KONGOS: Come With Me Now Meaning
Song Released: 2014
Come With Me Now Lyrics
Come with me now
Whoa, come with me now
I'm gonna take you down
Whoa, come with me now
I'm gonna show you how
Whoa, come with me now
I'm gonna take you down
Whoa, come with me now
I'm gonna show you how
Afraid to...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:The Devil/God dynamic reads too much into it. The song is about an individual dealing with the anxiety of showing people who he really is.
"Afraid to lose control...I think with my heart and I move with my head"
He self-censors his actions (moves with his head), despite what he feels (what he thinks in his heart). He's lived his life being afraid of letting go of this control he holds over himself, and being judged for it.
"I've wasted breath...I open my mouth and it's something I've read"
He also censors his words. He repeats the opinions of others (things he's read), rather than voice his own opinions. Hence, his breath has been wasted.
"I was born without this fear" (and later: "I stood at this door before, I'm told, but a part of me knows that I'm growing too old")
He's not sure where this anxiety comes from - it's not something he was born with - but he's tried unsuccessfully to shed it before. As he gets older, he's becoming more conscious of all the time he's wasted holding himself back.
"I tried to sell my soul last night...Funny, he wouldn't even take a bite"
The soul is generally thought to be what makes the individual who they are; he jokes that his soul probably appears so dull and ineffectual that even the devil wouldn't want it.
Hence, "I need to move, I need to fight; I need to lose myself tonight." He feels like he's running out of time, and he wants to change.
"Far away, I heard him say, "Come with me now"; Whoa, come with me now, I'm gonna take you down; Whoa, come with me now, I'm gonna show you how"
The voice that sings the chorus and that he hears as being "far away" is actually buried deep within. It's his soul/subconscious mind inviting him to come down into himself, and in the process, let go of his self-imposed restraints. In return, it promises to show him how to live without the control he feels he needs. -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:This song is more about breaking free from [(being trapped in societal norms) / (getting caught up in the rat race) / (materialism) and regaining individuality than it is about good vs. evil. These ideas are referred to collectively below as "trap."
There are two speakers. Speaker 1 is the chorus and introduction ("come with me now") and Speaker 2 is the verses, although Speaker 1 might be Speaker 2's inner voice.
Speaker 2 is "afraid to lose control" and "caught up in this world". This is supported by the video, which includes various Speaker 2's (the lady blow-drying her hair, clearly very concerned about her appearance; the lady jumping rope and spinning - trying to look and feel good about herself; the guy in the suit collecting money in an office - focused on making money rather than living life; the guy in the coffee shop smoking a pipe, taking a selfie, and flipping pages - trying to fit an image of how he should act and what to think).
"I've wasted time, I've wasted breath, I think I've thought myself to death." Speaker 2 is starting to realize his predicament. In particular the "I think I've thought myself to death" line relates to the guy in the coffee shop in the video.
"I was born without this fear" refers to the earlier line "Afraid to lose control." Speaker 1 realizes that he wasn't always afraid to break free from his trap. "Now only this seems clear: I need to move, I need to fight, I need to lose myself tonight." Speaker 2 realizes that he needs to do something different - make a move, fight back against his trap, and let go or lose himself.
"I think with my heart and I move with my head." This is the opposite of what we would expect - you should think with your head and move with your heart. Speaker 2 still has dreams (thinks with his heart) but his actions are based on his fear / reason (moves with his head).
"I open my mouth and it's something I've read." Speaker 2 laments not having any original ideas and just regurgitating what society is feeding him.
"I stood at this door before, I'm told, but part of me knows that I'm growing too old." Someone (Speaker 1?) told Speaker 2 that he's had an opportunity to break free from his trap before, but time is running out - if Speaker 2 doesn't act soon, it will be too late and he won't be able to break free.
"Confused what I thought with something I felt. Confuse what I feel with something that's real." Remember that Speaker 2 still has dreams, but doesn't act on them. In reverse order of the lyrics, what he feels isn't even real. He's so caught up in his trap that he doesn't even realize that his "passions" aren't even real or for real things. Because his feelings are so off, it also confuses his mind. {I'm not super confident of this interpretation}.
"I tried to sell my soul last night. Funny, he wouldn't even take a bite." Speaker 2 is joking that his soul is so starved from being caught in his trap that he couldn't even sell it - it wasn't worth anything. This isn't necessarily speaking of soul in the religious sense. Soul here is a metaphor for his spirit or individuality.
"Come with me now." Speaker 1 is trying to get Speaker 2 to break free from his trap.
"I'm gonna take you down." Speaker 1 is telling Speaker 2 that it won't be easy to change.
"I'm gonna show you how." Speaker 1 will lead Speaker 2.
Drawing analogies to two movies:
In Pushing Tin, Speaker 1 is Nick Falzone (John Cusack) and Speaker 2 is Russell Bell (Billy Bob Thornton), who tries to get Falzone to wake up and let go. Bell gets Falzone to jump into a river (re: the music video where the Speaker 2's all wind up in the water).
