Gotye: Somebody That I Used to Know Meaning
Somebody That I Used to Know Lyrics
Now and then I think of when we were together
Like when you said you felt so happy you could die
Told myself that you were right for me
But felt so lonely in your company
But that was love and it's an ache I still remember
You...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:I think he ruined the person she was. She acts like it didn't mean anything because she had to make herself into something new. The old was unrepairable.
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2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:my opinion
1st verse
he looks back on his past relationship evidently she loved him more. she was happy but he wasn't. - "so happy you could die." "felt lonely in your company"
he had to convince himself he was in love but this isn't what love is supposed to be.
2nd verse
he had grown accustomed to this wierd relationship "Resignation to the end, always the end" - he had given up. he wasn't going to try to fight to get out of the relationship. the end would come when she decides to break up.
finally, she does realize that their relationship isn't working and they mutually decide to break up. maybe she lied and said they could still be friends but i think that's just something generic we always say but never mean. of course he was glad it was over because he was never happy to begin with.
chorus
he's hurt. i don't think that he loves her like that as many people say. it's more of a selfish feeling he has. -"i don't even need your love". he doesn't want a relationship anymore, but he wants everything to be okay between them. he wants her in his life. obviously she doesn't and totally cuts him out. he's a stranger to her. hence she's just "somebody he used to know".
3rd verse
here we realize why she's treating him this way.
apparently he used to "screw her over" and blame her for problems as if she was always the wrong one.
but she knows the relationship is unhealthy. she has to always think about and analyze everything that he says (perhaps because she doesn't know what he's thinking or how he feels sometimes). that's why they broke up.
"you said that you could let it go and that i wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know" - perhaps he had taken the break up very easy (of course, remember he was glad it was over). he could 'let their relationship go'. he wouldn't be hung up over 'her'. but she purposefully replaces 'herself' with "somebody that you used to know" to make her words hurt him even more.
(notice how in the video she shouts this line at him in a very bitter way)
chorus
he acts like a child and goes on to fight his point. "you didn't have to stoop so low". but he doesn't understand. he could handle them being friends but she can't. i believe that she loved him more and hence her pain is greater. the only way she can deal with it is not having him in her life anymore.
personal thoughts...
i think this song is so deep because although the struggles of the couple are unique to their relationship, the end result is very common. there's always one who took the break up well and who wants to stay friends. but the one who is hurt more, would rather not have anything to do with his/her ex. hence, a lot of the times we see exes who end up being nothing to each other... just someone they used to know... -
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:I think Gotye is saying that he's sad that Kimbra broke up with him, he hates being isolated and acting as if they were never together, and is depressed because Kimbra wants nothing to do with him.
Kimbra is frustrated that he STILL doesn't realize what he was doing wrong in the relationship, even after they've broken up. Gotye is acting as if Kimbra broke up with him out of thin air, and she's saying that there was feelings behind what she's been doing to him.
I think the whole "hung up on somebody that you used to know" line isn't about Gotye cheating, it's about him being hung up on HER. When Kimbra's still moved on, Gotye still thinks there's a chance (and might even be stalking her, which is why she's changed her number, took her records, etc.). -
But she didn't have to cut me off happen to make it out like it never happen (the break up this talking about), and that we were nothing... hahahha fekk
This hits different -
But she didn't have to cut me off happen to make it out like we were nothing...
Man this hits different -
Common anima/animus struggle for completion. But relating from different developmental levels. Very confusing, highly emotionally charged,and impossible to resolve,short of a consciousness expansion which allows the bigger picture to come into focus for both. Failing that, best resolved by mutual agreement to a non-judgmental separation, wherein healing and growth for both may occur.
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Well it's pretty simple,they were in a relationship that was one sided, he was not feeling the relationship so he broke up.
