I love this song. RHCP at their lyrical best. It is mad, and I just keep it on loop for ages. For those of you that have had the pleasure of partying it up in the party car, then you may have heard me listening to this on loop. Great song. I was discussing yesterday with Sharon what we think the meaning of the song was about. In the end, we had to agree to disagree, but I just thought I’d say what I reckon it’s about, and I’m sure plenty of you guys have heard it (or at least should do now) and can tell me what you guys think.
I’ve got a bad disease
But from my brain is where I bleed.
Insanity it seems
Has got me by my soul to squeeze.
Well all the love from thee
With all the dying trees I scream.
The angels in my dreams (yeah)
Have turned to demons of greed, that’s mean.
I think that the disease that he’s talking about is love, and throughout the song he alternates between the crippling effect it has on the brain and the freedom it gives us. The fact he mentions that it is a disease of the brain and that he feels insanity creeping in, to me screams that he is speaking of love. I think the first verse straight up speaks of love, especially when it is unreturned and the way that he feels trapped and crazy.
In the second verse he keeps up the idea of his new insanity and how it feels like everything around him is just breaking down into hell.
Where I go I just don’t know
I got to got to gotta take it slow.
When I find my peace of mind
I’m gonna give you some of my good time.
In the chorus here, he keeps up the idea he has throughout the song about how it feels unstable and he seems so rushed and almost surprised and unready by the experience. I think the last two lines also show that he reckons that the only way for him to find his ‘peace of mind’ is by getting the girl he’s in love with, and I think he’s sneakily saying that without love there is no fulfilment in life.
Today love smiled on me.
It took away my pain said please
All that you had to free
You gotta let it be oh yeah.
Oh, so polite indeed
Well I got everything I need.
Oh make my days a breeze
And take away my self destruction.
It’s bitter baby,
And it’s very sweet.
I’m on a rollercoaster,
but I’m on my feet.
Take me to the river,
Let me on your shore.
I’ll be coming back baby,
I’ll be coming back for more.
I could not forget
But I will not endeavor
Simple pleasures aren’t as special
But I won’t regret it never.
This is definitely my favourite part of the song. Here really shows the positive side of love and how, really, no matter how bad the bad things are, when you truly feel love, you realise how walking through the rain is always made better by the rainbow. He strives to highlight the carless feeling it gives us, and really how it has that effect that in the end everything is going to be alright.
Doo doo doo doo dingle zing a dong bone
Ba-di ba-da ba-zumba crunga cong gone bad
Yep.
Where I go I just don’t know
I might end up somewhere in Mexico.
When I find my peace of mind
I’m gonna keep you for the end of time.
Throughout the song, he highlights the ups and downs of love, and with the beautiful line he ends on, captures the true feeling of love and how even though it is an instant feeling of emotion and rush of happiness, it is a feeling about forever and that it doesn’t end and we can’t escape it’s hug. I was going to say clutches there, but I think hug is a better word for it.
I hope some of you guys are willing to share what you reckon on it, and I think that songs are open to interpretation and I think that’s why music is able to connect to everyone. A good song, or poem, is one that though can not only clearly speak the thoughts of the author, but it also leaves open the room for the reader to read it, and feel it, by attaching their own experiences in similar circumstances. I think you know you like a song when once you hear a line, you immediately think of something that has happened to you that you can relate to. Like how if you’re in love with someone, and someone talks about love, you immediately think of that person. Anyways, it’s off to the park for me, and I hope to see you guys around. Later, gator.
