This song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
I awake to find no peace of mind
I said how do you live as a fugitive
Down here where I cannot see so clear
I said, what do I know
Show me the right way to go
And the spies came out of the water
But you're feeling so bad 'cause you know
But the spies hide out in every corner
But you can't touch them no, 'cause they're all spies
They're all spies
I awake to see that no one is free
We're all fugitives
Look at the way we live
Down here, I cannot sleep from fear no
I said, which way do I turn
Oh I forget everything I learn
And the spies came out of the water
But you're feeling so bad 'cause you know
The spies hide out in every corner
But you can't touch them no
'Cause they're all spies
They're all spies
And if we all hide here
They're going to find us
And if we don't hide now
They're going to catch us where we sleep
And if we don't hide here
They're going to find us
And spies came out of the water
But you're feeling so good 'cause you know
Though spies hide out in every corner
They can't touch you no
'Cause they're just spies
They're just spies
They're just spies
They're just spies
They're just spies
I said how do you live as a fugitive
Down here where I cannot see so clear
I said, what do I know
Show me the right way to go
And the spies came out of the water
But you're feeling so bad 'cause you know
But the spies hide out in every corner
But you can't touch them no, 'cause they're all spies
They're all spies
I awake to see that no one is free
We're all fugitives
Look at the way we live
Down here, I cannot sleep from fear no
I said, which way do I turn
Oh I forget everything I learn
And the spies came out of the water
But you're feeling so bad 'cause you know
The spies hide out in every corner
But you can't touch them no
'Cause they're all spies
They're all spies
And if we all hide here
They're going to find us
And if we don't hide now
They're going to catch us where we sleep
And if we don't hide here
They're going to find us
And spies came out of the water
But you're feeling so good 'cause you know
Though spies hide out in every corner
They can't touch you no
'Cause they're just spies
They're just spies
They're just spies
They're just spies
They're just spies
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Hayalperest
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Mountain Song
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
No Surprises
Radiohead
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
The subtle change in the chorus is what gets me in this song.
We start out as someone who feels isolated and bad about not being able to connect with the people around her, given that they're all spies and it's not real to them, they have nasty motives, they can't be trusted. They're all spies.
"And the spies came out of the water But you're feeling so bad 'cause you know That the spies hide out in every corner But you can't touch them no, 'cause they're all spies They're all spies"
Then, we move from wishing we could connect with a real person but finding only spies to the next logical psychological place for the narrator who has lived in that environment and seen too much treachery and people with secret motives. The singer is now panicked, fearing the spies, fearing their motives, fearing being found or seen, running to hide any vulnerability from the spies omnipresent everyday, everywhere the singer goes. It's no longer just isolating, now it's dangerous to be around anyone.
"And if we all hide here They're going to find us And if we don't hide now They're going to catch us where we sleep And if we don't hide here They're going to find us"
This is the most interesting transition-- why does the narrator go from feeling in mortal danger from the spies, danger that previously had to be avoided by fiercely and desperately hiding, to feeling almost comforted by the omnipresence of spies? Did the narrator kill off her/his own vulnerability? Did the narrator realize that fake people with secret motives can never connect with her/him in any meaningful way anyway, and so can't truly hurt her/him? Did the narrator give up on finding a real connection in a world of spies? Is the narrator still even capable of wanting something real, or is the narrator now beaten down by the world, heart jaded to the point where being surrounded by spies has actually become comforting and the narrator is no longer someone who could even be open to a genuine connection? Did the narrator become colder or wiser? Did the narrator lose his heart/soul/ability to love, or did the narrator gain perspective and freedom?
"And spies came out of the water But you're feeling so good 'cause you know Though spies hide out in every corner They can't touch you no 'Cause they're just spies They're just spies They're just spies They're just spies They're just spies"
It's open-ended, but in my opinion what has happened is the narrator has lost his ability to reach out. He started as someone isolated, sad, and frustrated by the duplicity and questionable intentions of everyone in his environment. He was upset that he could never seem to really touch or connect with anyone-- they were "all spies". He felt so bad 'cause he knew that "though spies [hid] out in every corner", he couldn't "touch them no, 'cause they're all spies". This was initially a painful situation for the narrator.
Then the narrator became terrified of being seen/known by these spies, of having his secrets or any vulnerability seen by anyone. The narrator felt unsafe, felt that he had to run and hide from the spies around him in order to survive. People were no longer simply unknown quantities with secret motives and agendas, walls unpenetrable, preventing the narrator from finding any genuine intimacy-- now he's perceiving them as actively malicious, dangerous, threatening.
But then we transition. No longer does the narrator feel "so bad" about being surrounded by spies he can't touch. He also no longer feels threatened by their presence.
No, the world has finally worn the narrator down and taken that important piece of his heart/soul that initially caused him to yearn for genuine intimacy/connection and feel pain when being surrounded by spies kept him fundamentally isolated. In the end, he has become a person who "[feels] so good cause [he] know[s] that though spies hide out in every corner, they can't touch [him], no, 'cause they're just spies." He has changed from a person hurt by his inability to find genuine intimacy and connection in an unbearable and isolating environment into a person who is actually comforted at the fact that he is unable to connect to anyone in his environment. He has changed from someone who hated and railed against the alienating conditions of his environment into someone who finds comfort in alienation, who feels "so good" when he reflects on the knowledge that no one around is able to reach anything real in him anymore. He has become just another spy in the environment who can't be touched by anything real. He is no longer desirous of such a connection with the other spies. He no longer wants to find anything real. He's at peace having lost that part of his heart/soul. He is now a part of the machine.
In this way, this song reminds me tremendously of the ending to Orwell's 1984. Winston started out a rebel with a desire for love, justice, and truth in a totalitarian world of double-speak and manipulation. Winston describes the result of the government's brainwashing as "Something was killed in your breast; burnt out, cauterized out." Clearly that something killed in Winston, and in our narrator in this song, was the heart/soul, the piece of the human being that can love, connect, establish intimacy. In the end, both Winston and our narrator in this song had been broken by their environments; and not only were their senses of self destroyed, identities crushed, at the end both men were happy to be broken. Winston's joy at the very end of 1984 represented the ultimate destruction and defeat of his mind/heart/soul, the victory of the state over the individual. Here in "Spies" by Coldplay, we have the exact same thing: A man started out with a heart/soul/mind and, after the world taught him lesson after lesson for it, he becomes complicit in his own dehumanization-- his joy is now found in the very alienating conditions he once strove to overcome.
Feeling bad because they're all spies and can't touch you -> feeling so good because they're just spies and can't touch you. <br /> <br /> Adding that just at the end really drives home that the people the spies once were are gone and all that's left are cogs in the machine. They're less than they were. They're not people the narrator once sought to find and connect with beneath the doublespeak and manipulation of the environment; no, now the narrator sees them as just spies, harmless, and inert. All spies? People with secrets and unknown motives and allegiances; not trustworthy or accessible to the narrator, but still viewed as hiding a person behind the mask. Just a spy? Just a cog in the machine functioning in its role; no threat, no substance, no individual hidden beneath the function.