Owl City: Fireflies Meaning
Song Released: 2009
Fireflies Lyrics
If ten million fireflies
Lit up the world as I fell asleep
Cause they fill the open air,
And leave teardrops everywhere,you'd think me rude but I would just stand, and stare
I'd like to make myself...
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He speaks his insomnia issues... This happens to a person whom have been through trauma. They don't sleep much or good. I think he is saying that he troubled in falling asleep. When a man is awake for much too long he become tired. When he become tired he stop, stand and stare because he zoned out. He not able to focus on things. He cries tears everywhere because he a rude child who can not control anger. He mention in song that he would rather stay awake when he asleep. Here he being rude again. He not thankful when he finally slumbers. Let's say he was an atual insomniac man. What happens next is can't make it through the day and turn into narcoleptic. It happens and it make sense. Things flip from extreme. When he fall on sidewalk and crack his head due to insomning for so long, he sees stars. He calls them "fireflies". Here he being thankful for concussion. He rude when insomniac and grateful as narcolepticion. He talk of crack so maybe he a druggie. Even might be sexual predator if he mention sheep. That's deviation material and not okay.
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Everyone is so far off base with this song except a couple who are marked as a poor interpretation. Adam suffers from insomina as stated in the song. The fireflies refer to CEV (closed eye visuals). When a person suffers from insomnia they stare at the back of their eyelids. When you do this some people get a hallucination of specks of "light" that "dance around" in an apparent disorganized motion. Some insomniacs end up watching these specks and find themselves distracted to the point where they atually fall asleep without realizing it. The problem with insomnia is that sleep is so foreign to you that you crave to be there and the morning comes so fast. When you fall asleep your eyes water hence the tears. The rest of the song is Adam taking this and being creative to turn it into a song.
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Hello how are you? Do you like the song Mine Mine by Jay Chou? To me it is so um... excellent!!! You should download it, it's magnificent! (Wink)
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no you are all wrong, this song is about rolling. the sense of leaving reality and entering a dream like state of euphoria.
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I personally take it as making an experience known as astral projection or Out of Body Experience (OBE) into a metaphor. Having personally had a few of these, I think the fireflies symbolize the energy everything contains in these experiences. "You would not believe your eyes, if ten million fireflies lit up the world as I fell asleep."
Astral project or OBEs tend to happen at night. Usually, the person cannot believe that they are outside their body, though they do not deny it.
"'Cause they fill the open air, and leave teardrops everywhere. You'd think me rude but I would just stand and... stare."
Everything glows and sparkles during an OBE. It's like everything is full of energy- the very air is warm and gives a sense of love and belonging. You also feel a love for everything on Earth, wanting to just soak it all in.
"It's hard to say I'd rather be awake when I'm asleep, 'cause everything is never as it seems."
That's actually pretty literal- in an OBE, your consciousness, you, are awake, while your physical body is at rest. We normally think of mind and body as one, when really, that is not the case.
"'Cause I'd get a thousand hugs, from ten-thousand lightning bugs, as they tried to teach me how to dance."
He refers to the glowing, sparkling energy flowing around him as he flies- dancing. (In an OBE, physics do not apply. You can go through walls, stretch, and fly. It's like being a ghost, except you can go back.)
"Leave my door open just a crack (Please take me away from here), because I feel like such an insomniac. (Please take me away from here.) Why do I tire of counting sheep (Please take me away from here) when I'm far too tired to fall asleep?"
I believe he is talking about wanting to have another, to go back to that freedom and love. ("Please take me away from here"- "here" meaning our physical reality)
"To ten- fireflies, I'm weird 'cause I hate goodbyes. I got misty eyes as they said "farewell". But I'll know where several are, if my dreams get real bizarre, 'cause I saved a few and I keep them in a jar."
He's saying how inside he knows that it doesn't make sense to feel bad about leaving- he had a great experience, and can reflect on that any time during daily reality. When he says he "saved a few" and kept them "in a jar", he's referring to writing down his experiences in a dream/OBE journal. He can always reread his notes and remember his experiences.
"It's hard to say I'd rather be awake when I'm asleep, because my dreams are bursting at the seams."
When he says "because my dreams are bursting at the seams" he means to say that his nightly experiences are affecting him in every way- having OBEs generally leave people with a knowledge of life after death, a feeling a love for everything, and a want to grow. -
actually, when he was a little boy in Minnesota he experienced a meteor shower, or fireflies. the teardrops might have been the people crying or whatever. He also had been suffering from insomnia when he was a child.
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All of you are confused....infact very confused.... how can you listen to a song and not know the meaning or interpretation. Please write to the artist and find out what he meant to say....thank you very much.
