While the ancient belief of Stoicism was more complex than that, the word "stoic" today means a person who declines to show emotion.
The speaker here is a "man" whose life's major incident are few. Mostly, he's been "working all [his] days."
Now he's having a post-midlife "accounting": "More years are behind me now/ Than years that are ahead," so it's time to take stock.
First, he wants us to know that at 18, he "faced down" his father who physically abused him-- "18 years of pain." He does not blame his father, but the "demons" of his mental illness. Still, he is covered in "layers of bruises." So the emotion here is dignity, self-assertion.
He left home and "learned to love the road," an emotional response. He learned that some things can be "spoken" and some not. He does physical labor, earning his "coin" with "another/ Knot within [his] back." There are many emotions here.
He married, somehow, which would seem a major life milestone, but we learn of this only because he was tempted to stray. The other woman had a "gifted touch" but yet they "confine [themselves] to friendship/ And [they] stay out of the bed." It seems that he might have divorced his wife to marry her, had she been single. The fact that she would not leave her spouse to be with him must have been painful.
Now, he is "facing" another foe, "the specter of [his] age." He wants to die already: "My soul, it fights my body/ Like a bird will fight its cage," wanting to escape. He sees death as "peace" and "release."
Yet, he will not kill himself-- "I keep myself upon the earth"-- and simply accept his fate, even as he measures not his gains and achievements but only "what [he's] lost."
So that's his life's story-- abuse, then labor and massive disappointment. Has he ever had the chance at happiness? "Winged things, they brush against me/ Never mine to hold."
Instead, he has resigned himself to grinding labor, saying "I keep my eyes upon the ground/ And carry on."
Why? "Ecstasy and pleasure come at much too high a cost." Since all he has known has been pain, he has two choices-- accept pain and try to live with it... or try for happiness knowing that it will either be unattained or lost, and then pile that pain onto the existing one. Not worth it, he decides.
The man is a stoic for this reason, or reasoning. His childhood was painful, his marriage is unfulfilling, his work shows no progress for all his effort. Any idea that hope was a good thing has been beaten out of him, either figuratively or literally.
For a song about a person who avoids emotions, the story leaves the listener with a deep one: sadness.
Next Song: Laying on of Hands/Stoic 2
Showing posts with label disappointment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disappointment. Show all posts
Monday, December 5, 2016
Monday, August 1, 2016
Frank and Ava
Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner had a brief, tempestuous marriage. It only lasted 5-6, years but was filled with passion-- both the good and bad kinds. Whole books have been written about it, since their affairs and external friendships involved many other celebrities, as well as colorful characters like big-game hunters, starlets, and matadors. It involved, indeed, everything from drunken scenes to slashed wrists.
The song, however, makes no reference to any specific couple, as their last names are not given. So this is about that famous couple... but only as a metaphor for all such high-emotional, disastrous relationships (Vega herself had recently been divorced; she mentions "you and me" toward the end.).
Vega lays the blame for the failed relationship at both their feet. Ava could be imperious and act the "queen." Frank's love could be overwhelming, but explosive; his heart was a "tinderbox," and "the fire of his desire meant/ That everything must come undone."
Conclusion? "It's not enough, to be in love." The love must be between two compatible people, ones with the emotional maturity, stability, and stamina to maintain that love, through the natural ebbs and flows of time. Expecting first-kiss fireworks all the time is unrealistic and leads to shattered expectations.
Her aloofness didn't help. While he's hot for her, "she's cool." Which "makes him cruel." So they "needle" each other until "the jewels go raining down upon the ground." Either some jewelry box was knocked over, or someone was hit or shaken hard enough to make their jewelry fall off.
Eventually, the bad was acknowledged to outweigh the good, and they divorced: "They woke up, and they broke up."
While they were busy making each other miserable and being "volatile," of course, they wasted the time they could have spent on others: "Life passed, it went so fast."
Although it was doomed, it was a tragedy. Surely the public longed for two such attractive and talented people to find happiness together amidst the glamour of Hollywood. And while they were fire and ice, they were still attracted to each other: "They never could forget their chemistry."
So, more like oil and water, as it "proved go keep them both apart for life."
It's not enough to be in love. You have to find the right person, at the right time. And "indoor fireworks," as Elvis Costello put it, "can still burn your fingers." So while passion is important and should definitely be a part of any healthy relationship, it can't be the only part.
