Smashing Pumpkins: Tonight, Tonight Meaning

Song Released: 1996

Tonight, Tonight Lyrics

time is never time at all
you can never ever leave without leaving a piece of youth
and our lives are forever changed
we will never be the same
the more you change the less you feel

believe believe in me believe

that life can change...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   JMO

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   May 30th 2008 !⃝

   I think it has a lot to do with taking every moment as it's own entity. "Time is never time at all" "were not the same were different tonight." I think it's saying every moment is new and different and in every moment we are different, so make this moment, tonight, something worth living. Take a chance tonight.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   mattnku

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   Apr 11th 2009 !⃝

   "Time is never time at all, you can never ever leave without leaving a piece of youth" -This means that a boy met a girl and time stood still when she was around and he fell in love and never stopped loving her. "And our lives are forever changed, we will never be the same" -She changed his life by loving him, but now she's gone and he thinks about her still. He thinks about what could be different in life if she didn't leave and hurt him. "The more you change the less you feel" -She left him and moved on and he thinks that her moving on and changing as her love grows with someone else will only desensitize her feelings for him. "Believe, believe in me, believe" - I loved you once and still do, come back and put your love in me again, I am the best for you as you are me. "Our lives are changed, you are not stuck in vein" -When you left it hurt so bad, but you will never second in my life. "Were not the same were different tonight, so bright, tonight" -We have drifted apart and have experienced different things, but tonight I feel you close to me. "And you know you're never sure, but you're sure you could be right if you held yourself up to the light" -She knows her feelings for him are still there but she can't leave the life she has started without him. "And the embers never fade in the city by the lake, the place where you were born" -Their love and fire for each other has not been extinguished just yet. He showed her how to be free and love when they were younger, in the original place they met, where his heart still is. "Believe in the resolute urgency of now and do you believe there is not a chance tonight" -For him it's all or nothing, he can't go on like this, feeling love and pain all at once from her, it's his moment of truth this night. "We'll crucify the insincere tonight" -Anybody who stands in our way and judges us will answer to us, together. "We'll make things right we'll feel it all tonight" -We'll be together and feel again what we once felt, great and in love. "We'll find a way to offer up the night" -We'll give our love to each other and offer up our bodies for this one moment in life. "The indescribable moments of your life tonight" They have found true love and no words can tell you what that is like. "The impossible is possible tonight" -Finding your one true love is one in a million, but they found it. "Believe in me as I believe in you tonight" -If you put your faith in me as I have you, then nothing can ever touch our love, we will be perfect.
3. anonymous

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   Apr 30th 2019 !⃝

   time is never time at all
   you can never ever leave without leaving a piece of youth
   and our lives are forever changed
   we will never be the same
   the more you change the less you feel
   
   I think "the more you change the less you feel" is key to grab the idea behind. I personally feel that the song is about gowing up, about becmoming adult and more realistic, you know, more cynical an all that stuff. In a way we change an become less "naive". This is clearly represented visually in the videoclip, that uses an aesthetic that is really "naive" from a period that cinema was just in his youth and full of imagination and so. "you can never ever leave (as in passing of time) without leaving a piece of you". You can´t grow without change, so essentialy we all gonna lose the spark from our youth at one moment in our lives. Whaterver it really means, is the most sad and beautiful song ever.
4. anonymous

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   Sep 17th 2014 !⃝

   Think this means that you may never have enough time so you love the person you care about for the present time because for what's it worth you may never see them again
5. anonymous

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   Sep 8th 2013 !⃝

   I think he has lost his love time and time again, for different reasons every time, and he knows they are meant to be, he has always but for her its different so he has to convince her knowing that he will go through losing her and doing this overand over again until they die ....and he will because has always known there are meant, no matter what people say, "crucify the insincere tonight" where she goes, who she is with, the "impossible is possible tonight" but through all of this he knows he must hurry because time......is the most valuable thing we have and its running out so if he doesn't hurry finding her and getting her back then that's more time than he has already lost...resolute urgency of now
6. anonymous

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   Nov 1st 2007 !⃝

   It's a love story.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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