So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
It must be your skin, I'm sinking in
Must be for real 'cause now I can feel
And I didn't mind, it's not my kind
It's not my time to wonder why
Everything gone white, everything's grey
Now you're here, now you're away
I don't want this, remember that
I'll never forget where you're at
Don't let the days go by
Glycerine
Glycerine
I'm never alone, I'm alone all the time
Are you at one or do you lie?
We live in a wheel where everyone steals
But when we rise, it's like strawberry fields
If I treated you bad, you'd bruise my face
Couldn't love you more, you've got a beautiful taste
Don't let the days go by
Could've been easier on you
I couldn't change though I wanted to
Should've been easier by three
Our old friend fear and you and me
Glycerine
Glycerine
Don't let the days go by
Glycerine
Don't let the days go by
Glycerine, glycerine
Oh, glycerine, glycerine
Bad moon white again
Bad moon white again
As she falls around me
I needed you more, you wanted us less
Could not kiss, just regress
It might just be clear, simple and plain
Well, that's just fine, that's just one of my names
Don't let the days go by
Could've been easier on you, you, you
Glycerine
Glycerine
Glycerine
Glycerine
Must be for real 'cause now I can feel
And I didn't mind, it's not my kind
It's not my time to wonder why
Everything gone white, everything's grey
Now you're here, now you're away
I don't want this, remember that
I'll never forget where you're at
Don't let the days go by
Glycerine
Glycerine
I'm never alone, I'm alone all the time
Are you at one or do you lie?
We live in a wheel where everyone steals
But when we rise, it's like strawberry fields
If I treated you bad, you'd bruise my face
Couldn't love you more, you've got a beautiful taste
Don't let the days go by
Could've been easier on you
I couldn't change though I wanted to
Should've been easier by three
Our old friend fear and you and me
Glycerine
Glycerine
Don't let the days go by
Glycerine
Don't let the days go by
Glycerine, glycerine
Oh, glycerine, glycerine
Bad moon white again
Bad moon white again
As she falls around me
I needed you more, you wanted us less
Could not kiss, just regress
It might just be clear, simple and plain
Well, that's just fine, that's just one of my names
Don't let the days go by
Could've been easier on you, you, you
Glycerine
Glycerine
Glycerine
Glycerine
Lyrics submitted by spitfirek7, edited by bobudo, antiaverage, 000/
Glycerine Lyrics as written by Gavin Rossdale
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, O/B/O DistroKid
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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More Featured Meanings
Ave Grave
Thee More Shallows
Thee More Shallows
Love in a Vacuum
'Til Tuesday
'Til Tuesday
Well, in my opinion this song is about being a young & maybe a little naive &/or introverted girl and finding yourself loving a man who is at first very charming, carefree & outgoing, and seems at first to be without limits, as in
"There was a time
you opened up every doorway
you didn't mind if everything
wasn't your way"
then that man starts to gradually become more introverted & shows their more possessive/obsessive side to you as the relationship progresses, even while they keep up the appearance of being carefree & outgoing to everyone else,
"Don't pull away
that goes against what you told me
I look in your eyes
I realize what you've sold me
is love in a vacuum"
so you confront them about the way they're acting and of course they deny it,
"I think you've changed
but you insist that
that's not true"
quite possibly they are an addict of some sort, my guess would be cocaine, &/or showing very obsessive behavior towards you (early on in the video for this song we see the man hanging a picture up, it is a very large portrait of Aimee & it is prominently displayed in his/their apartment for the duration of the song), thus their "love in a vacuum",
"You look so strange, so distant
that you're hardly you
Now I can see
how you have been acting different
You say it's me
but I know
that it isn't
it's love in a vacuum"
but still you are in love with them and don't want to leave them and you know that they are truly in love with you and they don't want you to leave them either, maybe they are convinced you can save them from themself, maybe they are so broken that the possibility of an overdose &/or suicide attempt is very real and you want to get through to them that their behavior not only dangerous but it is also just pissing you off and if they don't wise up they run the risk of loosing you, as in the lines
"You will be lonely
if you leave me alone", so you want to save them but can't get through to them due to the addiction &/or emotional problems they have,
"Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
love in a vacuum
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
You will be lonely
if you leave me alone
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough"
you want them to understand that the love they are giving you is not enough when it is filtered through the vacuum of their drug addiction &/or emotional impairment,
"You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough
and just wait
you will be lonely
Love in a vacuum
Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
Love in a vacuum".
'Love In A Vacuum' for me is a hauntingly truthful acute argument on the loneliness of obsession and almost inevitable loss of love that follows people who are broken in some way or another; the obsessives, the coke heads, the drunks, addicts or the just-plain-old emotionally broken; a razor sharp, lyrically driven, deceptively poppy, yet ultimately-depressing-in-the-best-way song.
Quintessential Aimee Mann.
The Spy
Doors, The
Doors, The
Like a lot of the other comments are saying, I think this mainly about voyeurism. If the song was about his girlfriend, then why would he use the word spy. If you are a spy it means you shouldn't be caught, that is kind of the whole point, and if you are a voyeur, the whole point of the pleasure you get from it, is the fact that the other people don't know you are watching them. See a bit of a connection there?
when rules change
Life in Your Way
Life in Your Way
High life
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
glycerine is one of the chemicals used in abortions and for me this will always be the meaning of it (an unwanted abortion but has to be done)
To piggyback on this, after thinking, it is about an abortion and the regret the parents feel after the decision. Sometimes the video correlates to the song and sometimes not. But it does show a woman holding an infants feet or hands in the beginning of the video. I think glycerine is a word that describes the emotions of the situation. Because it fuels everything. It facilitated the choice and it shows the pain and consequences of it. Such an emotional song and some of the best lyrics ever written in my opinion.
ooh I like this one, I'd never heard it.