From a concerned educated individual -
Adam wrote this song for Taylor Swift. Think of him dreaming about her, ten million fireflies, world turning slowly etc. She wrote a song in response and they sang a duet of it together. I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head, but it made great sense, especially thinking of Taylor's red hair and usual "shine" to her wardrobe. Apparently he didn't follow through and didn't "get the girl", how many know that song? Lol.
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fm5nUm Cool! You have answered. I'll take a quote! The meaning of life and everything else. Decided. No kidding!....
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This could be a suicide song. It can be
interpreted as making specific
reference to several methods the
narrator considers, before deciding
against it at the end of the song.
Consider:
You would not believe your eyes
If ten million fireflies
Lit up the world as I fell asleep
Because they'd fill the open air
And leave teardrops everywhere
You'd think me rude but I'd just
stand and stare
The narrator is surrounded by
sparks, or embers, or possibly bloody
splatter, and "you" may be crying,
while the narrator doesn't react.
The chorus suggests that the
narrator is unable to cope with his
current predicament. Another
interpretation of the song suggests
that this is a coming-of-age song,
"planet Earth turns slowly" suggests
that the narrator has learned
something, and the world around
him is "accelerating" but this is all
said in disbelief, he years for an
alternative.
Because I'd get a thousand hugs
From ten thousand lightning bugs
As they tried to teach me how to
dance
A foxtrot above my head
A sockhop beneath my bed
A disco ball is just hanging by a
thread
The narrator is going to electrocute
or hang himself. Ten thousand hugs
is an electrical current running
through him, and dancing is
referencing his contortions from the
shock. A 'disco ball just hanging by a
thread" is his head at the end of a
rope.
When I fall asleep leave my door
open just a crack
(Please take me away from here)
Because i feel like such an insomniac
(Please take me away from here)
Why do I tire of counting sheep
(Please take me away from here)
When I'm far too tired to fall asleep?
The narrator feels as though he has
outlived himself. He is an
"insomniac" in the sense that he
unable to commit suicide and go to
sleep, and begs to get away from the
world.
To ten million fireflies
I'm weird because I hate goodbyes
I got misty eyes as they said farewell
But I'll know where several are
If my dreams get real bizarre
Because I saved a few and I keep
them in a jar
Here, the narrator has decided not to
kill himself, a tearful decision that
has taken some trial to reach. The
'fireflies' saved in a jar may be a
bottle of pills. -
for me..the song is about a brokenhearted man who left by his girlfriend and he can't believe that it was happened to him. that's why he want to believe that everything was like a dream and he want to make the world turns slowly
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In this one, I think Adam is reminiscing about his childhood. He's talking about how the world seemed so good, so beautiful, so full of wonder and so simple when he was a child. But 'everything is never as it seems' and he wants to escape from tricky adult life. The whole fireflies thing is about how he caught fireflies when he was a kid and, like every kid, would 'stand and stare' as they lit up. He'd also 'LIKE to make' himself believe that the world turns slowly. He thinks that his childhood escaped from him to fast and wishes he could go back and live it again. He wishes he still has that childhood innocence, trust and freedom. This is a deep and beautifully written song. I warmly congratulate anyone who saw the meaning on the first listening.
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This song is about the singer being an imsoniac and his is efforts to get to sleep along with reasons why he can't.
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Fireflies speak of hopes and dreams of the artist as a young child but he faces reality as he grows
I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly.(it dosen't)
(Please take me away from here)(he's tired of reality)
Why do I tire of counting sheep?(People with bad behavior)
As they try to teach me how to dance(how to behave)
A disco ball is just hanging by a thread(things are more complex than they seem) -
The song starts off saying that the artist is now an adult and has the realities of life cut him away from his "fireflies" or dreams. The harshness then makes him cry which his perspective make you think that he is weak. Verse 2,4, and 7 then explains how he wants to believe in that he has more time like in when he is asleep as he believes life is too short. Verse 3 futher adds to his wish to return to a child when simplicity and imagination is all that was needed to stay well. Verse 5 shows how the artist is still trying to hold on to old habits for sleep, but is slowly rejecting them, and causing him grief. Verse 6 then shows how he still wants to a kid, but must move on and forget must of his dreams as he now must fend for himself and is impossible to achieve them. However, he is still able to keep some of his dreams alive because it is possible for it to happen, and is some how able to think about them. The last verse, 8, is a repeat of 3,5, and 7, but it is set apart by the qoute "because my dreams are bursting at the seams" showing how fast he must diminsh the majority of his childhood behavior and hopes to be better able to survive an adolescent life.
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