This song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
Life is a waterfall
We're one in the river
And one again after the fall
Swimming through the void, we hear the word
We lose ourselves, but we find it all
'Cause we are the ones that want to play
Always want to go, but you never want to stay
And we are the ones that want to choose
Always want to play but you never want to lose
Aerials in the sky
When you lose small mind, you free your life
Life is a waterfall
We drink from the river
Then we turn around and put up our walls
Swimming through the void, we hear the word
We lose ourselves, but we find it all
'Cause we are the ones that want to play
Always want to go, but you never want to stay
And we are the ones that want to choose
Always want to play but you never want to lose
Oh
Aerials in the sky
When you lose small mind, you free your life
Aerials, so up high
When you free your eyes, eternal prize
Aerials in the sky
When you lose small mind, you free your life
Aerials, so up high
When you free your eyes, eternal prize
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
We're one in the river
And one again after the fall
Swimming through the void, we hear the word
We lose ourselves, but we find it all
'Cause we are the ones that want to play
Always want to go, but you never want to stay
And we are the ones that want to choose
Always want to play but you never want to lose
Aerials in the sky
When you lose small mind, you free your life
Life is a waterfall
We drink from the river
Then we turn around and put up our walls
Swimming through the void, we hear the word
We lose ourselves, but we find it all
'Cause we are the ones that want to play
Always want to go, but you never want to stay
And we are the ones that want to choose
Always want to play but you never want to lose
Oh
Aerials in the sky
When you lose small mind, you free your life
Aerials, so up high
When you free your eyes, eternal prize
Aerials in the sky
When you lose small mind, you free your life
Aerials, so up high
When you free your eyes, eternal prize
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh
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The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Mountain Song
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
I've always heard the lyrics as more of a warning about closemindedness "Aerials, in the sky, When you lose small mind, You free your life. Aerials, so up high, When you free your eyes, Eternal prize. " these lines here - these seem to be the pivitol lines, its about freeing your mind, opening "your third eye" if you will (Tool reference there for anyone keeping score ;-) ). I suppose it could also be about drugs - and using them to truely see the world for how it is.
@suicide_al not sure if there is any references to drug, but probably more about simply about enlightening yourself to the world around you (not just blindly believe what you are told / force fed)
This song has an effect, and emphasis, on life. It seems to speak about the cruelty, unfairness, and selfishness not only of life but of the human mind. Very cool. My favorite SOAD song.
At the PoA tour Daron (Guitarist) said that this is about the stupidity of the world. They fucking rocked this song live too.
its certianly about life in that sense, i think the 'one in the river and one again after the fall' is a reference to the after life. just opening up your mind, breaking down the walls you've put up, 'lose the small mind' and gain happyness in life.
Really what I think this song is about is how people try to mold and shape your life into what they want, that you really have no freedom. In the last scene at the circus where the little boy lays down, he finds true happiness by just being himself. In essence the song is about being yourself, and not letting others control your life or anything about your life.
To me that scene where the boy lays down shows that he is exhausted from being used the whole day. At the end of the day he is alone and all the other stuff was just for show to get him to do whatever they wanted him to do.
@axenic These are both awesome interpretations. I could totally see both of them being true, but from an agnostic point of view, I would favor the relation to being yourself over the afterlife approach. bravo to both ends though!
to me it's about spiritual enlightenment.
life as a waterfall. The holistic nature of the world. The oneness.
Swimming thru the void we hear the word. the first part speaking of meditation. "hearing the word" refers to what a lot of religions consider divine revelation. Thru meditation you hear an 'audible' source, which is the word which guides you to enlightenment. (pretty eastern)
We lose ourselves but we find it all? we lose our egocentric selfish nature, and unable to put what was gained it into words, 'we find it all' is almost asked as a question.
we are the ones.. shows egocentric and prideful nature of 'normal' people.
Aerials could be OBE(out of body experiences) if considered at face value, or just the accent to enlightenment, The loss of the closed mind and 'eternal prize'.
