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| Looong Total Eclipse Of The Heart dissection | |
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Willis 02:36 am UTC 09/20/07 |
| A Total Eclipse of the Heart Or "The One" that never came. I tend to over analyze music. Specifically lyrics. I need to find out what a song is about, what the intentions were in writing it. What's the underlying theme? Why was it written? Who was it written for? What was the mood the artist had when the idea was conceived. I've been doing this for as long as I've been listening to music. There are not that many artists that I find this to be very challenging. But, there are a few that are very special to me. It's not always their musical ability that sticks with me, it's their mind. Their expression. One of the saddest musical memories I had was finally "getting" Doug Hopkins songs off Gin Blossoms "New Miserable Experience" Pieces of the Night, Hey Jealousy, Lost Horizons, Hold Me Down, and the saddest pop song, Found Out About You. By the time I fully realized that his words were about a loveless, addiction-filled downward spiral of a life, Doug had killed himself. Not sure what this has to do with my post other than after hearing the news, I wasn't surprised. The signs were as clear as day and all over the radio. I felt I understood the man. At least in my head. That brings my to Jim. Much of Jim's work doesn't need to be looked at very deeply. I feel that the stories and themes are fairly straightforward, and even he has made mention in his blog that "they're just words". But, there are some songs that stick out like a sore thumb to me. To mention a few Making Love Out Of Nothing At All, It Just Won't Quit, and... Total Eclipse of the Heart. I realize this is a VERY PERSONAL song to many reading, so only treat this as my opinion and my perspective. Something just clicked with me about this recently. Just for fun, I searched around. There are many different interpretations of this song. Some think it's a song about a former lover. Some about drug addiction. Some think it's the greatest love song of all time and play it at their weddings. To many couples, it's "their song". I don't think it's a happy love song at all. I think it's a no love song. From the clanking piano in the beginning it screams loneliness. "Turn Around" A voice calls to the woman. She knows this voice. She has been alone, without a love to share for what seems like forever. Maybe it has been forever. Since the few brushes with love in her past she's been with the only person she can trust. Herself. Romance has not happened for her in a very long time, so she has been focusing on everything but. A women with the definite "who needs love" attitude. A strong woman. On the outside. But at night she dreams, wonders, calls for her lover. The lover that hasn't shown up yet. The true love she waits for, and is ashamed to wait for, because she's waited so long. "Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you're never coming around" "Every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the best of all the years have gone by" If he shows up now, will she be the attractive and special thing she once was. And at times she thinks she's cracking, going nuts, falling apart. "Turn around Bright Eyes" She hears him call. Bright Eyes, he calls. Is he calling for that young, hopeful thing she once was? Is that what the fantasy man still sees in her now? So, deep down she's not this stubborn person people pass on the street. "Every now and then I get a little bit restless and I dream of something wild" But, she can go on. Who needs love? Well dammit, she does. She goes home alone to love in the dark. By herself. And every now and then the built up emotion becomes too much. And she cries to the lover in her head, the one that understands her, cries for him to please take form, and please be real. And it would be great, it would be love: "And I need you now tonight And I need you more than ever And if you'll only hold me tight We'll be holding on forever And we'll only be making it right Cause we'll never be wrong together We can take it to the end of the line Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time I don't know what to do and I'm always in the dark We're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks" But, it's just a dream. Snapping out of it, she realizes it's fiction. She'll never be found by anyone even close to the ideal in her head. Loveless forever. "Forever's gonna start tonight" She continues to form her ideal even further. He'd be a man like her, who'd never be the man he strived to be. But would be a hidden magical treasure of sorts. No one as wondrous. Excepting; he'd do anything for her. Why not. It's her dream. If the real lover would only come. Where's her "The One" He still hasn't come. In the outside world, she used to feel love. She used to be bright. Her heart is blackened out. She feels she simply cannot find "The One" and has reverted to dreaming up fantasies. The beating red heart is now a blackened shell: "Once upon a time there was light in my life But now there's only love in the dark Nothing I can say A total eclipse of the heart" And starting tonight, as she says every night, a forever of loneliness will start. Role reverse the male and female roles and there you go. Again, the above is ONLY MY PERSPECTIVE. And probably makes little sense. | |
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