Has anyone noticed that Poppers ability to talk about subjects and see the positive side to things, and always leave you with a fealing of optimism, yet his Love Songs for the most part are devoid of this sentiment. I realised this while listening to Sweet Pain, that it was more than just a song about loss, it was a definitive surrender to loneliness, or the pain of broken relationships and lonliness being the only companion he feels comfortable with. Am I wrong?
Popper Lack of Optimism when it comes to love.
(3 posts) (2 voices)-
KV
Member".....And once upon a time...You know I used to wonder why...You know no one should need to cry...In pain of a heart forbade to fly...But you 'learn to say goodbye'...As you whisper beneath a sigh...----John Popper has some great new music coming out now and I'm sure he'd like to move on-- but I'll always come back to the songs like 'Sweet Pain', 'Look Around' and 'Optimistic Thought'. I can't speak for John Popper but for myself I feel like surrendering to "what is" is very freeing. When you're lonely and have been almost all your life and you finally stop fighting against it...the pain changes and the ache dims away. It becomes a companion in and of itself and therefore kind of positive and optimistic.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Gordon_The_Hat
MemberSo the fact that he resigns to loves failure and becomes happy with the pain of lonelyness is optimistically wishing for love eventually failing and perpetually being lost. The silver lining being, "well there goes that relationship, but at least I will have my pain and lonliness"? I don't buy that, Conquer Me is a desperate plea for a woman to understand him.
Its a clever way to view things. I think Sweet Pain is Apologetics for Pain.
I just find that the messages in Poppers lyrics have always been that life is what you make of it, choose to see the good in it, and through this optimism and state of denial you will win out. However, when it comes to interpersonal relationships with women, their seems to be a sense of preditermined self prophetic failure, and it goes against this lifes message.
Why?
To confuse the issue I will refer, to familiar heroes from long ago, no matter how much Peter loved her, what made the Pan refuse to grow.......Peter Pan sits outside of Wendy's window, and needs to get to know her better because he has fallen in love with her, because she idolizes him in her stories. Part of Peter knows that he should stay away because no one ever tells Peter what to do, and that is a big part of Wendy's personality, telling Michael and John what to do for their own good.
Peter thinks that Wendy's idolozation through her stories of him will protect Peter from being the object of Wendy's domination. Peter enters the nursery partially because his hand is forced by Mr Darling's declaration that Wendy will move out, grow up, and be forever lost to Peter, but partially because Wendy is the only girl he has ever loved. So he decides to enter the room at night, and when asked why he is there instead of admit his fascination of her, he submits to having his shadow forever attached to him. Wendy happily sows his shadow on him (which in jungian phylosophy the opposite of the irresponsibility, wrecklessness, selfishness and lack of forethought). Now Peter is Hooked (pardon the pun) and whisks his new love off to neverland to meet the lost boys. So Peter is in love (even though he doesn't know it) because he believes that Wendy idolizes him, but the longer she stays in Neverland which is essentially Peters World, the more she becomes under the opinion that he is a womanizer, irresponsible, self centered, risk taker, who can't take care of anyone including himself. In reality, the lost boys are well taken care of, Peter has rules that are never ever broken, and everyone agrees to take orders, the boys are happy and play games and have a very functional albeit rowdy family unit. As far as the womanizing is concerned, they are only Mermaids (allegory for a one night stand) and because they are physcially incapable of living in hang mans tree on land, can't be anything more to Peter than a fling. True they don't wash behind their ears, but when your a boy there is no need to waste your time on such tom foolery to begin with.
The fact of the matter is, that Peter has always been who he was when Wendy told stories about him, and dreamed about him, and he hasn't changed. It is Wendy's desire to dominate her surroundings and make them more in line with her vision of normal that sets her and Peters relationship on edge and eventually ends up with Peter sending Wendy home. Wendy wants to go home because Peter won't change, he won't grow up. Peter know that growing up, means he won't be able to fly anymore (create, have boundless excitiement, go on adventures, etc.....)and this is his biggest fear. Even death to him seems like the biggest adventure of them all.
Peter Pan is honest and sincere, and attractive to women who idolize him for his courage, wit, talent and good looks, but once he allows them into his world, they begin to try and dominate it, and he has been alone enough to realize that he doesn't want to change, doesn't want to grow up, and he dpesn't understand why Wendy couldn't love him for who he is , like she claimed she did when they first met. That is the honest thing, why does she want to change him when the first time he met her she was saying he was the greatest hero of all. Why does she want to take away all of the things that make him that hero?
Next time Peter falls for a Wendy Bird, he will know better than to bring her to never land, and he will simply enjoy the Wendy Birds idolization of him as long as it lasts, and then fly away as soon as it diminishes. Not because Pain is his friend, but because he hates it, it is no fun, and he doesn't want to see it again.
The Pain of preemptive seperation is far less than the Pain of a broken heart, and growing up means growing old and growing old means dying without an adventure. So why do that when lonliness is always forgotten by flying with tink (Gina) and the lost boys (Chan, Brendan, Tad, Ben, and the Fans), and fooling around with the Tigerlillies, and Mermaids along the way.
For some reason though, he still has the urge, to sit outside Wendy's window and listen to her idolize him, and from time to time he forgets that that will dissapear once he brings her back to Neverland.
I wonder if I am right.
Posted 1 year ago #
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