"Love does not consist in gazing at each other," noted The Little Prince author Antoine de Saint-Exupery, "but in looking outward together in the same direction." It also does not consist in gazing at the other person and hoping to find a reflection of yourself, or seeking a source of the fulfillment of all your needs.
It doesn't consist of looking at yourself, either. Even if you are as good-looking as a movie star.
Next Song: Edith Wharton's Figurines
The song, however, makes no reference to any specific couple, as their last names are not given. So this is about that famous couple... but only as a metaphor for all such high-emotional, disastrous relationships (Vega herself had recently been divorced; she mentions "you and me" toward the end.).
Vega lays the blame for the failed relationship at both their feet. Ava could be imperious and act the "queen." Frank's love could be overwhelming, but explosive; his heart was a "tinderbox," and "the fire of his desire meant/ That everything must come undone."
Conclusion? "It's not enough, to be in love." The love must be between two compatible people, ones with the emotional maturity, stability, and stamina to maintain that love, through the natural ebbs and flows of time. Expecting first-kiss fireworks all the time is unrealistic and leads to shattered expectations.
Her aloofness didn't help. While he's hot for her, "she's cool." Which "makes him cruel." So they "needle" each other until "the jewels go raining down upon the ground." Either some jewelry box was knocked over, or someone was hit or shaken hard enough to make their jewelry fall off.
Eventually, the bad was acknowledged to outweigh the good, and they divorced: "They woke up, and they broke up."
While they were busy making each other miserable and being "volatile," of course, they wasted the time they could have spent on others: "Life passed, it went so fast."
Although it was doomed, it was a tragedy. Surely the public longed for two such attractive and talented people to find happiness together amidst the glamour of Hollywood. And while they were fire and ice, they were still attracted to each other: "They never could forget their chemistry."
So, more like oil and water, as it "proved go keep them both apart for life."
It's not enough to be in love. You have to find the right person, at the right time. And "indoor fireworks," as Elvis Costello put it, "can still burn your fingers." So while passion is important and should definitely be a part of any healthy relationship, it can't be the only part.
"Love does not consist in gazing at each other," noted The Little Prince author Antoine de Saint-Exupery, "but in looking outward together in the same direction." It also does not consist in gazing at the other person and hoping to find a reflection of yourself, or seeking a source of the fulfillment of all your needs.
It doesn't consist of looking at yourself, either. Even if you are as good-looking as a movie star.
Next Song: Edith Wharton's Figurines
Monday, March 28, 2016
Rosemary
(This track is found on the import CD Tried and True, a best-of compilation.)
Sometimes a so-called "shipboard" romance takes place on land, but it still happens during a vacation. In this case, in Spain-- specifically, the town of Grenada.
The speaker is reminiscing about a brief infatuation she had there, and addressing her former crush across the abyss of memory and space. "Do you remember how you walked with me?" she begins, "How the women selling rosemary pressed the branches to your chest/ [and] Promised luck?"
Not with themselves, though! They were offering luck for the two who entered looking like a couple. Rosemary was once used as a wedding bouquet, carried by a bride. Obvious, although the two had "met... just the day before," they were quite simpatico.
For her, the attraction was both physical and immediate: "How I wanted to break in/ To that room beneath your skin." And...? "But all that would have to wait."
The couple next meet up in a garden-- first part of a church, then a private mansion, now a city park-- called "The Carmen of the Martyrs." Many statues of saints and martyrs dot the grounds, and some seem to be depicted in the state in which they were, well, martyred; their "heads and hands were taken." Nevertheless, the garden is considered romantic and weddings are even held there.
Back to the couple... "I had come to meet you," she says, "with a question in my footsteps." There is definitely a way to approach someone so that they know you are about to ask them something...
"I was going up the hillside," she continues, "And the journey just begun." We're pretty sure she doesn't mean her hillside hike. She's really hoping something will come of this.
Well..? Did it?
By way of answer, the speaker shifts to metaphor: "My sister says she never dreams at night/ There are days when I know why." This doesn't sound good, but go on...
"Those possibilities, within her sight, with no way of coming true." Oh, how disappointing! Yes, she realizes, "Some things just don't get through into this world, although they try."
Sigh. Maybe if she had bought the rosemary..?
And now? "All I know of you is in my memory." Wow, it sounds like she never even took his picture, not that she needed to. "All I ask of you," she says, is that he "remember" her, in kind.
