My Immortal

It’s ironic, but most of my favourite songs don’t usually have anything to do with the music. Instead, I’m usually captivated by the song’s lyrics (which explains why I hate heavy metal, since the lyrics of a typical metal song usually goes something like “aarrrrrrrrrr grrrrraaaaah argh rrrrrrrrrrr arrrrrrr!!!!”). One song that has recently been added to my collection of favourites is “My Immortal” by Evanescence. It goes like this:

[verse 1:]
I’m so tired of being here
Suppressed by all of my childish fears
And if you have to leave
I wish that you would just leave
Because your presence still lingers here
And it won’t leave me alone

[pre-chorus:]
These wounds won’t seem to heal
This pain is just too real
There’s just too much that time cannot erase

[chorus:]
When you cried I’d wipe away all of your tears
When you’d scream I’d fight away all of your fears
And I’ve held your hand through all of these years
But you still have all of me

[verse 2:]
You used to captivate me
By your resonating light
But now I’m bound by the life you left behind
Your face it haunts my once pleasant dreams
Your voice it chased away all the sanity in me

[pre-chorus]

[chorus]

[bridge:]
I’ve tried so hard to tell myself that you’re gone
And though you’re still with me
I’ve been alone all along

[chorus]

Most people think this song is about a loved one who passed away, but I believe another possibility is that the singer is singing about somebody who has been in a coma for a long time. The meaning of the song then changes from agonizing over a lost love, to someone who is torn by the fact that she is still committed to this person (maybe they were married), but is becoming increasingly unsatisfied with giving her love but never receiving any back. Now she’s contemplating leaving, but is having trouble reconciling it in her mind as it would be a betrayal of the love they used to share. This conjures up some very strong mental images for me (I nearly lost my brother to a car accident once) and Evanescence singer Amy Lee’s divine voice helps complete this tragic picture.

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Another band whose lyrics irked me until recently, was Garbage and their song “Cherry Lips”. It just kinda changes gender after the first verse, and although this shouldn’t be surprising given that there is another song on the same album called “Androgyny”, I was still curious as to whether it was talking about two people or one person (who would have to be a cross-dresser). I finally found out today that the song was written for, and about author “JT Leroy” who grew up as a, you guessed it… transvestite.