DM's Beatles forums
Beatles forums => Songs => Topic started by: Frightwolf on March 07, 2004, 05:20:38 PM
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I've been trying to decipher the lyrics, but I can't get anything. "See the love there that's sleeping" and "They bought and sold you too"... I'm TRYING to get somewhere with those lyrics, but I can't piece them together and form the thesis of the song.
Could someone enlighten me?
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Apparently, George was at home reading the "I Ching" (the Chinese book of changes) and decided to apply it to his songwriting. So he randomly picked a book off the shelf and the first lines he saw were 'gently weeps' and wrote the rest of the song around it!
It's basically George's observations on what saddened him in the world at that time.
My take on those lyrics is:
Love there that's sleeping - where love goes unexpressed
They bought and sold you - people who are used, maybe a comment on the Beatles themselves being used.
What does everyone else think?
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yeah i agree..it depressed george
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The lyric is typical of George. A dry accusatory grumble with moments of inspiration. Just like Piggies.
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Don't forget that there's some HOPE in this song.
"With every mistake we must surely be learning"
So it's not completely negative.
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[quote by=pc31 link=Blah.pl?b=songs,m=1078680038,s=2 date=1078888268]yeah i agree..it depressed george[/quote]
But it's one of my favorite Songs by George.
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First of all i want to say that this song is soooooooo great!
Here's my opinion on it! I will try to give my comments in the order of the actual lyrics
- I look at you all see the love there that's sleeping
[looking at the world, George notices how love, the most important thing in people's life, has been forgoten. I think that he is refering to the begining of the decadence of the world. The forgoten love, which is now sleeping and laying deep within could also refer to the situation of the beatles themselves]
-while my guitar gently weeps
[the instrument with which he brings love and joy to the world is weeping because of what i've said. This suggests a very desperate situation! with each new time they are said, the situation gets even more desperate! ]
-I look at the floor and I see it needs sweeping
[the floor is the symbol for the world. It needs sweeping, meaning it is dirty and it has to be cleaned... love must return!]
-I don't know why nobody told you how to unfold your love
I don't know how someone controlled you
They bought and sold you.
[George is talking about us, about me, about you, about everybody. Since love has been forsaken, we the children, the young people, we don''t know what love is because nobody told us about it. And he is amazed how come this is possible. Also he's telling us that we are being controlled, bought and sold like merchendise. Money have taken over our lives and people are doing anything for money]
-I look at the world and I notice it's turning
[while he is weeping because of these things and because he is the only one that sees them. The world is turning signifies that the world keeps on living a normal life without caring about these matters. Nobody is stopping from his way to try to change these problems. Also this verse is suggesting that George too is a Fool on a Hill... i need to explain this in another thread about this song]
-With every mistake we must surely be learning
Still my guitar gently weeps
[He is hoping that we can learn... that we can change, but his guitar is still weeping. Maybe after all we can't learn... he is just expressing a hope!]
-I don't know how you were diverted
You were perverted too
I don't know how you were inverted
No one alerted you.
[The same thing as before. George is talking about us! More and more of us are getting sucked into the abyss of hatred and superficiality and materialism and all he can do is weep...]
-I look at you all see the love there that's sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
Look at you all...
Still my guitar gently weeps.
[... and while he is weeping, he sees that the love is still there sleeping within us, forgoten and forsaken, maybe never to be awakened... so he just looks at us and his guitar is weeping]
That's about it. I hope it makes some sense for you guys...
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Wow! I have always loved that song, thanks for you opinions, as I've often pondered the inspiration/meaning of the lyrical content.
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I think I can enlighten you all as to what the song talks about. George was on drugs. He may also have been making a massive statement about people that listen to the beatles music
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I dont know if someone could chnge what they thought into something as complex as that of fool on the hill.
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see I always trip over myself when I try to find the writers purpose, I just love the song because of how it makes me feel (though the white aulbum version makes me very angry), the anthology version which is the REAL version is sweet and sad and beautiful, who knows what George meant by it, all I know is it is amazing, maybe second favorite of all beatles songs, and I think that that is the most important thing about the song, how it makes ya feel, I'm sure George put a lot of feeling into it, and thats probably why it evokes feeling, but I don't think it matters what he meant by it as much as what it means to the listener matters, that kinda sounds weird as I read it back to myself, but I did the best I could.
Run-on sentence of the year!! :P
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[quote by=Frightwolf link=Blah.pl?b=songs,m=1078680038,s=0 date=1078680038]Could someone enlighten me?[/quote]
man, enlightenment sounds so over-rated, lol 8)
personally I wouldn't know :P
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Listen to the version on "Love." I think it is the most beautiful Beatle song ever!
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Listen to the version on "Love." I think it is the most beautiful Beatle song ever!
I think moog might agree with you Loco ;D
Myself I prefer the white album version, great song, love what Clapton did
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I think moog might agree with you Loco ;D
Myself I prefer the white album version, great song, love what Clapton did
I do ;D
I think it's a gorgeous version. And gave us the last ever Beatle recording session when George Martin did the strings.
I like the white album version too though. Almost like different songs.
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I should clarify. Maybe not most beautiful Beatle song ever for me. But it's up there.
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I should clarify. Maybe not most beautiful Beatle song ever for me. But it's up there.