She needs to at least feel she made some sort of impression. It's bad enough that nothing happened. It would be worse if he didn't regret that, too.
Next Song: Penitent
Sometimes a so-called "shipboard" romance takes place on land, but it still happens during a vacation. In this case, in Spain-- specifically, the town of Grenada.
The speaker is reminiscing about a brief infatuation she had there, and addressing her former crush across the abyss of memory and space. "Do you remember how you walked with me?" she begins, "How the women selling rosemary pressed the branches to your chest/ [and] Promised luck?"
Not with themselves, though! They were offering luck for the two who entered looking like a couple. Rosemary was once used as a wedding bouquet, carried by a bride. Obvious, although the two had "met... just the day before," they were quite simpatico.
For her, the attraction was both physical and immediate: "How I wanted to break in/ To that room beneath your skin." And...? "But all that would have to wait."
The couple next meet up in a garden-- first part of a church, then a private mansion, now a city park-- called "The Carmen of the Martyrs." Many statues of saints and martyrs dot the grounds, and some seem to be depicted in the state in which they were, well, martyred; their "heads and hands were taken." Nevertheless, the garden is considered romantic and weddings are even held there.
Back to the couple... "I had come to meet you," she says, "with a question in my footsteps." There is definitely a way to approach someone so that they know you are about to ask them something...
"I was going up the hillside," she continues, "And the journey just begun." We're pretty sure she doesn't mean her hillside hike. She's really hoping something will come of this.
Well..? Did it?
By way of answer, the speaker shifts to metaphor: "My sister says she never dreams at night/ There are days when I know why." This doesn't sound good, but go on...
"Those possibilities, within her sight, with no way of coming true." Oh, how disappointing! Yes, she realizes, "Some things just don't get through into this world, although they try."
Sigh. Maybe if she had bought the rosemary..?
And now? "All I know of you is in my memory." Wow, it sounds like she never even took his picture, not that she needed to. "All I ask of you," she says, is that he "remember" her, in kind.
She needs to at least feel she made some sort of impression. It's bad enough that nothing happened. It would be worse if he didn't regret that, too.
Next Song: Penitent
Monday, January 25, 2016
No Cheap Thrill
The song is replete with gambling metaphors. The idea is that a relationship is like a poker game (this was decades before Lady Gaga's "Poker Face," but not necessarily the first song to use gambling as a stand-in for relationships.)
"Ante up," the speaker beckons, meaning to say you want to play by putting some of what you have at stake. She then asks you-- whom she just asked to play!-- about some other guy, one with a "deadpan" (or expressionless) face and a "criminal grace."
He is "sitting so pretty," which means he is attractive simply by sitting there, but to "be sitting pretty" as an expression means to be at an advantage or already winning.
Next, she surveys the other potential players for her attention. One is an idiot nicknamed "Lamebrain." He "wants to spit in the sea." This is the name of a poker variant, but "spit in the ocean" also means "not very much, considering what else is around" (compare to "a drop in the bucket").
He's got a "cool hand," she says, which is to say his poker hand is better than average, and that in relationships he is skilled but not emotionally involved. But no, "it isn't for me." Also, there is the movie Cool Hand Luke, about a ne'er-do-well who seems laconic but underneath has a will of iron.
Also dismissible is "Butcher Boy," who sounds both young and violent-- is he a hitman? He thinks he'll be "splitting the pot," or sharing the winnings-- and spending at least some time with her-- but she has been down that road before: "I've seen what he's got, and it isn't a lot." This is a reference to his weak poker hand... but also the small size of his... um, anyway...
Then there is a parenthetical couplet. It is in the lyric sheet, but is not performed in the actual recording: "When deuces are wild, you can follow the queen/ I'd go too, except I know where she's been."
In cards, "deuces" are twos. So, when couples are "wild"-- perhaps a reference to swinging?-- they might "follow the queen." A queen, of course, is a face card in every deck, but in slang a "queen" is either a homosexual or possibly a "drag queen," a transvestite. So a "wild" couple might "follow" a third such partner. But in the speaker's case, she knows this queen is promiscuous to the point of possibly having an STD.
The speaker says she will "limit the straddles." In poker, a straddle is a side bet made on a hand. As these can be distracting, some dealers try to discourage them. As a sexual metaphor, "straddle" has another (I hope obvious) meaning, so she is saying that at this point in a relationship, she does not have much sex.
