I don’t agree. But for the one giveaway line the song could well be mistaken for a love song. Yes, it is dark but absent the crucial line it could be about someone mourning someone they love but have been forced to leave behind for reasons outside their control. After all, the standout line is “this one goes out to the one I love”. Not loved, but “love”. And they are singing the song “to” them. The “prop” line is much harder to pick up than the repeated line about “this one” going out to “the one I love”, which sounds pretty caring, on its own.
Your friend is (at best) ridiculously naive. Someone is (a) obsessed with her, and (b) doesn’t have a problem violating normal societal boundaries, and she thinks it’s “silly” to be creeped out?
Maybe her stalker really is harmless, but at least the way you phrased it, she thinks it’s a silly thing for someone to be concerned about in general. That’s just ignorant. There are numerous, well documented cases of this sort of behavior escalating to violence. And suggesting that it’s the stalkee’s lack of acceptance of this behavior that causes it to escalate is a serious case of blaming the victim.
And there are numerous well documented cases of people being hit by lightning twice, also. Unless you consider it quantitatively, whether fear of a stalker is actually significantly justified cannot be judged.
Bingo. If that “Since you’ve gone” hadn’t been there, I could have bought the “dead lover watching from beyond” interpretation. But it is, so I can’t. The PoV character is in the bushes with binoculars, and you really don’t wanna know what he’s doing with his other hand.
See, the “simple prop” line could be interpreted to applying to someone else, not the one he loves. He’s saying
“This one goes out to the one I love. The one I’m with is just a simple prop to occupy my time, as opposed to you, who I had to give up. That one, she’s just another prop, to occupy my time, but this song goes out to the one I love.”
But I don’t know what to make of the line “Fire”. I don’t know what that is trying to say in any context.
More recent than The Police, U2, or REM was Hinder’s Lips of an Angel. Granted, it’s simply within the category of songs that are frequently misinterpreted rather than implying anything sinister, but lyrically it sends a clearly dysfunctional message. I can’t count how many girls I knew thought that it was a sincere love song.
I probably wasn’t clear. I’m not saying the song is a love song. It isn’t and I agree with your interpretation. I was just disagreeing with Hippy Hollow’s apparent suggestion that it was *obviously *not a love song. I think it is a song that because of the strong line “this one goes out to the one I love” line, and the more obscure “prop” line can easily be mistaken for a love song.
Love or stalking. Doesn’t matter, because they’re both beautiful.
Haven’t listened to the song in years, but I always thought that the “a simple prop/ to occupy my mind” line referred to the song itself - “this one” that is going out to the one I love is “a simple prop/ to occupy my mind”.
Princhester, I was agreeing with you.
Slow Moving Vehicle, it’s "time", not “mind”.
Never thought of that. Even if you are right, though, the other less kind interpretation is so clearly possible that I’d struggle to call it a love song. Also, Michael Stipe has said in interviews that it is a brutal song and that interpreting it as a love song is a mistake, for what that is worth.