Regina Spektor: Blue Lips Meaning
Blue Lips Lyrics
God, there is all there is
The pictures in his mind arose
And began to breathe
And all the gods and all the worlds
Began colliding on a backdrop of blue
Blue lips, blue veins
He took...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:The beginning of the song sounds like the innocence of childhood.
He stumbled into faith and thought
God this is all there is (children stumble because their legs are still growing, and children raised in a religion also tend to be very religious, so the child just accepts that this is the way the world is)
The pictures in his mind arose
And began to breathe (as you grow older you are more aware and start thinking deeper thoughts)
And all the gods and all the worlds collided on a backdrop of blue (this, to me, represents chaos as conflicting thoughts and opinions are thrown at you)
Blue lips, blue veins (the child is now aware of his own mortality)
He took a step, but then felt tired
He said I'll rest a little while (growing up is exhausting)
But when he tried to walk again
He wasn't a child (your childhood is over in the blink of an eye. This could be a warning not to waste it.)
And all the people hurried fast, real fast and no one ever smiled (this is kind of obvious; to the young adult the older people seem too rushed to be happy)
Blue lips, blue veins, blue, the color of our planet from far, far away (he feels insignificant, just a speck of dust on a tiny planet)
He stumbled into faith and thought, "God this is all there is."
The pictures in his mind awoke and began to breathe (here he turns to faith again like he did when he was a kid)
And no one saw and no one heard
They just followed the lead (now he's aware of how blind he was and how blind society still is, like there's no imagination)
The pictures in his mind awoke
And began to breed (with this epiphany, he allows himself to be more creative and childlike, so his ideas multiply)
They started out under the knowledge tree (the Tree of Knowledge in the Bible. The decline of humanity started under this tree with Eve eating the apple.)
Then they chopped it down to make the picket fence (people stopped caring about God and did their own thing. This could also be a slight environmental theme about deforestation. Again, people not caring.)
They're marchin' along the railroad tracks (it's impossible for a train to go off the tracks, at least safely. Humanity seems like it's on a one-way track to destruction.)
And smile real wide for the camera lenses (note how earlier in the song, it said that no one ever smiled. Media and celebrities are making it seem like no big deal.)
As they made it past the enemy lines (soldiers coming home after a war or battle)
Just to become enslaved in the assembly lines (veterans have a hard time finding jobs. Also, the war in Iraq is over but the recession is still going on, so there is a job crisis.)
Blue lips, blue veins, blue, the color of our planet from far, far away (the man is thinking about the sad state of humanity and again feels insignificant)
Blue, the most human color (blue means life, death, sadness, happiness, peace, and cold. All are completely different meanings in one color, just like all people are completely different, but still human. The man is now aware of that.)
So in general, I think this song is about growing up and becoming aware. But just like the color blue, there are many interpretations for the song. -
In some way, this could also
be a more personal retelling of
the creation myth paralleled to that of an individual man. The naïve clockmaker God sits in a backdrop of possibilities “standing over the formless waters” and creating light (as recounted in many creation myths) much like a child makes sense of a formless world. In the Abrahamic tradition and many religions based on the creation myth, Elohim, the anthropomorphic God sits down to rest on the sabbath. Much like the child learns to be tired of the world such that his imagination is muted, and wrapped in faith that there is more to be created. The child rests his imagination, and the world he has discovered so vibrantly in a metaphorical blueness as images become the blue of mortality. Blue being a stand-in for infinite and unrealized possibility at each stage of progression. But also as a form of reminder of the limitations of humans.
Elohim, God, awakes to find his creation abused, the parallel crosses over to the child. Desecration of God’s tree of knowledge is put in parallel to the child stumbling into the reality created from some higher power’s blue, where knowledge (and literal trees) are wasted on consumerism fueled by war. The child (now an adult) sees the world in its nakedness, paralleling the abrahamic God’s assessments of humanity (in paradise, and post-paradise) as a failure. Paralleled with the Once-childish man, The blue canvass of infinite possibility full of images is replaced with a world full of blue veins, representing life, and blue lips, representing death, on a small blue planet floating in a much greater sea. The duality of blue being hammered home when human mortality (Blue veins and Blue lips) are juxtaposed with an astronomic view of Earth, which ideally was and is just a blue canvass of unrealized potential
In the abrahamic tradition and in many others, the distraught God creates a flood, a literal blue washing of the planet into a clean slate.
Likewise, the Man seeks out to find the canvass in which he once saw infinite possibility. He’s disappointed. There are no more parallels to the creation myths, which is in itself just a story one can have faith in. Yet the man strives to make something out of this blue, mortal reality. His faith being in his power to act. Reality becomes his canvass, and his potential comes to fruition after he has seen the world as it is, and decided to make it better. His creations begin to breed, and make an impact. Much like the times the Elohim God looked on the world and sought to change it. Both of their trees of knowledge, and their formless blue canvasses become desecrated.
