Pink Floyd: Breathe Meaning

Breathe Lyrics

Breathe, breathe in the air
Don't be afraid to care
Leave but don't leave me
Look around and choose your own ground
For long you live and high you fly
And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Mar 14th 2011 !⃝

   When you consider that this is the first song on the album, what comes first in life? Birth. "Breathe, breathe in the air" is about the first breath of life. The line "Leave, but don't leave me, look around, choose your own ground" Is also about Birth, leave, as in leave a woman's body, but don't leave her life. "Look around, choose your own ground" means to view the world and make your place in it. The rest of the lines are pretty much self explanitory. It's not about drugs, it's metaphorical.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Nov 21st 2005 !⃝

   I am amazed at all the inferences to drugs. It is pretty well known that "Breathe" is meant to lament the industrialization of society. It fits right in with the overall concept of the Dark Side of the Moon, which is an essay on the things that drive a man mad... work (Breathe), death (Great Gig in the Sky), money (Money), war (Us and Them), time (Time), etc...

3. 3TOP RATED

   #3 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Sep 12th 2005 !⃝

   I think the song is about taking life as it comes, and not trying to get involved in a rat race for money and success. The first stanza generally talks about being free and opening up. The second stanza talks about worrying too much about life, and then ending up not living it: "[unless]balance on the biggest wave, you'll race towards an early grave". This contrasts with the song Time, which is not by coincidence placed before the Breathe reprise.
4. anonymous

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   Jun 6th 2020 !⃝

   A positive great song by PINK FLOYD, about breathing the life of God that's in the natural air of nature and you to go along with life and caring for others. this song in a way is the opposite of David Gilmour's ''I Can't Breathe Anymore'' a time when we were indeed made to breathe 'the construction of social reality'. if that wasn't bad enough then, now we have to breathe with our visible masks on top of the invisible ones at the cost of more of our freedom.
5. anonymous

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   Jan 5th 2014 !⃝

   My personal interpretation of this son is of my father being sad when I was growing up. Now my brother is lost in drugs I havent seen him in three years it makes me cry so much because all I want for him is to be who he wants and not care what people say I want him to live his life and not worry about what people say. I love you brother, I love you I need you in my life!

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
6. anonymous

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   Apr 18th 2013 !⃝

   poinless lives of poor people not having much of a life maybe just living and surviving nobody famous
7. anonymous

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   Nov 20th 2012 !⃝

   Breathe, a thing we all forget to do. Forgetting the sun, the source of all life. All you touch and all you see is talking about the limitations of our minds to not look further into things, to believe only the things we see, the fact that we all forget about spirituality, and stick to our daily routine. Leave, don't leave me can be interpreted as our selfishness, that we only care about something when it affects us.
8. anonymous

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   Feb 23rd 2012 !⃝

   Only For You - Heartless Bastards
   
   Been a while since I felt this way about someone,
   I'd really, really like to know you more, I know you more
   All your eyes are sing a song to me
   And I really, really like to move to it, oh oh groove ooh
   And I will o-o-open my e-e-e-eye heart
   And I will o-o-only for you
   
   All your eyes are spinnin round my head
   and I all this life of song ooh yeah we own ooh yeah
   All your eyes are spinnin round my head
   And I all this life of song ooh yeah we own ooh
   
   And I will ooooh oooh I ooh And I will
   Ooonly for you
   
   And I just don't know what to do
   My head is such a cloud of you
   I'm so tired of tryin oooooh
   And I just don't know what to do
   My head has such a cloud of you
   I'm so tired of tryin oooooh
   
   guitar work
   
   All your eyes are spinnin round my head
   And all this life of song oooh yeah we own oooh yeah
   All your eyes are spinnin round my head
   And all this life of song oooh yeah we own ooh
   
