Song Interpretations ... and Other Stuff
Nov. 2nd, 2003 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hiddenmuseI've said that the song interpretations simultaneously interest and rankle me - and it's true. It's always interesting to see how people can take a song and psychoanalyze it to death, leaving shards for everyone else to debate over.
Personally, I don't go for the "putting my favorite songs on the couch" approach to interpretation. Actually, to be honest, I tend towards the "lyrics? who needs lyrics?" approach.
But, with the BNL song "War On Drugs", it's one of those songs that I can't just listen to and not comment on. Probably because, when you look at the lyrics and theme as being about depression and suicide, well, it's something I know about entirely too well.
At the show on Thursday, when they did this song, I felt like I had to keep from totally losing it. But, I did acknowledge to my sister that the song is a sad song - I just didn't say why. I couldn't tell her that when I was her age, I was so depressed and miserable, that I'd spend the next couple of years contemplating how to put an end to the depression and misery.
Perhaps the guilt and shame that would've driven me to consider ending it all was the same guilt and shame that kept me from doing so ... I just know that there's no way that I will ever be 100% happy, all the time - and I certainly don't expect to be that way.
Yeah, it would be dull if we rid ourselves of the demons* haunting us ... they're what gives us balance in our lives, oddly enough. It's just a matter of striking a balance between being happy, and dealing with those demons.
* Personally, I find it quite interesting that the song mentions the "demons haunting us" - but that could just be due to the fact that I'm reading The Noonday Demon, a book about depression.
Personally, I don't go for the "putting my favorite songs on the couch" approach to interpretation. Actually, to be honest, I tend towards the "lyrics? who needs lyrics?" approach.
But, with the BNL song "War On Drugs", it's one of those songs that I can't just listen to and not comment on. Probably because, when you look at the lyrics and theme as being about depression and suicide, well, it's something I know about entirely too well.
At the show on Thursday, when they did this song, I felt like I had to keep from totally losing it. But, I did acknowledge to my sister that the song is a sad song - I just didn't say why. I couldn't tell her that when I was her age, I was so depressed and miserable, that I'd spend the next couple of years contemplating how to put an end to the depression and misery.
Perhaps the guilt and shame that would've driven me to consider ending it all was the same guilt and shame that kept me from doing so ... I just know that there's no way that I will ever be 100% happy, all the time - and I certainly don't expect to be that way.
Yeah, it would be dull if we rid ourselves of the demons* haunting us ... they're what gives us balance in our lives, oddly enough. It's just a matter of striking a balance between being happy, and dealing with those demons.
* Personally, I find it quite interesting that the song mentions the "demons haunting us" - but that could just be due to the fact that I'm reading The Noonday Demon, a book about depression.