Here There & Everywhere springs to mind
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Both versions are nice but I like the version with Eric Clapton's guitar solo just a bit better. But that's not the topic of this thread.
I tend to agree with the Fool on the Hill's interpretation of this song. When I first heard it as a teenager in 1968, I felt he was berating a "collective us" for a lack of enlightenment. I was young and impressionable in those days, I reckon.
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Both versions are nice but I like the version with Eric Clapton's guitar solo just a bit better. But that's not the topic of this thread.
I tend to agree with the Fool on the Hill's interpretation of this song. When I first heard it as a teenager in 1968, I felt he was berating a "collective us" for a lack of enlightenment. I was young and impressionable in those days, I reckon.
It would be entirely in keeping with George's life work. ha2ha
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Moog: I agree. The two versions really do seem like separate songs.
Nimrod: When I wrote "the most beautiful Beatle song ever," I was also thinking of "Here, There, and Everywhere" just as you did. I think "For No One" is very nice, too.
Hello: I can't find that version by the Fool(s?) on the Hill. I'd like to hear it. If I google them, all I get is the song but not them.
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Hello: I can't find that version by the Fool(s?) on the Hill. I'd like to hear it. If I google them, all I get is the song but not them.
I suppose Hello Goodbye was talking about this Fool on the Hill and this interpretation:
First of all i want to say that this song is soooooooo great!
Here's my opinion on it! I will try to give my comments in the order of the actual lyrics
- I look at you all see the love there that's sleeping
[looking at the world, George notices how love, the most important thing in people's life, has been forgoten. I think that he is refering to the begining of the decadence of the world. The forgoten love, which is now sleeping and laying deep within could also refer to the situation of the beatles themselves]
-while my guitar gently weeps
[the instrument with which he brings love and joy to the world is weeping because of what i've said. This suggests a very desperate situation! with each new time they are said, the situation gets even more desperate! ]
-I look at the floor and I see it needs sweeping
[the floor is the symbol for the world. It needs sweeping, meaning it is dirty and it has to be cleaned... love must return!]
-I don't know why nobody told you how to unfold your love
I don't know how someone controlled you
They bought and sold you.
[George is talking about us, about me, about you, about everybody. Since love has been forsaken, we the children, the young people, we don''t know what love is because nobody told us about it. And he is amazed how come this is possible. Also he's telling us that we are being controlled, bought and sold like merchendise. Money have taken over our lives and people are doing anything for money]
-I look at the world and I notice it's turning
[while he is weeping because of these things and because he is the only one that sees them. The world is turning signifies that the world keeps on living a normal life without caring about these matters. Nobody is stopping from his way to try to change these problems. Also this verse is suggesting that George too is a Fool on a Hill... i need to explain this in another thread about this song]
-With every mistake we must surely be learning
Still my guitar gently weeps
[He is hoping that we can learn... that we can change, but his guitar is still weeping. Maybe after all we can't learn... he is just expressing a hope!]
-I don't know how you were diverted
You were perverted too
I don't know how you were inverted
No one alerted you.
[The same thing as before. George is talking about us! More and more of us are getting sucked into the abyss of hatred and superficiality and materialism and all he can do is weep...]
-I look at you all see the love there that's sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
Look at you all...
Still my guitar gently weeps.
[... and while he is weeping, he sees that the love is still there sleeping within us, forgoten and forsaken, maybe never to be awakened... so he just looks at us and his guitar is weeping]
That's about it. I hope it makes some sense for you guys...
:)
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It should be remembered that the lyrics of this song are linked to randomness, as George explained:
"I had a copy of the I Ching-- the Book of Changes, which seemed to me to be based on the Eastern concept that everything is relative to everything else, as opposed to the Western view that things are merely coincidental. The idea was in my head when I visited my parents' home in the North of England. I decided to write a song based on the first thing I saw upon opening any book-- as it would be relative to that moment, at that time. I picked up a book at random, opened it-- saw 'gently weeps' --than laid the book down again and started the song. Some of the words to the song were changed before I finally recorded it."
Nevertheless, I think there's an indirect message that can be clearly interpreted, as Fool on the Hill has done in this thread.
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Hombre: thank you so much!! I feel so stupid. I also read that before I posted my comment. I guess I just didn't connect the two. I thought there was an actual band called "Fool on the Hill" who did a version of it.
I need to take a reading comprehension refresher course! I'm going to re-read Fool's analysis now. Thanks again for clarifying this to me.
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Hombre: thank you so much!! I feel so stupid. I also read that before I posted my comment. I guess I just didn't connect the two. I thought there was an actual band called "Fool on the Hill" who did a version of it.
I need to take a reading comprehension refresher course! I'm going to re-read Fool's analysis now. Thanks again for clarifying this to me.
That happens to everyone I guess! Sometimes I read too fast and miss the point at the moment, and then I realize the true meaning later.
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Hello: I can't find that version by the Fool(s?) on the Hill. I'd like to hear it. If I google them, all I get is the song but not them.
I think this is what he means, Loco: http://www.dmbeatles.com/forums/index.php?topic=100.msg1585#msg1585 (http://www.dmbeatles.com/forums/index.php?topic=100.msg1585#msg1585)
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Thanks, In my life. Hombre pointed this out to me as well.
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Thanks, In my life. Hombre pointed this out to me as well.
Oh my gosh! I need to slow down and pay attention. Sorry about that Loco!