Her being broken hearted wants a fresh start and trys to forget about him completely(in the attempt to reawaken the feelings)
He doesn't like it and cries like a girl. Because he liked the attention. -
When I wrote this song I wrote it with kimbra and she is nice and awesome woman she’s so talented. But when I wrote it with her Ben and gotye had some couple of strings to go with it so we can understand that story of our great friendship. But my grandpas friend passed away and so we wrote this song to my grandpas friend John who passed away. We wrote him a letter to his friend who might talk to but when Nathan is in heaven I can write songs about him then he can read my letter and became happy as he can be.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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The song is pretty straight forward except for this line:
“And I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know"
There’s two ways to interpret this line.
1) He’s hung up on an Ex and she can’t be in a relationship where she’s the second choice
2) She did change her number and have her friends pick up her stuff, it’s possible he’s gone crazy Ex Boyfriend on her, it’s possible she’s singing about herself and how he needs to let her go -
I get the impression that this guy is an emotional abuser. He's been manipulating the girl in their relationship, and now that she's grown a backbone and left, he's trying to hold on to that control and she won't let him and he's telling himself that he's the victim in this and minimising his role in their breakup.
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In my opinion it's about a man who has a shitty relationship he keeps hidden and decides to cheat on her. The new secret relationship gets too serious and he can't give the "other woman" all of him like he says and break it off with his old mate just to be with her.
So the new woman gets pissed because he never leaves his first woman because all he does is talk about her and so the new woman splits on him harshly and calls his old woman like a psycho to get one last "dig" in on him and make her hurt like she is. But it all explodes in her face making her a home wrecker and him a lying cheating spineless snake in the grass. People are cruel. -
Just my opinion,but I always took it as Gotye was singing the whole song about one person but from two emotional perspectives. His masculant side and Kimbra his feminent side. One person but his two emotions about the situation. As we all know we are our own worst enemy. Sometimes things are said, then later our other side has another opinion etc. What I took from this is he was hurt and he wished not to be hurt again so he shut himself off, well his feminent side anyway. Thats why she disappears in the video. Not only is he saying he has let his ex go but that she has killed the softer side of him. I'm sure I could say this more elegantly but I think you all get the just of my comment and my opinion of the meaning :)
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I think, that he's really obsessed with his ex and altough he was miserable in their relationship he still thinks on her and I guess he want all the bad stuff back so he could have the good. The girl is very disapointed, because he is still thinking on his ex ( but I'm not sure if she is his ex or his new girlfriend-I'm more for his ex because; 'Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over
But had me believing it was always something that I'd done') and probably she moved on but he is everywhere she go and she feels bad, because she thinks that it's all her fault. -
Our antagonist sabotages his relationships from the beginning. We know this because he resigns to the end so that he can feel the sadness he so desperately craves. This notion is borrowed from the saddest musician of all time, Kurt Cobain, when he sang, "I miss the comfort in being sad."
Nothing makes you feel more human than when a relationship ends. The pain is completely real. Music sounds so much better as you revel in your self pity. But when the sadness fades you look to get it back and so you reach out to a past lover and claim you want to be friends, but subconsciously you crave the drama. "You didn't have to cut me off / I don't even need your love." The smart ones will reject your advances and tell you like it is, "Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over
But had me believin it was always something that I'd done
But I don't wanna live that way
Reading into every word you say
You said that you could let it go
And I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know-oh-oh"
He is addicted to sadness and therefore will never truly commit. -
My opinion:
Main singer is someone suffering from borderline personality disorder.
They are terrified to be abandoned but usually they unintentionally end up pushing the person away.
A person suffering from Borderline Personality disorder can find something "heart wrenching" or even "boring" from their significant other that allows them to stand up and declare the relationship over.
But when the other person doesn't care to fix the relationship, the dumper may feel more like the dumpee. When Kimbra sings
"And I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know"
She is really repeating the words he said to her and when he is crying about it..she pulls his quote out of her arsenal.
In the music video he looks hurt by those words and she looks as if she was throwing hurtful words he said to her right back at him.
Just my opinion though. I have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder so that is how I see this song. -
What would one think if a former lover (male) that you had not had contact with for years put this song visibly online and knew you could see it? What message would you take from it?
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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