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Up on a hill, that's where we begin
This little story, a long time ago.
Start to pretend, stop pretending
It seems this game is simply never-ending
Oh, in the sun, sun having fun
It's in my blood.
I just can't help it,
Don't want you here right now,
Let me go
Let me a go-go-go-go-go-go-go-go.
Leavin' just in time
Stay there for a while
Rolling in the ocean
Trying to catch her eye
Work hard and say it's easy
Do it just to please me
Tomorrow will be different
So I'll pretend I'm leaving
Our fears are different here
We train in A-V-A
I wish you hadn't stayed
My vision's clearer now, but I'm unafraid.
Flying overseas, no time to feel the breeze
I took too many varieties
Oh, in the sun, sun having fun
It's in my blood
I just can't help it
Don't want you here right now
Let me go
Darlin', let me go.
Leavin' just in time
Stay there for a while
Rolling in the ocean
Trying to catch her eye
Work hard and say it's easy
Do it just to please me
Tomorrow will be different
This is why I'm leaving
This little story, a long time ago.
Start to pretend, stop pretending
It seems this game is simply never-ending
Oh, in the sun, sun having fun
It's in my blood.
I just can't help it,
Don't want you here right now,
Let me go
Let me a go-go-go-go-go-go-go-go.
Leavin' just in time
Stay there for a while
Rolling in the ocean
Trying to catch her eye
Work hard and say it's easy
Do it just to please me
Tomorrow will be different
So I'll pretend I'm leaving
Our fears are different here
We train in A-V-A
I wish you hadn't stayed
My vision's clearer now, but I'm unafraid.
Flying overseas, no time to feel the breeze
I took too many varieties
Oh, in the sun, sun having fun
It's in my blood
I just can't help it
Don't want you here right now
Let me go
Darlin', let me go.
Leavin' just in time
Stay there for a while
Rolling in the ocean
Trying to catch her eye
Work hard and say it's easy
Do it just to please me
Tomorrow will be different
This is why I'm leaving
Lyrics submitted by mudfly
Track duration: 03:28
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The last two verses find the two in a long-term relationship where all the exciting attraction is lost. Now all the pretending they were doing before is revealed as a lie or a line and they’re no longer enamored with each other (“I wish you hadn’t stayed/My vision’s clearer now”). By the end of the song they end up leaving each other.
-Up on a hill, that's where we begin
-This little story, a long time ago.
[Now there's a break. He has given you the setting of his "little story" and given you some important information:
1. we are located up on a hill (because that's where we (his audience-listeners- and him) begin. he is literally telling us a story through his lyrics while we are here listening to his music (story)!
2.this "little" story (on a hill.. a long time ago.. this little story, shows that this is from his childhood past) adding "a long time ago" so we know this could be an old memory
-Start to pretend, stop pretending
-It seems this game is simply never-ending
*Another pause
these lyrics seem like they are reminding his audience to try to get in the mind set of so long ago, imagine yourself in his shoes (in his memory) of a long time ago when he was on a hill as a child.
"it seems..ending" looks like he is talking about how this game is never ending, society has it as looking down on someone if they act liek a child agian. he is in this mature and constricted world but just try to be youthful again, is what he's asking.
"Oh, in the sun, sun having fun
It's in my blood.
I just can't help it,
Don't want you here right now,
Let me go
Let me a go-go-go-go-go-go-go-go."
Can you say WOW!? The emotion behind each of his words, is incredible. he really knows how to paint a picture in his listener's mind.
so he's in the sun its a sunny day on a hill and
he reminds us that its in his blood (he just canNOT help it!) he wants to be alone and free and enjoy this day but the other person he doesn't want to be there (maybe his father, i don't know or another relative, etc) is there !
and he (LISTEN TO HIS EMOTION BEHIND THIS!!) screams "dont want you here right now" (and then as they pick him up from this perfect moment on the sunny day on a hill) he screams "let me go, let me g-g-g-g-g-g goo). he literally sounds like a baby screaming and about to start crying who cant finish the word "go" thus sounding out the "g-g-g-g-g-g go".
SUCH strong emotions! and it really does sound like this story could work by just listneing to the first stanza!
i love it. this is why i love the people in strokes, they are MASTERMIND writers and musicians!!
this song portrays everything beautiful about summer and romance in the most incredible way. Best song on the album and possibly best one they ever wrote. The start of the chorus makes me want to die with happiness, and the slide at the end is an anti-climax in such a good way that it makes you press the repeat buttom. The Modern Age = Summer Romance.
Let me know what you think.
"Rolling in the ocean" refers to the Navy (probably a carrier ship due to later lyrics) and he is doing this, in part, to impress her (since that's how he was raised) hence the Trying to catch her eye work hard and say it's easy Do it just to please me". She know that there will soon be fighting (tommorow will be different) and wants him to leave, but he wants to stay so to satisfy her he pretends he will leave soon.
"Our fears are different here" refers to the fact that in the military you are brave and have different fears than most people. I'm a littel foggy on this part, but Ava (A-v-a might be him spelling it out so it will rhyme) is a city in Burma, since burma is a country near Vietnam, I might guess that there was a training camp there and that this song is refering to the vietnam/cold war. I think by "My vision's clearer now, but I'm unafraid." he is saying that they have move past vietnam and realizes the scale of this war, but he still is not afraid. (My guess on AVA probably isn't correct and in that case I would guess it was WWII and he took a fighter to pearl harbor after realizing the scale of the war, though neither may be correct, nor my analyzation of this song)
The chorus essentially repeats, but with a changed ending, this time he realizes that things are different, meaning this is really dangerous and wrong, so that is why he leaves the military.
This is just how I always thought about it and I may very well be incorrect, this could be about a one night stand.
Either way the Strokes rock!
I can't really explain my interpretation of the song, sometimes the song is just to powerful.
and ya they were the shit on conan a while back!