HERE are the lyrics, AND here is the song.
35 years and I’m still wondering what the f*ck they’re talking about. What’s a “livin’ thing?” It can’t just be about Dirk Digglers’ dink.
Not a particularly complex song. Like 9,000,000 other songs, it’s about the emotional highs and/or lows of a relationship, described in pretty abstract terms. ELO apparently thought the lyrics flowed together and sounded good. That band was never about the lyrics - it was the instrumentals that were always front and center.
My best guess is that it’s about having sex on 'shrooms.
It’s about drugs and the tussle for the soul they represent to addicts chasing that first high.
Says who?
That sounds right to me. Most songs are either about sex or drugs, and this one could be either, but the vernacular suggests most likely drugs.
A significant proportion of songs are about sex, I’ll give you that, but I’m not so sure about the drugs part. Anyway, Jeff Lynne was never into drugs. Apparently ELO were pretty clean-living by rock group standards.
The lyrics in question are so abstract that I don’t think it’s possible for anyone except Lynne to divine much meaning from them.
I seem to remember, back when the song came out, that is was about a divorce.
Sez post #4.
Of course, it probably isn’t, but a 1:00am reading of the lyrics brought that possible interpretation to mind, so there it is…
I’m an ELO fan from 'way back. I always thought they were singing about a romance, how it needed “care and feeding” just like any other living thing.
As mentioned already, I always assumed it was about keeping a relationship alive. And, even though I am a huge ELO fan, I’m the first to admit that their lyrics are almost always vapid and meaningless; JL appears to think of lyrics as just another element of the soundscape, and not a medium for delivering a profound message.
The urban myth I always heard about the song is that it’s an anti-abortion statement. I’m surprised no-one has mentioned it here.
It’s possible to interpret it that way, and enough people have done so over the years that Jeff Lynne apparently felt the need to deny it. Can’t find a cite for it, just people arguing about it, but I have no doubt that the song is a sphinx without a secret. Like every other song that people puzzle over.
The words don’t mean anything. It’s music, they’re supposed to add to the feeling of the piece. Any song that has a definite meaning will make it obvious. If it ain’t obvious, then it ain’t there.
Wow, I’d never heard the abortion angle before. IME anti-abortion folk don’t really like to talk about “sweet desire.” At all.
The UK doesn’t have a large Christian wingnut population that dominates the abortion debate the way they do in the US. That’s pretty much a US-specific thing. The rest of the developed world does have anti-abortion nutters, but they’re a small minority. It’s certainly possible to meet people who are very much against the idea of abortion but who are not Christian nutters at all.
So, it’s possible to believe that Jeff Lynne is just a guy who happens to find the idea of abortion very objectionable. It doesn’t seem to be true, but that’s never stopped urban mythologers.
Like any good urban myth, the very meaninglessness of the lyrics in question make the invented meaning seem plausible:
Well, that’s obviously describing sex without a condom.
The “worst day” is the foolish decision to have sex without contraception. The conception part is obvious: you have conceived a baby, a “livin’ thing”.
“Taking a dive” could be read as a description of the abortion itself from the PoV of the foetus. And so on. If you’re inclined to believe it, you can make up stuff to support it. It’s easy, people do it all the time.
Just to re-iterate: I do not believe that what I wrote above is the correct interpretation of the song. I’m just demonstrating the kind of “logic” that people use to invent meanings for songs that don’t actually have any specific meaning.
You realize you just wrote a coded attack on the Treaty of Ghent?
“So many people had so many views on what this song is about. It’s actually about love, so there you have it.”
Jeff Lynne (2000 - Flashback boxed set)