Coldplay: Clocks Meaning
Song Released: 2003
Clocks Lyrics
Tides that I tried to swim against
Brought me down upon my knees
Oh I beg, I beg and plead
Singin’, come out if things aren’t said
Shoot an apple off my head
And a, trouble that can’t be named...
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This song has special meaning to me and I know its not the "correct" interpretation but my own warped idea but who cares. I think a song's meaning should be whatever the listener wants to make it so here goes.
I associate this song with my 8 year old daughter who has autism ("Trouble that can't be named") who gives us daily challenges, heartache, and happiness. She is very bright and observant but her speech is still poor but improving ("Come out of things unsaid") and she has behavior issues ("A tigers waiting to be tamed") and she does love tigers. "Confusion never stops" because there are times when we try to do something like eat in a restaurant or go to a show with her and she can really make it challenging. Sometimes we yell at her or punish her but its not her fault but its very stressful and I feel guilty later for yelling at her ("am I part of the disease"). But she is our child and our home and I wouldn't have it any other way!
"Clocks" is a metaphor for our short time on earth and the challenges we face in life and how we live day to day.... -
This song is about life. That's all. Life. Listen to the lyrics.
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This song is about men submitting to God. He is singing "you are" because God said his name is I am. And nothing else compares is another definition for God in the old testament. So who can be called you are that nothing else compares?
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I think that this song would fit Twilight perfectly... "cursed missed opportunities am I part of the cure? or am I part of the disease its like reading Edwards mind.
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To me, this song is about death. but more specifically crossing over to the point where you stop regretting your life and find bliss in heaven. I think the music and lyrics almost contrast with each other, the music representing the bliss you find in heaven and lyrics voicing ones concerns they feel when they just realized they died or are dying. but this is only my interpretation and I think it means something different to everyone.
Heres what I think
Lights go out and I can't be saved
Tides that I tried to swim against
You've put me down upon my knees
Oh I beg, I beg and please, singin'
This verse is about a man's fight to stay alive but how he just can't overcome death or time
Come out of things unsaid
Shoot, an apple off my head.
And the
Trouble that can't be named
The tiger's waiting to be tamed singin'
This is about everything unfinished in his life, the trouble that can't be named representing problems he will never even know he had and the tiger symbolizing the problems that he had that he will never be able to solve
You are
You are
These lines just represent how is life was unfinished, like saying to someone "You are ______", maybe he never got to tell someone he thought they were amazing
Confusion never stops
Closing walls and ticking clocks
Gonna come back and take you home
I could not stop but you now know, singin'
This is about the downward spiral into death and how time will always win the the end. Home in this line means heaven or the place where you go to die. "I could not stop but you now know" meaning I couldn't beat this but you know that now since I am dead.
Come out upon my seas,
Curse missed opportunities
Am I a part of the cure
Or am I part of the disease, singin'
The first two lines of this verse are representative of your life flashing before your eyes when you die. you see all that you have and haven't done. The last 2 lines I think mean can I still escape death or is this who I have become and always will be?
You are, you are
You are, you are
You are, you are
these lines still represent the unfinished business
Nothing else compares.
Oh, no nothing else compares
Oh, no nothing else compares
These line connect music and lyrics because the person is just beginning to realize what a great place heaven is and that they are dead and will stay dead forever. nothing compares to their current state
You are
You are
Home, home where I wanted to go
Home, home where I wanted to go
Home, home where I wanted to go
Home, home where I wanted to go
these last lines could mean heaven (home) was the place he always wanted to go bu never knew it or right before he died all he wanted was to go home
and that's basically it. but what this song really means to coldplay, the people who actually wrote it, we will never know because that's the way they intended it to be. -
This song is about a man who loves his dogs and archery
"shoot an apple off my head" -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I think the song is about not having enough time to live. "cursed missed oppertunities, closing walls and ticking clocks, oh I beg I beg and plead". We don't have enough time to do all that we want, say all that we want, and be all that we want. "closing walls and ticking clocks" basically means times running out to do it all, and its constantly in the back of our minds.
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I have two interpretations for this great song. The first interp is that this song is about regret. Things you can't change in the past, missed opportunities to make things right, people you've hurt and things you should have (or not have) said. It's a battle against time and man not being able to go into the past and change it.
The second interp is pretty literal in terms of when your body gives into the seduction of sleep. WE ALL GIVE IN. When I was in med school I used to stay up til the wee hours of the morning to study and literally having to fight against going to sleep on top of my books. No matter how badly I tried to force myself to stay awake, I gave in to sleep. Like a tiger or beast who is finally tamed. Sleep is another natural force that man cannot control. No matter what you do, your body will always give in to sleep.
I used to wonder why the words "you are, Home" are repeated over and over again. I think Home refers to the sensation when you are on the brink of falling asleep. It is that very moment when you lose consciousness and fall asleep. You feel relaxed, safe, happy, protected in a dream state, as if you are home. If you pay attention to the way these words are repeated, it has a very hypnotic feel to it. Freaky but cool. -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This song does so much more than man and man or man and substance, but it taps into the simple comparison of man and time. From what I've gathered, "lights go out I can't be saved/ tides that I tried to swim against" (and so one) simply shows a man that may have tried to beat time by seeking a way to go into the past and eventually got "washed up" by the reality that you CANNOT CHEAT TIME.
I mean, it is kind of strange that the song mentions water and the colossal bodies of it and then is entitled "Clocks." If anything, water is most known for being [one of] nature's most tranquil or nature's most destructive forces besides wind and earth, and thus it is identified with or as nature's most unchangable force: Time. And it makes sense that man, by the end of the song, would eventually be overwhelmingly baffled by its mysteriousness and greatness and finally submit to it ("And nothing else compares" "You are") -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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