I don't know why so many people say it has something to do with sexual orientation. Or maybe its just me, cause I'm not a native speaker so I might be just not getting smth.
Personally I always thought the song is about depression so deep that you have suicidal thoughts revolving in your head.
The first words are actually a perfect illustration for depression: "I can't deny what I've become, I'm just emotionally undone, I can't deny, I can't be someone else". When you're depressed, you only feel what a mess you are, unable to feel any other emotions. We all wear different masks and act in differnrt ways with different people, but you don't have enough emotional strength for that when you've got depression.
All the lines describe depressive feeling so well, and these words - "Try to resist my thoughts
But I can't lie" - for me it was like "I know that suicide is wrong but I can't lie to myself that there's something worth living for here". And after that "often I've dreamt that I don't wait,
enjoy the gift of my mistake" - suicide is wrong - a mistake - but she desires the death so much that dying is a pleasure.
Well, probably everyone just hears what they want to hear :)
@Annikka I think most people naturally try to interpret songs to have a sexual meaning even when there is none. Either most songwriters really are horny all the time, or it is just an unfortunate byproduct of our overtly sexual western culture. I find nothing in this song relating to anything sexual other than the word 'desire', and even that has other meanings that fit better. Or, perhaps I'm ignoring the sexual connotations because because I actually enjoy this music, and I'm sick of everything being about sex. I do, however, agree that this song seems to be about an...
@Annikka I think most people naturally try to interpret songs to have a sexual meaning even when there is none. Either most songwriters really are horny all the time, or it is just an unfortunate byproduct of our overtly sexual western culture. I find nothing in this song relating to anything sexual other than the word 'desire', and even that has other meanings that fit better. Or, perhaps I'm ignoring the sexual connotations because because I actually enjoy this music, and I'm sick of everything being about sex. I do, however, agree that this song seems to be about an emotional struggle of depression and self-hatred. Then again, that seems to be the tone of the majority of Portishead's music.
I don't know why so many people say it has something to do with sexual orientation. Or maybe its just me, cause I'm not a native speaker so I might be just not getting smth. Personally I always thought the song is about depression so deep that you have suicidal thoughts revolving in your head.
The first words are actually a perfect illustration for depression: "I can't deny what I've become, I'm just emotionally undone, I can't deny, I can't be someone else". When you're depressed, you only feel what a mess you are, unable to feel any other emotions. We all wear different masks and act in differnrt ways with different people, but you don't have enough emotional strength for that when you've got depression.
All the lines describe depressive feeling so well, and these words - "Try to resist my thoughts But I can't lie" - for me it was like "I know that suicide is wrong but I can't lie to myself that there's something worth living for here". And after that "often I've dreamt that I don't wait, enjoy the gift of my mistake" - suicide is wrong - a mistake - but she desires the death so much that dying is a pleasure.
Well, probably everyone just hears what they want to hear :)
@Annikka I think most people naturally try to interpret songs to have a sexual meaning even when there is none. Either most songwriters really are horny all the time, or it is just an unfortunate byproduct of our overtly sexual western culture. I find nothing in this song relating to anything sexual other than the word 'desire', and even that has other meanings that fit better. Or, perhaps I'm ignoring the sexual connotations because because I actually enjoy this music, and I'm sick of everything being about sex. I do, however, agree that this song seems to be about an...
@Annikka I think most people naturally try to interpret songs to have a sexual meaning even when there is none. Either most songwriters really are horny all the time, or it is just an unfortunate byproduct of our overtly sexual western culture. I find nothing in this song relating to anything sexual other than the word 'desire', and even that has other meanings that fit better. Or, perhaps I'm ignoring the sexual connotations because because I actually enjoy this music, and I'm sick of everything being about sex. I do, however, agree that this song seems to be about an emotional struggle of depression and self-hatred. Then again, that seems to be the tone of the majority of Portishead's music.