| Tuesday, November 28, 2006 |
| What does "Oh! Gravity." mean? |
[Someone on the Switchfoot boards asked what the lyrics of their new single "Oh! Gravity." meant, more specifically what the terms "color bar", "thin man", "red bite" etc. meant. Posted below is my response:]
Its poetry, you can't expect to nail everything down, unless you ask the poet himself why exactly he wrote things the way he wrote them (sometimes even the poet doesn't know, as in the case of the song "Fatal Wound", which, according to Jon, was a free-association type of thing.) Often, poetry works as a set of images (there are plenty in this song) that make you feel a certain way about something. Sorta like a movie, you "see" what you hear, and it psychologically puts you in a particular mood that the artist wants you to be in when he delivers his punch line (in this case, "why can't we seem to keep it together?")
That said, "Oh! Gravity.", according to switchfoot.com, is a "generational appeal for peace, love and understanding". "Color bar" is the idea of racial segregation. According to Princeton's "lexical database for the English Language", color bar is a "barrier preventing blacks from participating in various activities with whites". So, going by that, Jon is saying that there's a fracture in our society's way of segregating people based on their race. (Here's an article based on the term, it should give you a better idea.)
Note that there's also a fracture "in the backseat of a parked car". This probably ties in with one of the album's themes - our misguided notions of love, of how we're "amateur lovers" and "amateur friends". The backseat of cars is a place that "amateur" lovers frequent - and Jon seems to see a fracture in this image, too.
"In the same glow of the liquor store
By the freeway, where the headlight
Keep her company ‘til the next night"
These lines, to me, reflect the alienation and loneliness in modern society - amidst all the fighting. She's lonely, she has only the headlight to keep her company till the next night. (Interesting to note, there's a liquor store in the background - think of how many people drink their sorrows away... drinking all by themselves. no fun.) Jon's very wisely careful here, he's not making a direct connection between loneliness and liquor, or being anti-drinking for that matter (which I'm sure he's not), but he just cleverly inserts the image of a liquor store in the background. Its a bleak picture he's painting, of this lonely and probably drunk girl by the freeway (she's seems homeless too, 'cause she's gonna be by these headlights "'til the next night"). Jon uses a wonderful poetic tool here - he doesn't pluralize "headlight" (if you're sitting by the freeway you're gonna have many headlights keeping you company, not just one) nor does he pluralize any word in any line of the song except for "Sons of my enemies". This has a noticeable effect - it creates a feel of images in isolation, subtly creating a sense of alienation. I mean, the gramatically correct way to say it would be "the headlights keep her company" or at least "the headlight keeps her company", but Jon doesn't suffix either word with an 's' at the end, making it sound more lonely. Smart.
"In the back room of the Pentagon
There’s a thin man with a line drawn
With a red jaw and a red bite
Watch the headline on the next night"
These lines seem to raise an image of a terrorist - someone with a "red jaw" and a "red bite". Red is a colour that reflects a vengeful anger and rage, often because of past wounds. This is a "thin man" (maybe implying he's from a poverty-ridden country) who's plotting ("line drawn") trouble against America for his forefathers' or his community's sake. He has a score to settle. Maybe, as has been pointed out in Osama's case, its America's fault for "invent[ing its] own enemies" (a phrase from the song "Dirty Second Hands"). Either way, this thin man is red with rage, and he's probably gonna do something that'll be splashed across the next day's newspaper headlines.
So Jon asks, with this thin man in mind, "sons of my enemies, why can't we seem to keep it together? ...we're connected."
(Update @ March 15, 2007:) stevemoor left a comment on this post that I thought was a worthy addition here. He had a different but equally interesting take on the last part of my post:I think it's much more likely to be talking about someone in the Pentagon who has demonized their enemies in order to justify fighting with them. He "draws the line" so to speak, an us and them kind of thing if you follow me. I think that a fair argument might be mounted that this has happened in the Pentagon to some degree or another in the last few years. Labels: song meanings |
posted by phil @ 11:55 AM  
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| 14 Comments: |
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Phil! That was amazing. Thank you so much for posting that. I'm so impressed at your ability to interpret metaphorical things within a song. It really helps to understand the lyrics and where Jon is coming from. Are you sure you don't have some kind of 'connection' with the songwriter? lol. Jk. Take care!
Amanda
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Thanks Amanda! I've wondered, too, about some kind of telepathic 'connection' haha.. :P not in a bigoted way, but I've always felt Jon and my writing style / thought processes were eerily similar..
thanks again. ttyl! :)
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Very enlightening...this really made sense of the lyrics for me. Thanks...Switchfeed is my favourite Switchfoot fan site.