   And I will o-open my eye-heart
   And I will o-only for you
   
   I hear the above words and sounds when she sings this song. I typed them up all by myself. I love her soulful voice and that she doesn't sound like she has a cold. By listening to the lyrics, I think she lost her eyesight and her heart to the man she is singing to. I've always heard that when someone loses one or two of their senses, their remaining functioning senses become much more highly developed. Yet, sometimes life is unfair and it favourably graces some individuals more than others. For instance, I know a woman who can't see, her heart has been removed from her chest and her breathing passages sound blocked....Oh not like a Sleestak or anything, but just like a teensy cold. Not Erika. Her ability to breathe is astounding.. Her nasal passages ring clean in my ears hence her sense of smell must be very keen. She's a lucky woman. She is singing that she will open her eyes and her heart for him "only". She obviously loves him deeply & he is the only one who can bring them back to her. She can't see or feel but she can smell and sing... When someone's heart has been stolen, it hurts her everywhere. When she can't see, her life is dark and her head feels cloudy. She thinks everyone is looking at her -all their eyes are spinnin round her head- and how can she possibly verify this when she is blind? She can't. All she can do is try to sing about it. She sounds territorial and protective about her life of song. I think so many things have been stripped away from her that she believes she deserves some happiness in her life. Sooo, she thinks she and her man and many other people "own" their life of song.. It's a guess. I haven't yet bought the album, but I will, and I will check out the lyrics to this amazing song. Yeay Heartless Bastards.
   
   Also, I just wanted to say hi & that I'm alive
   
   in case anyone was wondering... :(
9. anonymous

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   Dec 23rd 2010 !⃝

   I Think of the entirety of Dark Side as being about generally things of value and freedoms. I mean Speak to Me - freedom of speech, Breathe - right to life and air, On the Run - freedom of mobility (go anywhere you like), Time - obviously valuable, Great Gig in the Sky - value in an afterlife where ever you invest, Money - again obvious, Any Color You Like - the ability to decide and choose whatever you want (being different), Us and Them - friendships and relationship with people, Brain Damage - our sanity is obviously valuable, Eclipse - experiencing the wonder in life, the mystery and intrigue be it natural phenomena or things as beautiful as this album.
10. DAN2923

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    Jul 17th 2010 !⃝

    i mean the songs obviously talking about the spark of life within us. it's really deep stuff. it's not really something that pertains to one person. and thats why this song can be very frightening on acid. a beautiful kind of frightening tho. it's really clear, it just freaks you out. like how were all one. YOU! reading this.. im your energy dude :P like it makes you think how long you've been around, ya know?
11. anonymous

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    Feb 16th 2010 !⃝

    its the 8 stages of life. starting with the first breath, leave but dont leave me is trust vs mistrust, erik eriksons 8 stages in life. This wasn't the bands intention though, I don't think. The person who writes 'the song is just an acid trip with no meaning'... I'd like them to do acid, then try to write something so perfect in explaining our life journeys from our first breathe... until an early grave,
    PEACE!
12. anonymous

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    May 31st 2009 !⃝

    breathe, breathe in air, when your frying on acid everything looks like its breathing and alive.
    My first acid trip i sat in my room with my cousin, watched all my posters and listened to this album over over and over again untill it was morning. Everything just seemed to be related to how the cd played. Look at roger waters now, he's completly insane, its possible its all about tripping.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
13. jesseteshara

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    Jan 7th 2009 !⃝

    First of all, I disagree. All your life will ever be is, well, all 5 (6?) senses, for one thing. Secondly, it's all your decisions and relationships, and whatever meaning YOU decide to give your life, not what Pink Floyd tells you it is. That said, breathing is a common focus of meditation, and caring is well, the essence of all you need to know to be a good person, in my opinion. Sting sang if you love someone, set them free, but that can really sting, so to speak, and I subscribe to this lyric instead.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
14. anonymous

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    Nov 13th 2008 !⃝

    Definitely not about acid but I tell you what you ain't listened to this song until you did it on acid
    beautiful shit
15. anonymous

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    Feb 29th 2008 !⃝

    I have the lyric
    "all you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be" tattoo'd on my ribs. to me that lyric just means to make the most of your life because your going to be remembered by others for that. That's all your life will mean to them. So make the most of it.
16. anonymous

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    Jan 26th 2008 !⃝

    This song is about loving somebody that you know that you can't be with, but trying to make it work.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
17. Crazy_Diamond_89

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    Nov 27th 2007 !⃝

    I believe that this song can mean a million different things to every person. That is the genius of Pink Floyd however. When I hear this song I feel liberated. I feel like I'm free. LIfe is short. Too short to worry about money and possesions. Live is for peace and harmony. This songs best lyrics are "Leave but don't Leave me" man it speaks to me.
18. anonymous

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    Nov 18th 2007 !⃝

    A. You have to assume this is not an acid trip, as it is excellently composed and created music, which might be imaginable if you were on acid, but not do-able - they could think of the song, but not write it on an acid trip, and they would not remember it afterwards
    
    B. Take a look at the cynicism and sarcasm in the song, it becomes a lot easier to understand especially in the face of the rest of the album (which is drawn entirely together before the lyrics even start, with excerpts from each song)

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