Firstly xmod2 I rather admire your intellectual efforts<br /> although, i will offer you a very different alternative. Serj invests himself greatly into the paranormal. a now deceased NASA Research scientist once told about the reality of "demons". these so-called demons have absolutely nothing to do with the devil, god or even religion all together. instead these are a form extraterrestrial life. I'm not talking about some internet belief about 'greys' and 'reptilians'. Rather he was referring to a micro-organism that nests itself around the frontal lobe of another being. all research about this life-form suggests it as an "inter-dimensional being" existing in an identical space-time as us but in a higher- or lower- dimension. I prefer not to go to far into detail because as it is i have exhausted my time. but i will say this, these micro-organisms transfer themselves via sound; it is an extremely small transmission of waves required to nest upon another. after prolonged growth they WILL induce serious mental illness. this transmission can be in electronic format (i.e. songs, videos) but mainly and most importantly VOICE. which brings me to my point; WE HEAR THE WORD. you know what comes next... WE LOSE OURSELVES please note it is very important that Serj included the line: SWIMMING THROUGH THE VOID. the truth is, we dont know where these organisms are showing up from, our current belief is IF these organisms are coming from a lower dimension they would not have the pleasure of having material (atoms or even matter at all) hence the word VOID. Or alternatively, call it- the void of space. this gives a new meaning to SWIMMING THROUGH THE VOID, WE HEAR THE WORD, WE LOSE OURSELVES and lastly DO we find it all? I would love to move further into his lyrics referencing other songs, and the rest of the lyrics of Aerials. I dont have much time left.<br /> and you think there is something the elite know that we don't? Serj is no idiot. i believe that how ever crazy the reality is, the world can handle the truth.<br /> <br /> <br /> I am providing you some of what I know because we are all in search of the truth.<br /> <br /> this is on a reply thread so it does not get plastered on some kid's screen every time this page loads. plus it becomes less prone to search engines.<br /> all i ask in return, is dare to step out of the WALLS society has built us. its a lot to digest or even believe, make of it what you will, and if you have any intellect at all you would do your own research on this. I cannot go further explaining this topic, but please PLEASE do your own research. there are few sites hosting information like this and after SOPA and PIPA there will be none. you can start here: google.com/search<br /> AKA just GOOGLE: inter-dimensional beings<br /> <br /> PLEASE dont believe the garbage they shove down your throat, never take no for an answer. Ask questions, dig deep, find your intuition.<br /> <br /> and remember when the government shuts down your internet, shut down your government.<br /> <br /> thanks for listening
This song is about how people can lose their identities and become just like everyone else. Some lyric analysis: "Life is a waterfall,we're one in the river, one again after the fall." - We all start off the same and we all end up the same. "Swimming through the void, we hear the words,we lose ourselves, but we find it all." - As we go through life we are told lessons, but we ignore them. We forget who we really are in the mix of seeking the synthetic lifestyle, and that's the price to lose who we really are. "'Cause we are the ones that wanna play, always want to go, but you never want to stay." - We always want to be part of the scene. We strive for what we want and when we get it, it still does not satisfy. "And we are the ones that want to choose, always wanna play, but you never wanna lose." - We want and want. We do whatever we can but if trouble is ever near we do whatever we can to maintain innocence. "When you lose small mind you free your life." - When we stop to see the full picture is when we really have control of our lives. "Life is a waterfall, we drink from the river then we turn around and put up our walls." - We take and take and in the end we give nothing. This shows how greedy, oblivious and inconsiderate people can be.
In the words of Daron, "THIS IS A SONG ABOUT NOTHING."
<3
@monalisasmiles4you do you have a reference for that quote?? I find it hard to believe as most of their song seem to have a meaning
I don't believe when Daron said that he meant that the song had no meaning, I think he meant the meaning of the song is how everything is connected and it all flows into each other. essentially everything is nothing and nothing is everything.
shavo said that the song is about a boy in a weel chair looking at acrobats in the sky and knowing he can never do them, relising the world is unfair
@zero36 do you have a reference for that quote?
This is the best song on Toxicity. Plain and simple. The lyrics, and the music to support it is just mind boggeling. THis band ROCKS Listen and Feel. Music is the most important thing in life.
This song is clearly telling people to stop being greedy. "Life is a waterfall, We're one in the river, And one again after the fall." This means that we are a soul before and after life "Swimming through the void We hear the word, We lose ourselves, But we find it all" Swimming through the void is going through life, the word we hear is 'lose'. We lose ourselves means we feel like we lost out in life, but we will find it all (heaven). "Cause we are the ones that want to play, Always want to go, But you never want to stay. And we are the ones that want to chose, Always want to play, But you never want to lose." We always take things and never want to give anything back in return. "Aerials, in the sky, When you lose small mind, You free your life." Aerials are either angels or souls. When you lose small mind (stop thinking only about yourself), you free your life (lead a life on the road towards heaven). "Life is a waterfall, We drink from the river, Then we turn around and put up our walls." We take what we can, but never give anything in return. "Aerials, so up high, When you free your eyes, Eternal prize." Aerials so up high would be in heaven. Your eyes eternal prize is also heaven.
There you go, it fits all the portions of the song perfectly. That is most likely the true meaning of the song, but it's my interpretation.