In The Matrix, Speaker 1 is Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Speaker 2 is Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne). The parallels here are clear. -
3TOP RATED
#3 top rated interpretation:I believe that the singer is in a deep internal conflict with himself about whether life is worth it on not which he explains in the beginning by saying, "afraid to loose control. I'm caught up in this world." Now to add a different twist the chorus to the song may sing about the devil and god being his good and bad side of the struggle. God saying, "come with me now, I'll show you how." And the devil saying, "come with me now, I'm going to take you down." Throughout the song when we get to the middle it seems the devil is winning (or god depending on how you interpret the lyrics or both!) by starting with, "I tried to sell my soul last night, be funny if he didn't take a bite." And then continuing with "far away, I hear him say, 'come with me now'. don't delay, I hear him say, 'come with me now'." In the end I cannot tell whether it is the devil who won or god or it is just about the conflict. Either way that is my stand point thank you! :)
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I found the meaning to be that of a person who finds that they want to be more and yet can not find a way. The “take you down” is more akin to take you down a path. “I will show you how” to do that path. In the distance is that goal or desire. As a suffer of major depressive disorder that is what it feels like. I can also say that when you begin to go down that path it feels like the music makes you feel.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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Personally, I see it as a man suffering from depression and intrusive suicidal thoughts that doesn't want to die. He wants to be normal, he's losing his sanity trying to deal with his own brain, he'd sell his very soul to find peace and stability and he feels like he's been living with it for so long; but he can't find a good way out.
It's also entirely possible "I tried to sell my soul tonight. Funny, he didn't even try to take a bite" refers to a failed suicide as those that commit suicide in Dante's Inferno are placed in a ring of Hell dedicated to them.
As for the chorus, I think that's meant to be a friend or neighbor trying to convince him to find God or. "I'm going to take you down" to the church. "I'm going to show you how" to find peace. After trying to kill himself, he finally accepts. -
This song is about a more sexually experienced male trying to get a female to surrender to her passions and come with him.
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Well this might get me in trouble but I think they're talking about the white genocide in South Africa. Is a phrase now it's been popular for 10 years called Packing for Perth. I think they're questioning what happened to South Africa. Of course they've been gone for a long time . I try not to get caught up in very specific interpretations specific scenes or specific lyrics. I think that's a weakness that many people make in my opinion when looking for the overall meaning of a song. My overall feeling of is grief and deep. And moving on.
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The music video gave me the distinct feeling that the singer is trying to speak to someone else, or multiple people. The message being that you shouldn't get so caught up in life that you forget to have fun.
Each of the people in the video have one thing they let control their lives, or so the video implies to me. They are so afraid to loose control in life that they stick to the same thing over and over, never experiment, never explore, and never enjoy the little time they have.
When the singer is saying don't delay its because life is short and we never know when will be our last chance to try new things or anything really. It seems to me a song about making sure you let loose every once in a while and do something...different. -
It's about not being sure of yourself and fed up with it.The soul bite is the devil to show how desperate he or she is. Taking you down is suicide.End this grief. No God in the song but he is the only answer.
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In other words:
In the context of unrelenting social pressures (i.e. come with me now, I'm gonna show you how) the individual is questioning if they have free will. Can they define what is real for themselves? Or are they restricted (i.e. now too old, too afraid)? What are my thoughts and are they my own? Can I follow my heart, or just that last tv infomercial (i.e. something I've read)? We are told its too hard (i.e. too far away). For more on the subject see Sam Harris "Free Will". Don't delay. -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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"Come with me now
Come with me now"
He's telling everyone to come with him now.
"I'm gonna take you down"
I'll come back to this
"Afraid to lose control
And caught up in this world"
He's finding what life's really about spiritually and he's afraid to lose control of him self and what reality really is.
"I've wasted time, I've wasted breath
I think I've thought myself to death"
He feels like he's wasted his whole life trapped in delusions trying to figure out what its all about now his eyes are wide open.
"I was born without this fear
Now only this seems clear"
Never had the fear of losing control figuring out what this life is really about but now making music opening peoples minds subconsciously is the only thing clear to him.
I have many different interpretations for this one. Well honestly I have many for everything. Possibilities are endless. That's what makes this world so magical. -
Definitely a person questioning everything about himself. An outright melodic self-assessment. Born innocent, accumulating perceptions and experiences unaware, till now that he's not what he seems. I don't hear suicide, I hear wanting to shed all the weight of not being true to himself. He wants to break out of himself as he is. He's truly digging deep, really looking at himself and can't stand it that he's wasted time. He knows lessons not yet learned (stood at this door before...) are more difficult with age. He's acted on his thoughts, not allowing his heart to guide him. He's not happy with himself and admits the confusion of thoughts, feelings and how our own minds can mess us up. We can trick ourselves via our own perceptions. Regarding spirit, knowing he once was fearless gives him hope he can fight his way back to his true self, turning away from the continual but now more distant call of evil, which preys upon the weak.
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This song is about the everyday struggles with life and trying to get ahead in the world we live in. When he says come with me now I will show you how but the guy was a back stabber and tried to take him down instead. But he was so desperate to get ahead in life he was willing to sale his soul but even that didn't pan out.
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It's about a drug addiction he has had....any drug addict can read that.
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This song perfectly describes how I feel about getting older and having not lived enough of life.
This whole devil/god paradigm seems completely self-indulged and off-topic. The only time I think the devil comes into it is when he talks about selling his soul and it was so much the devil didn't even want to mess with it.
This life after playing by the rules for too long. This life when it becomes time to let your emotions and desires and dreams lead you instead of the passivity that we are raised to follow. -
I think it about how this guy has a mentor to help him because he's afraid to loose control and caught up in this world and how he's wasted time and wasted breath. He's also tried to sell his soul. Far away I heard him say come with me now...now that I think of it, devil or mentor...ether one...
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