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That's some good thinking you've been doing Phil! That helped me a lot...I've been doing some thinking of my own about the song, though, and I thought I should post it 'cause I think it's pretty cool. But maybe not necessarily what Jon intended when he wrote it. Just an abstraction from another songwriter's point of view. The "freeway" and the "headlight", I thought could be more than just the interstate with cars passing by--it's people's free will and their thoughts and motivations--and I think that might contribute a little more to the whole gravity of life and tendency to fall thing.
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hey tomatoheadsinger! thankyou. that IS a pretty cool thought. keep em coming.
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Osama? Ummm..... the guy is in the Pentagon. I don't think he's talking about other nations. Switchfoot doesn't often seem to preach against people from outside. Their attitude seems to more often be "WE are the fuse and the ammunition." Introspective if you will. I think it's much more likely to be talking about someone in the Pentagon who has demonized their enemies in order to justify fighting with them. He "draws the line" so to speak, an us and them kind of thing if you follow me. I think that a fair argument might be mounted that this has happened in the Pentagon to some degree or another in the last few years.
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steevmoor, the terrorist in my interpretation isn't Osama but a fictitious one - I thought Jon might be painting a fictional picture - I referred to Osama just by way of making another point. And yeah, I remember thinking when I wrote that: if its a terrorist he's talking about, how could he be inside the Pentagon? But that thought got brushed aside when I realized a security breach isn't impossible. But now that I think about it, based on your response and others', it seems equally (or probably more) likely that it's an insider.
About Switchfoot being more about pointing the finger at US rather than THEM, I understand and completely agree with you on that, and that's why I suggested that "maybe, as has been pointed out in Osama's case, its America's fault for invent[ing its] own enemies" - taking some of the blame off Osama. At least that part of what I said is congruent with your suggestion that its "talking about someone in the Pentagon who has demonized their enemies in order to justify fighting with them." :)
Thanks for reading.
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Heres what Jon said at Jesus Freak hideout
"''Oh! Gravity' is a conversation with a well-known law of physics. The question is this: If in the physical world things naturally move closer together, why are we falling apart? War and rumors of war, divorce, hatred, violence, and everything else on the evening news seems to contradict gravity. This song is a fun happy-clappy tune about a grave matter: 'Sons of my enemies, why can't we seem to keep it together?"
they have explantions for many of the songs in the lyric section http://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/lyrics/new/artist.asp?artist_id=60
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hey joanna, thanks for that!
i remember posting those song explanations from jon in a post (i think it's filed under the "song meanings" category), but that's quote from jon is a useful addition on this page. jon's explanations weren't released yet when i wrote this post.
phil
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What do you think he means by "sons of my enemies?" Who or what is refering to in that?
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I definitely agree with your interpretations, Phil. You're really good at explaining what you're thinking. I've always just thought of poetry as a vague way to get a distinct point across. It's like using a series of images to create the feeling you want to instill in the reader rather than simply stating the main idea. The line about the thin man is debatable. I think it's just touching on politics as a whole--foreign and local issues--and trying to express how vicious everyone has gotten. Terrorists, local politicians...no one knows where to draw the line anymore. Okay, I'm delerious and I keep falling asleep so I'll see if this makes sense in the morning.
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@Speedy West
I think its meaning just because your father was/is my enemy doesn't mean that you have to be, so why can't we pull/keep it together
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Another take on the whole "Pentagon" thing; from a bit of an outsider's perspective it makes me think of a diplomat or somebody who's finally "drawn the line" - realised that some of the stuff the military is doing is wrong - and so he's basically being 'starved' out of office (thin man) and being painted as the enemy by the corrupt/unjust people he's trying to stop, in a rather McCarthyist way (using paranoia as a tool to outs him despite there being little/no proof against him, as happened a lot during the whole "reds under the bed" era).
This is just an idea, but I feel it fits with the theme of the song since nobody really wants peace and the few people who aren't just 'in it for the money' are discriminated against and depowered, essentially sending the world backwards and pushing for the dissolution of any hope of peace or a "fair go" for people. They don't want the line to be drawn, because then people will realise what's going on is wrong and speak out against it, as with what happened with the invasion of Iraq.
Regardless, this is a great song. Love it.
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Phil! That was amazing. Thank you so much for posting that. I'm so impressed at your ability to interpret metaphorical things within a song. It really helps to understand the lyrics and where Jon is coming from. Are you sure you don't have some kind of 'connection' with the songwriter? lol. Jk. Take care!
Amanda