is true" is the speaker pleading to a higher power/fate to make his wish come true, as it seems it would only serve justice to do so - 'if the world is truely a just place, then this has to be/happen'.
  I think in the lines,
  "Then take off them rings
  Off them hose",
  he is asking for her to first lower herself to his level in order to see/interact/get close(r) to him, in order to then raise him up to her own level.
  The "Higher place" is where she comes from/lives on.
  The lines, "Come on Pilgrim
  You know he loves you" suggests to me, that in his (pretty desperate) attempt to convince her to come down to him and show him affection, he's taking on the voice of the higher power, and attempting to convince her that it is indeed fate that they be together, that the higher power would aprove, and that he is a genuine in his feelings (and therefore a person in general, and thus worthy). She is the "pilgrim": the one on a higher spiritual plain, and he is the "he".
  This is all meant to be taken symbolically, of course - like poetry.
  
  I doubt this was the intended meaning, but I just thought I'd share what my first/initial interpretation was. I still like it, and can't help but hear it (amongst others, such as ones mentioned here) most times when I listen to the song, still, even now.
  
  PS alot of these lyrics seem wrong to me i.e. I don't hear "run" at the end, but rather "fall", myself.

  Flag The Distortedon May 18, 2006   Link

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    hmmm that actually sounds a lot like my current situation-girl who for whatever reason sees me as some sort of mystic or something keeps trying to get me to have sex with her. I keep refusing since I'm not exactly in the habit of sleeping with whores and prostitutes but she believes her and I are like meant to be together or some silliness and that some sort of transcendental type/spiritual experience would occur by engaging her. Always going on about how I would change her life and vice versa...
    
    Anyways, your interpretation seems pretty accurate-goes along with the whole sex-death-rebirth cycle and the concepts of conjunctio in alchemy. Perhaps, the lyrics describe just that. Who knows? people always have a way of infusing personal imagery and archetypical experience into their interpretations of poetry, lyric and song.

    Flag quixoticlogicon March 22, 2012  
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  General Comment:the religion angle is what struck me when i first heard this song, it reminded me a lot of the divine comedy. "elevator lady" could be beatrice, the pilgrim's (dante) kinda guardian angel who is responsible for his salvation and his trip through hell. "give me help, give me hell, you can levitate me." "come on pilgrim you know he loves you" the big man in the sky, supposedly. and we all know this is seriously taking the shit out of religion too, but it's still just a kickass song regardless of the depth of theological thought in it, but that also makes it kick a little more ass because black francis is a smart fella.
  
  "nobody listens to the lyrics in rock songs anyway, right?"
  
  the first pixies album i bought was this EP and then the next day i found a come on pilgrim/surfer rosa split in the same record store i had bought this from in the first place, for 5 friggin dollars more. that's a whole album! so yeah. that sucked.

  Flag whatcapo?on December 13, 2005   Link

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  General Comment:i`ve read or heard somewhere that frank black once went to a christian summer-camp or something like that and one of the "teachers" told him; come on pilgrim, you know he loves you.
  
  I saw the pixies at roskilde2004, it was,,,,, aweSomE. ill never forget it, they rock sooo hard..
  
  river euphrates and the holiday song is my favs:)
  keep it real pixies fans

  Flag djcvarmeon November 11, 2005   Link

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  General Comment:well, i don't think this song anything to do with religion or sex, at least it doesnt to me. i mean, certainly that is one valid interpretation and may well be the "correct" one, but i like alternate readings. i think parts of this song are just about a relationship and wanting to be involved in it but also thinking you shouldnt be - "would you please fawn over me" and then "would you please run over me." while she takes him to a higher place (levitates him), she is also going to destroy him.

  Flag msweron October 03, 2005   Link

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  General Comment:EDIT: FRANK BLACK is clearly saying it in a mocking tone (just thought I'd clarify).

  Flag thequeenisdeadon August 18, 2005   Link

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  General Comment:"Come on Pilgrim, you know He loves you" is the catchphrase of Christian folksinger Larry Norman (I believe that was his name), the "He" being God or Jesus or whoever. He's clearly saying it in a mocking tone, like "you're all suckers for believing this shit."

  Flag thequeenisdeadon August 18, 2005   Link

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