But the man too is but a cluster of blue veins that eventually become blue lips. It is left to interpretation whether the man has succeeded or failed or even if success and failure can be measured in the span of a lifetime. And in the end, the planet keeps spinning. The speaker in the song says “from far, far away’” twice, to signal the narrative of the man is over, and simply to remind the listener that the blue in the tale was just a representation of humanity, in its infinite potential, but finite and small existence. -
I think it is about a man down on his luck. Or on the brink of death. He is still young probably through his mid 20s. And he is looking and thinking, this is it. And thought begin to breathe. His past comes alive and every memory surrounds him. Then every thing starts to fall. His plans, his happiness and also his mind. And realising he is dieing in his own mind. And if feels like he is drowning. When he rested his mind as a child and focused on stuff the world needs him to focus on, he realises the world is not all buttercups and daisy's. And when his mind goes back to its self he is an adult now. And when he walks past people. No one smiles. No one laughs. It's nothing like is childhood. So he tries to blend in but it doesn't work and he is just the odd one out. Everything goes past him and not once has he been given a smile. Not for his generosity nor for his loyalty. Now he drowns in the crowd. He remembered when he sat in school which is referred to the knowledge tree but then it was cut away by people and fellow men and women around him. They make a fence out of the tree and that keeps the children in. He on the other hand wondered out of the fence and found out everyone is like a solder in a assembly line. No one gets a say. But only they walk and take orders. That is his horrible truth. Now he realises he is drowning in his own thoughts and regret. Soon after the last line he wakes and is forced to live his life like everyone because he's gone out and adventured out. And he didn't like what he seen.
I know it's not right but that's how I think of it sometimes. -
I don't really understand this song. Not as well as many others seem to do however, the way I've seen it, its about a man and his struggle through life.
He realizes that this is it, this is what reality is, there's nothing more to discover and so his imagination takes over.
He's inspired by different media, different worlds, gods and people collide in his mind.
As a child (or teen) he gave up on his education unable to handle the pressure. When he resumed he had grown up and people expected different things of him. There was no room for smiles or imagination.
But then his imagination grows, develops, breathes and breeds. They begin to take shape just like humans did beneath the knowledge tree.
They become stories, movies maybe. -
i think that this song really has no meaning bc it is scattered all over i still love it tho. :)
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I think the verse "They started out under the knowledge tree. Then they chopped it down to make the picket fences." Represents how humanity is creating something so unimportant as fences from something so large and so great as knowledge for their own selfish reasons instead of sharing the fruit that came from the tree.
Then, when it says "Marching along the railroad tracks, they smiled real wide for the camera lenses." I believe it means how the people on television can trick us into believing that they're doing great things, but it's just a mirage for publicity.
Finally, when it says "As they made it past the enemy lines just to become enslaved in the assembly lines." I believe it means that without the knowledge gained from the tree, the actors and actresses where naïve and believed that nothing would happen, only to be crushed by their stupidity and selfishness. -
I think that the song is representing just growing up in general. The blue lips, blue veins, blue the color of our planet from far far away;shows how we are all connected. from life till death. However, I don't think we'll ever be able to interpret it the "right" way. She doesn't even know what it means. It has plenty of meaning, she just doesn't know what it exactly means. I've listened to this song alot and I don't think I'll ever know what it truly means. Every time I hear it I think of another meaning or I think about it deeper. But, it doesn't really matter to me because I just love the song in general.
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What I heard somewhere (not what I'm sure about)...
"What some people don't know is that Regina is a Homestuck fan. While this isn't necessarily a Homestuck song, you can definitely see some elements. Equius had blue lips and blue veins" -
I think that its about how the earth is perferct but the human rae is destroying it instead f cherishing it. Their is more to it that I can't quite explain seeing as it is most likely religiouse and I'm not. But that is what I think is implied in alot of the lyrics. Also maybe how people are abondoning religion? It's a treaky song to explain
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I think that its about how the earth is perferct but the human rae is destroying it instead f cherishing it. Their is more to it that I can't quite explain seeing as it is most likely religiouse and I'm not. But that is what I think is implied in alot of the lyrics. Also maybe how people are abondoning religion? It's a treaky song to explain
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My interperatation of this song is an overall equality.
When she says blue lips, the way i think of it as some one who has died, there skin cold and pale. Blue viens... obviously a living person's veins are blue due to the blood coursing through them. "Blue, the color of our planet From far, far away" means that both are equal. Now i realize that the lyrics are a bit off... instead of "olive tree" i believe she say "knowledge tree". The person above is correct on most of the interperatation, but i would like to point out the tidbits of information i had put in my interperation. -
The lyrics in this song create a bleak description of sadness and conformity. The man expressed in the lyrics is suggested to have found God, and that God is the only thing allowing him to find some sort of peace. The use of the word ‘stumbled’ implies that this man had no direction before finding god. Throughout the lyrics, this man’s religious thoughts progress and slowly start to engulf him. In each verse his religious thoughts become more dominant. Both he and the people around him become ‘enslaved’ by religion and faking happiness.
The ‘olive tree’ described denotes purity, as olive trees are significant in the bible. The man and the people around him cut down this tree to make a picket fence. The picket fence represents conformity. They then proceed to march ‘along the railroad tracks.’ The railroad tracks indicate a single straight path. The repetition of the word blue refers to this conformity and the unhappiness these people are experiencing. The use of the phrase ‘blue lips, blue veins’ even suggests figurative death to be a result of religion. The lyrics ‘Blue, the colour of our planet’ could be true to the fact that there is only life on Earth due to water supply. This also suggests that religion, like water, is necessary for human life.
The lyrics are carefully selected to create a sense of haunting. Turmoil and doubt are major themes throughout. The song describes widespread human unhappiness through both long and short sentences.
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