So! It seems, at least, she has settled on the subject of the song, after saying no to Mr. Deadpan, Lamebrain and Butcher Boy.
While she keeps physical contact to a minimum, the subject is understandably off guard-- "Wait, you're interested now?" Defensively, he "shuffles" and "deals." While these words have well-known meanings in card games-- to randomize and distribute the cards-- he is hemming, hawing, shuffling his feet, shifting in his chair... and negotiating to get closer to her.
Then she asks "When will the dealer reveal how he feels?" So... there is yet another character? Or is the subject also the dealer, since in the last line, she said he "deals"? I think that his lame attempt at trying to maintain his suavity is actually a pretty big tell, as far as tipping his emotional hand.
Alas, she does not seem to find his Hugh Grant-like schoolboy stammerings to be charming. "Is the lucky beginner just a five-card stud?" she wonders, ruefully? Five-card stud is yet another poker variant (there seems to be an infinite number of these) but her biggest peeve so far is that the other men put on a show, then can't pay off. And now it looks to her like this is yet another potential disappointment, date-wise: "Is this winning streak going to be nipped in the bud?"
That last expression is botanical, not poker-related (there are not that many rhymes for "stud") but it means the flower will not only never blossom, it will be cut from the stem before it even has the chance to find out if it would.
Maybe she is hoping the subject, if he is berated enough, will step up his game and rise to the challenge. Or maybe she is letting him down quick so he doesn't get his hopes up.
The chorus is also full of poker-related verbs. "I'll see you" or "call you" mean to bet as much as the last bettor, while "raise" is to bet more. But in relationships, to "see" means to date, to "call" simply means to telephone, and to "raise"... well, that's not generally a verb used in that context. It used to mean, in the context of telephoning, actually having reached and spoken to someone as opposed to simply having dialed the number ("I've phoned several times, but I haven't raised her yet.").
In the last chorus, it changes to "I'll play you," which means both "I'll play (against) you in poker" and "I'll play you for a fool."
Yes, she will do these things, "but it's no cheap thrill." She is a high-maintenance person, as they say, both in terms of having expensive tastes and being emotionally needy. "It'll cost you, cost you, cost you," she repeats, explaining that these needs of hers are not just initial but ongoing.
The speaker is savvy, worldly, sharp... hard to impress, and easy to bore. What she's trying to say is that she is way out of your league; she's already looking at other men as she's talking to you, and she's already been-there-done-that with half of the guys in the room. You're never going to satiate her, and you'll go broke trying.
Dude, you're not going to win this one. Get the heck away from her, before you're just another loser she's given a cruel nickname to.
Next Song: World Before Columbus
"Ante up," the speaker beckons, meaning to say you want to play by putting some of what you have at stake. She then asks you-- whom she just asked to play!-- about some other guy, one with a "deadpan" (or expressionless) face and a "criminal grace."
He is "sitting so pretty," which means he is attractive simply by sitting there, but to "be sitting pretty" as an expression means to be at an advantage or already winning.
Next, she surveys the other potential players for her attention. One is an idiot nicknamed "Lamebrain." He "wants to spit in the sea." This is the name of a poker variant, but "spit in the ocean" also means "not very much, considering what else is around" (compare to "a drop in the bucket").
He's got a "cool hand," she says, which is to say his poker hand is better than average, and that in relationships he is skilled but not emotionally involved. But no, "it isn't for me." Also, there is the movie Cool Hand Luke, about a ne'er-do-well who seems laconic but underneath has a will of iron.
Also dismissible is "Butcher Boy," who sounds both young and violent-- is he a hitman? He thinks he'll be "splitting the pot," or sharing the winnings-- and spending at least some time with her-- but she has been down that road before: "I've seen what he's got, and it isn't a lot." This is a reference to his weak poker hand... but also the small size of his... um, anyway...
Then there is a parenthetical couplet. It is in the lyric sheet, but is not performed in the actual recording: "When deuces are wild, you can follow the queen/ I'd go too, except I know where she's been."
In cards, "deuces" are twos. So, when couples are "wild"-- perhaps a reference to swinging?-- they might "follow the queen." A queen, of course, is a face card in every deck, but in slang a "queen" is either a homosexual or possibly a "drag queen," a transvestite. So a "wild" couple might "follow" a third such partner. But in the speaker's case, she knows this queen is promiscuous to the point of possibly having an STD.
