Regina Spektor – Oedipus

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  My Interpretation:The name 'Regina' comes from Latin meaning 'queen'. So I think that the queen in the song is Regina Spektor herself. The king is the piano she's playing. From the interaction of the queen (Regina) and the king (piano), i.e. playing the piano, the son is born. This son is one of many (thirty two) notes or words. As Purple explained there are 32 words or syllables in (Long Life the King) × 8. I first thought that 32 had something to do with 32 notes in a measure like 32 1/8 notes in a 4/4 measure. Then I thought it might be keys of the piano. However, most modern pianos have 36 black and 54 white keys. And coming back to the piano as king interpretation: the keys are just body parts of the king. So I think it makes sense to see the son as a word or note. This is also compatible with
  "There's thirty one others just like me
  There's thirty one others on the way
  There's thirty one others after that"
  i.e. the new words/notes keep coming. Regina Spektor has written other songs with at least parts about the process of writing songs ('Making Records', 'Fidelity', 'The Flowers').

  Flag mosthumanon February 02, 2013   Link

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    Sorry, it's 52 white keys, 88 keys in total

    Flag mosthumanon February 02, 2013  
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  General Comment:Oepidus the hole truth: this legent is known as 'the Ladbakidon s myth' and it goes like this Kadmos killed the holy snake of Aries and his grand sun,Ladbakos baned the worship of the god Dionyshos in Thibes. Then his son Laios kidnaped Pelopas's son Hrisipos and for that Pelopas cursed him to die childless or if he did have a child it will murder him. When he had Oepidus he had him sent away and reised in Argos. When he grew older he retuned to Thibes where he killed the mythical beast Sphinx and for that he became a hero then he acidentaly kiled his father during an athletic contest, after that he maried his mother but when he learnt the truth his wife and mother (dοuble identity as Sophocles wrote)killed herself and Oepidus blinded and exiled himshelf. He wasnt a pervert or anything. This cames strait from the second last year of the greek highschool where we are tought this myth and the actual play of Sophocles in ansient greek. The end.

  Flag GreenArrowon October 07, 2011   Link

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  Lyric Correction:Im pretty sure the line is
  "my mom had been a rather crazy queen" not "around the graves of queens"
  
  and "born to him the night still young" is "born to him with ears/hair still on" or something to that extent, I dont hear "night still young" at all, unless all the versions i have are those versions with the small differences she sometimes does in her concerts....

  Flag vedaseanon February 05, 2011   Link

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  My Interpretation:for me this song is bout the relationship between a mother and a son. Me i take it quite literally as the mother being a queen and this all happening in tht kinda almost mythical surroundings :)
  The main characters suffers an intense, almost physical longing for his mother, missing her touch, emotional closeness, desperately needing any kind of contact with her. Almost the way an infant needs their mother. (this is where i assosiate the oedipus metaphore, i dont feel like it goes any further than that).
  He is lonely, special to none, left to his own devices and basically growing up in a loveless environment. And in his universe there is only his mother and his dreams of her, only able to view her from afar.
  
  The mother on her side is too damaged to be able to stand any contact with him without feeling extremely conflicting emotions about it. To me it feels like she is deeply unhappy. Sounds like she is mostly the breeding-cow of the king, not sure the sex has been of her free will either (thats probably just my impression) and as a result she resents her son, his bare excistance reminds her of the situation she is stuck in and brings up only bad emotions, so she cannot be strong enough to be close to him.
  

  Flag vivianmarion November 24, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:Oh, just discovered that there were 2 more pages, and someone had actually come up with my idea (more or less). Incidentally, people need to actually go and read the story before making references to it. kittywitty32123, Jocasta killed herself after finding out the truth... no chance for her to be locking herself up in her chambers.

  Flag sibilationon July 08, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:Yeah, it's possible that this song is connected to the original story, but only if Regina didn't know much of the original story. I'd like to think she's smarter than that. For starters in the original story Oedipus wasn't the 32nd son of either his birth parents or his adoptive parents, and that's just for starters.
  
  Who says that when the character in the song wakes up and thinks "Oedipus", that he's thinking of himself?
  
  After thinking that, the character decides he's gonna make himself count. Then... "Long live the king"... isn't that what people say at the coronation of a new king?
  
  I actually think the implications are pretty disturbing... basically sounds to me like the character was inspired by the story of Oedipus Rex, to kill his father, then become king, by marrying his mother. I wonder if it could have been based on a historical event... some of the details seem fairly specific, but I don't know of any such story.

  Flag sibilationon July 08, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:i believe it's about realizing your position in society / in the world / in history,
  how inconsequential we are, as one, or as a whole (OF 32!?)
  and knowing there's not anything to be done about it.
  
  the part about screaming for the king and queen,
  well I see that as an interpretative reference to our mainstream culture. kings and queens, those we worship, as publicized people and our devotion to them.
  
  and just the irony of this life;
  how it touches on the Oedipus play, in that the mother longs to keep herself clean and separate herself from the son that she will only fall in love with, marry, and (of the uncleanliness) have children with in the end.
  
  and ironic that we're all born with only 2 eyebrows on, whether a king's son or a peasant, and that our role in life is already (pre)determined -- Oedipus reference

  Flag AlecsPenon December 17, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:I think the line is "my mom had been a rather crazy queen" instead of "my mom had been around the graves of queens." and.. "born to him with my ears still on" instead of "Born to him the night still young."

  Flag marchingdrummeron November 27, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:this song is so sad for the point of viwe by the king's thirty second child, but he takes valor and he's trying to make him count :)
  
  but, this story dont have any end T_T

  Flag Feliponshon September 19, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:I agree with commenters mentioning the oedipal complex theme. However, I feel like the mechanical/mathematical aspects of this song are often overlooked. She may have chosen "thirty-second" as the narrator's number because of the pun, but it's also an important number in binary -- you'd write it as 10000. For some reason, this always jumps to my mind when the song plays... but I don't have anything more concrete than just a vibe and a few loose straws.
  
  Oedipus' comments make his birth sound almost artificial. He makes it sound like he wasn't just conceived, but also born in a single night, part of a batch. Is this poetic licence? Quite possibly... still, it adds to the sound. And his mother hardly sounds human; she could be, of course, but the way the song commodifies and objectifies her makes it sound as though she could just as easily be something else.
  
  I don't think this is (or at least is just) some sci-fi story about a cloned vat-boy, but if I were making a music video, that would probably be the video I made to it. I think that's another layer of metaphor... under that, assuming that is even accurate to the intention with which the song was made, I could imagine a story about power and industry.
  
  But I can't really say. I think of all Ms. Spektor's songs, this is the one I'd most like to ask what story she was telling when she wrote it.

  Flag Arafelison August 23, 2009   Link

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