6 replies to this topic

[evil_lord]

Hi, I'm pretty new to this community, I've read a few topics/discussions in this forum and felt like I need to register here. There's been me thinking numerous times of John's songs meanings. I find it pretty difficult to understand his songs. Well, the lyrics themselves are pretty understandable but the meaning of certain song is much deeper than I could firstly think of. For example: a song called "Every person" (from Shadows Collide with People). It took me like one week to understand it. Maybe it's because I don't know what he was doing during the records of each CD. Maybe it's because I simply lack of knowledge or just because it's hard to understand non native language written in the way he does it.

Do you guys find it as difficult as me to understand his songs? I mean, the melody, the sounds, finally the voice are so incredible! Just getting the meaning of lyrics takes some time...

Something for you:

[AzteC]

Its fun to find meaning in songs, but with an artist like Frusciante, and many others for that matter. The exact meaning of a song is damn near impossible to find out. It really only matters what you "think" the song is saying.

[Automatic Writing]

I have my own interpretations of most songs, but I would never venture to say I fully understand or "reason" them.

But, "every day is each day that's passed, every person alive is everyone who's died" is just brilliant, and I can only hope that everyone else finds the same genius in this line that I do.

[evil_lord]

By thinking of song meanings I don't only get to know what's a song about, but I explore the person. Knowing what he thinks of "this" or "that" and what he "does", "feels" mean much to me. I know that knowing the true side of his songs is hard because they come from his heart but I still try to understand what made him write certain song.

[Iva]

What attracted me to John's solo work in the first place were the words, not the music. I was on dial-up and it would take me up to an hour and a half to download 5 Mb (!), so I would sit and read the lyrics to his songs long before I heard the three albums, Internet album and the Brown Bunny soundtrack that were available back in 2003. I thought it was poetry. Poetry cannot be analysed and understood the way newspaper articles and science works can; so I'm not even trying. The ambivalence of verses is what makes them applicable to many situations, emotions and people.

[evil_lord]

I'd like to give you my thoughts of this song, as I think it's some hidden sense.

You take me by the hand (it's not he who's taking the guitar to play, it's the guitar who takes him to play)

A hand's all I feel right now (while "being a guitar" he can feel every touch of strings that the hand gives, every jerk and every pull)
It's all I am
It's all that I am
You think that I'm a man
I beg to differ
For I am her as much as I am me (he claims to be the guitar as much as himself which means they're a unity)

You know this moment in time

Is all my life, yeah (the moment he's playing is what he lives for, it's all that matters)
Every day is each day that's past (if there was no yesterday, today would look different; if there was no past, present would be totally different)
Every person alive is everyone who's died (to be your real self you have to fall down, you become a new person everyday because the experience of yesterday gives you chances to change yourself, your behavior and your perspective of life)

A ship out in the distance
Is here if I draw it (I understand it literally, figuratively I have no idea what he meant - I have my thoughts but they might be over-interpreting)
Multiply time by letting it go by (?)
You paint a star
You give many years ago
New life and it appreciates it (he's talking about his drugs addictions era, he knows he's gotten a new life and he appreciates it) (I think this line is directed to God/force that made him exist now and previously)

You know this moment in time
Is all my life
Everyday i each day that's past
Every person alive is everyone who's died


I hope it's understandable, I had problems because of the language barrier, I'm not a native speaker but tried to do my best! What do you think about the 2rd verse? I don't understand first 3 lines

[freyr]

For me, Frusciante's lyrics are interesting to look at in context with certain philosophical traditions, most notably, the non-dualism of Zen and Taoism, the existentialism of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, Eastern philosophy including Krishnamurti and Osho, and Greek thinkers such as Heraclitus, Socrates, and Diogenes. Jesus from the Gospel of Thomas is an entirely atheistic spiritual philosophy, afaic, and it goes well with Frusciante's music.

However, to dwell on what Frusciante means personally is a logical fallacy. You should be developing your own individuality, not pretending to know what his is. Unless you get to have a conversation with him in person, you should probably just focus on giving your own life meaning, not dwelling on his.

As for the meaning of his lyrics:

You take me by the hand (metaphorically, when we are accepting of another person, becoming their friend, it is like holding hands, but not literally holding hands. The mind has a hand, and minds can be accepting of each other.)

It's all I am (realizing your identity or "true self" is the other person is a deep philosophical realization, and many mystics have lived their life with this truth)
It's all that I am

You think that I'm a man
I beg to differ
For I am her as much as I am me [Most spiritual teachers emphasize the importance of being psychologically female/empty, so that we allow another person to be born within us / allowing them to be active (male)]

You know this moment in time

Is all my life, yeah (Time is obviously a creation of the mind, and moments do not have real boundaries, past, moment and future are one whole)

* the whole song is philosophically brilliant.


For any of you who like the idea of "Wisdom Poetry", check out Heraclitus "fragements" and the Tao Te Ching. Jesus from the Gospel of Thomas is also excellent wisdom poetry.

Basically, when a philosopher becomes a genius, he becomes poetic. When a poet becomes a genius, he becomes philosophical.

John, in my estimation, has some significant degree of Genius. Most rock stars merely have talent.