The speaker says she will "limit the straddles." In poker, a straddle is a side bet made on a hand. As these can be distracting, some dealers try to discourage them. As a sexual metaphor, "straddle" has another (I hope obvious) meaning, so she is saying that at this point in a relationship, she does not have much sex.
So! It seems, at least, she has settled on the subject of the song, after saying no to Mr. Deadpan, Lamebrain and Butcher Boy.
While she keeps physical contact to a minimum, the subject is understandably off guard-- "Wait, you're interested now?" Defensively, he "shuffles" and "deals." While these words have well-known meanings in card games-- to randomize and distribute the cards-- he is hemming, hawing, shuffling his feet, shifting in his chair... and negotiating to get closer to her.
Then she asks "When will the dealer reveal how he feels?" So... there is yet another character? Or is the subject also the dealer, since in the last line, she said he "deals"? I think that his lame attempt at trying to maintain his suavity is actually a pretty big tell, as far as tipping his emotional hand.
Alas, she does not seem to find his Hugh Grant-like schoolboy stammerings to be charming. "Is the lucky beginner just a five-card stud?" she wonders, ruefully? Five-card stud is yet another poker variant (there seems to be an infinite number of these) but her biggest peeve so far is that the other men put on a show, then can't pay off. And now it looks to her like this is yet another potential disappointment, date-wise: "Is this winning streak going to be nipped in the bud?"
That last expression is botanical, not poker-related (there are not that many rhymes for "stud") but it means the flower will not only never blossom, it will be cut from the stem before it even has the chance to find out if it would.
Maybe she is hoping the subject, if he is berated enough, will step up his game and rise to the challenge. Or maybe she is letting him down quick so he doesn't get his hopes up.
The chorus is also full of poker-related verbs. "I'll see you" or "call you" mean to bet as much as the last bettor, while "raise" is to bet more. But in relationships, to "see" means to date, to "call" simply means to telephone, and to "raise"... well, that's not generally a verb used in that context. It used to mean, in the context of telephoning, actually having reached and spoken to someone as opposed to simply having dialed the number ("I've phoned several times, but I haven't raised her yet.").
In the last chorus, it changes to "I'll play you," which means both "I'll play (against) you in poker" and "I'll play you for a fool."
Yes, she will do these things, "but it's no cheap thrill." She is a high-maintenance person, as they say, both in terms of having expensive tastes and being emotionally needy. "It'll cost you, cost you, cost you," she repeats, explaining that these needs of hers are not just initial but ongoing.
The speaker is savvy, worldly, sharp... hard to impress, and easy to bore. What she's trying to say is that she is way out of your league; she's already looking at other men as she's talking to you, and she's already been-there-done-that with half of the guys in the room. You're never going to satiate her, and you'll go broke trying.
Dude, you're not going to win this one. Get the heck away from her, before you're just another loser she's given a cruel nickname to.
Next Song: World Before Columbus
Monday, December 28, 2015
Caramel
This song has a sultry vibe to it. Musically, it is a Brazilian jazz-bossa nova kinda thing.
In it, the speaker tries to convince herself not to dwell on a potential, but impossible, romance. She only halfway succeeds.
It may be that the never-to-be love is of Latin, or other "of color" origin... or perhaps the romance simply took place in a tropical, exotic locale. In any case, "dream(ing) of caramel" and "think(ing) of cinnamon" reminds her of this guy. And such thoughts, she scolds herself, simply "won't do."
No, she repeats, it won't do "to stir a deep desire/ To fan a hidden fire/ That can never burn true." After all, what's the point in frustrating oneself? And, it's simply... improper. Tut tut.
What further indicates that the impossible lover is of a... darker complected sort than herself is the line "I know your skin." Again, this is not to say anything definitive-- most of us have skin, after all. But she says she "knows" it without having said anything else about being intimate. The only other thing she says she knows about him is his "name." So she has been fascinated with, and has studied, his skin more than his other features.
Oh, it would be so easy to just let nature take its course! "I know the way these things begin," she said. If she didn't resist, or he didn't, it would just... happen.
But the consequences are simply too dire, the inevitability of guilt too great: "I don't know how I could live with myself... if you don't go." She doesn't think she could "forgive... (her)self" if he stayed and they gave way to their mutual attraction.
