Blondie – Shayla

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  My Interpretation:I think, at the end, Shayla dies ("bright lights and thunder")

  Flag AlffromMelmacon May 09, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:Oh, by the way, the lyric is "Cars" on the freeway...Debbie's Joisey accent must have thrown you off! Ha Ha

  Flag johnnyb66on April 09, 2010   Link

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• +1
  General Comment:this song is about transcending the mundane. shayla gets a glimpse of the immortal and has a life changing moment. maybe she gets enlightened. chris stein deliberately leaves the answer vague and open to interpretation.
  debbie's vocals create more of a sense of futility and despair than chris' somewhat trite lyrics, IMHO.

  Flag johnnyb66on April 09, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:my name is Shayla too =D
  
  you both pretty much said exactly what i thought, but for some reason at the end, it always makes me think that she dies or something...which i don't ACTUALLY think, it just sort of seems like it...i don't know what i'm trying to say now haha.

  Flag shaylaaajaneeeon December 12, 2007   Link

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    +1

    If she (indeed) dies, she dies in a car accident, on a slippery road.
    
    I am free but life is so cheap
    Scenery is still outside of me
    All alone trapped by its beauty
    
    That's a wonderful lyric.

    Flag Reinton July 11, 2009  

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    Me, too. I always thought she committed suicide. She left her job because she planned to kill herself, but she went on one last trip down the freeway. I thought the "lost in space and down she came" part was her jumping off a bridge, and passerbys wondered who this lovely, anonymous dead girl was.
    
    A more optimistic interpretation is that "lost in space" refers to Shayla daydreaming and the "cosmic energy" is God or some source of inspiration that encourages her not to end her life after all. I would like to believe that this is what really happened to her.

    Flag goddesscarolineon May 21, 2011  
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  General Comment:I think this is one of Blondie's best and most overlooked songs. It's beautiful and there's some beautiful imagery in the song "Bright lights and thunder". I think it's about a girl who is very ordinary and no one takes much notice of her. One day, she just takes off.

  Flag catherine87on September 04, 2006   Link

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  General Comment:My name is Shayla, which I understand probably matters to none of you, but I think it's cool, because I can sorta relate to the song. The way I interpret it personally is that it's about a girl who had really nothing special going on in her life and was pretty bored, and one day she just decides to leave to find something else.

  Flag RockOn333on June 25, 2003   Link

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