“Sell your soul. Not your whole self.”
Hmm. “Even when the realities of life make you sell out or abandon your morals, make sure to keep some part of yourself pure”.
Without context, to tell you the truth I interpret it as bad writing trying to sound deep. To me, the soul kind of is the “whole self” so the line comes of as contradictory at best, or, even worse, implying that selling your very inner essence is preferable to selling. . . your corporal form(?)
Could you give us a few more lines / link to the full lyrics? Also, how do you interpret it?
A quick Google search and I’m guessing the song is “Afraid” by The Neighborhood. I can’t listen to it, and in my view, good lyrics really necessitate the context of the music to get the full meaning, but at least with the whole thing, I can take a decent guess.
To me, the lyrics are about one’s identity, trying to figure out who one is and has fear of someone else taking that from him or defining that for him. In that context, this particular line is a question about what really defines oneself. Is there an essence that is beyond us, a soul, or is there something that is greater even greater? In a spiritualist sense, even one’s soul is not necessarily the entirety of what one is, but rather the soul is what connects one’s Earthly presence to one’s “true Self” at a higher level. Can one sell one’s soul to achieve one’s dreams or does that mean letting the world define who you are and you lose not just your sense of self, but also your sense of Self.
Not all songwriters are good philosophers.
Or poets. I can’t stand when they stick in senseless words because they needed one that rhymed.
This thread is best suited to Cafe Society. I’ll relocate it.
Quite so. My first instinct on seeing the line was that it probably meant next to nothing, but it did have the soul/whole rhyme and some alliteration, so would be good enough for a pop song.
Are you sure it’s not “sole”? 'Cause that would make sense - pawn your shoe for cash but not your body. A lot of pawn shops won’t even give a quote on whole bodies anymore. The payments never get made and they don’t sell very quickly.