We also don't know why the love is impossible, or morally unforgivable. Is he married? Is she? Most likely at least one of them is. Even if it would be a "shipboard romance" that could never last, two unattached people would still most likely, as Kate Bush put it, "exchange the experience."
In any case, she bids "goodbye." Not to him, though, but to "sweet appetite." What she really misses is less him than the wanting of him, and even this is denied her. It would be one thing if she wanted him but could not have him-- she isn't allowed to even want him.
It's just as well, she concludes, returning to her food metaphor, since "No single bite/ Could satisfy." Smokey Robinson, also using a sweet food in a similar way, had long before concluded that "a taste of honey is worse than none at all." In other words, it's better in their opinion, to not know how great it would have been, and just leave it to imagination, than to know how great this romance is... and can never be again.
This is the opposite idea from Tennyson's assertion that "It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." But then, he was talking about a love that was permitted to begin with, not one that was never supposed to happen.
This song is one of Vega's most sensual and languid. Too bad the romance was never allowed to "burn true." Imagine what steamy songs we would have had, then.
IMPACT:
This song was included in the soundtrack to the romantic comedy The Truth About Cats and Dogs.
Next Song: Stockings
In it, the speaker tries to convince herself not to dwell on a potential, but impossible, romance. She only halfway succeeds.
It may be that the never-to-be love is of Latin, or other "of color" origin... or perhaps the romance simply took place in a tropical, exotic locale. In any case, "dream(ing) of caramel" and "think(ing) of cinnamon" reminds her of this guy. And such thoughts, she scolds herself, simply "won't do."
No, she repeats, it won't do "to stir a deep desire/ To fan a hidden fire/ That can never burn true." After all, what's the point in frustrating oneself? And, it's simply... improper. Tut tut.
What further indicates that the impossible lover is of a... darker complected sort than herself is the line "I know your skin." Again, this is not to say anything definitive-- most of us have skin, after all. But she says she "knows" it without having said anything else about being intimate. The only other thing she says she knows about him is his "name." So she has been fascinated with, and has studied, his skin more than his other features.
Oh, it would be so easy to just let nature take its course! "I know the way these things begin," she said. If she didn't resist, or he didn't, it would just... happen.
But the consequences are simply too dire, the inevitability of guilt too great: "I don't know how I could live with myself... if you don't go." She doesn't think she could "forgive... (her)self" if he stayed and they gave way to their mutual attraction.
We also don't know why the love is impossible, or morally unforgivable. Is he married? Is she? Most likely at least one of them is. Even if it would be a "shipboard romance" that could never last, two unattached people would still most likely, as Kate Bush put it, "exchange the experience."
In any case, she bids "goodbye." Not to him, though, but to "sweet appetite." What she really misses is less him than the wanting of him, and even this is denied her. It would be one thing if she wanted him but could not have him-- she isn't allowed to even want him.
It's just as well, she concludes, returning to her food metaphor, since "No single bite/ Could satisfy." Smokey Robinson, also using a sweet food in a similar way, had long before concluded that "a taste of honey is worse than none at all." In other words, it's better in their opinion, to not know how great it would have been, and just leave it to imagination, than to know how great this romance is... and can never be again.
This is the opposite idea from Tennyson's assertion that "It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." But then, he was talking about a love that was permitted to begin with, not one that was never supposed to happen.
This song is one of Vega's most sensual and languid. Too bad the romance was never allowed to "burn true." Imagine what steamy songs we would have had, then.
IMPACT:
This song was included in the soundtrack to the romantic comedy The Truth About Cats and Dogs.
Next Song: Stockings
Monday, November 16, 2015
When Heroes Go Down
This song doesn't need much interpretation. It's about what happens to those we put on pedestals. The higher we set them above us, the harder and faster they seem to fall. And since all heroes are ultimately human (the "super" kind of heroes are all fictional), they all ultimately fail and fall.
Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Jr., even Gandhi... no matter how lauded and adulated, their biographers always seem to find the embarrassing skeletons behind the iconic facades. And when these skeletons (in the above examples, involving their relationships with women) come to light, well, as Vega says: "When heroes go down/ They go down fast."
The fall so quickly, there is no "time to/ Equivocate the past." That twenty five-cent word means "to cloud or obscure." A classic equivocation is: "Mistakes were made."
Like plummeting airplanes, falling heroes "land in flame." They are always, to others, at fault for their own downfall-- but to themselves, they are the victims of circumstance or conspiracy. Snap judgments are made, by the media and public, and "don't expect any slow and careful/ Settling of blame." They fell? Their fault.
So hold something back, Vegas advises, when you admire someone: "look out for the feet of clay." An interesting expression, from the Biblical Book of Daniel, this refers to a vision this prophet had of a particular king's society. He dreamed of a statue with a gold head, silver chest, bronze stomach, iron legs (note the decreasing worth of the metals on down)... and clay feet. This heavy statue (the kingdom) was built on a soft, unstable foundation (a rebellious peasant class) that would easily falter and bring his kingdom down.
Therefore, someone having "feet of clay" is fallible and will ultimately disappoint you, like the heroes Vega speaks of.
And what happens after they fall? There will be "no chance for last respects." No time to bury the reputationally dead with a proper funeral and last rites... before the public is on to the next hero on the next pedestal. "You feel the disappointment," but no one else is there to mourn your fallen hero.
Lastly, the "fall" coming with their being "revealed," then "you can't expect any kind of mercy/ On the battlefield." If someone's protective armor is compromised, their enemies will have at them relentlessly and remorselessly.
Vega herself is a celebrity. She has some experience being recognized while walking down the street and eating in cafes. And while she never has been the subject of tabloid scandal-mongering, she has had her most popular period, and now is-- and there is no shame in this-- less so. Perhaps another such period is in her future-- a song of hers could get recycled as a TV theme, or be sampled by Beyonce or something. There is no way to tell.
And Vega herself has, as have we all, admired others... and come to see their flaws. Perhaps seeing how celebrities fall-- or are torn down-- she is happier now that she has her family, her work, and her loyal following (ahem)... and that's all.
But maybe that's enough, or even better. After all, there isn't as much room to relax on a pedestal as there is on a porch swing.
Next Song: As Girls Go
Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Jr., even Gandhi... no matter how lauded and adulated, their biographers always seem to find the embarrassing skeletons behind the iconic facades. And when these skeletons (in the above examples, involving their relationships with women) come to light, well, as Vega says: "When heroes go down/ They go down fast."
The fall so quickly, there is no "time to/ Equivocate the past." That twenty five-cent word means "to cloud or obscure." A classic equivocation is: "Mistakes were made."
Like plummeting airplanes, falling heroes "land in flame." They are always, to others, at fault for their own downfall-- but to themselves, they are the victims of circumstance or conspiracy. Snap judgments are made, by the media and public, and "don't expect any slow and careful/ Settling of blame." They fell? Their fault.
So hold something back, Vegas advises, when you admire someone: "look out for the feet of clay." An interesting expression, from the Biblical Book of Daniel, this refers to a vision this prophet had of a particular king's society. He dreamed of a statue with a gold head, silver chest, bronze stomach, iron legs (note the decreasing worth of the metals on down)... and clay feet. This heavy statue (the kingdom) was built on a soft, unstable foundation (a rebellious peasant class) that would easily falter and bring his kingdom down.
Therefore, someone having "feet of clay" is fallible and will ultimately disappoint you, like the heroes Vega speaks of.
And what happens after they fall? There will be "no chance for last respects." No time to bury the reputationally dead with a proper funeral and last rites... before the public is on to the next hero on the next pedestal. "You feel the disappointment," but no one else is there to mourn your fallen hero.
Lastly, the "fall" coming with their being "revealed," then "you can't expect any kind of mercy/ On the battlefield." If someone's protective armor is compromised, their enemies will have at them relentlessly and remorselessly.
Vega herself is a celebrity. She has some experience being recognized while walking down the street and eating in cafes. And while she never has been the subject of tabloid scandal-mongering, she has had her most popular period, and now is-- and there is no shame in this-- less so. Perhaps another such period is in her future-- a song of hers could get recycled as a TV theme, or be sampled by Beyonce or something. There is no way to tell.
And Vega herself has, as have we all, admired others... and come to see their flaws. Perhaps seeing how celebrities fall-- or are torn down-- she is happier now that she has her family, her work, and her loyal following (ahem)... and that's all.
But maybe that's enough, or even better. After all, there isn't as much room to relax on a pedestal as there is on a porch swing.
Next Song: As Girls Go
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