Hmm, this one has me perplexed. Great song, awesome video. However, I can not stop listening to it yet I am not entirely sure I understand it, not sure if there is a meaning to this one. Perhaps that is the whole point of the song.
"Tell them how your pleasure’s set up on slow-release"
Like a comatose patient.
"I spent a lifespan with no cellmate"
What a lonvely way to live.
"Saying meanwhile can’t we look the other way?"
Let us pretend it never happened.
~david macias
Rosemary
Heaven restores you in life
Coming with me
Through the aging, the fear and the strife
It’s the smiling on the package
It’s the faces in the sand
It’s the thought that holds you upwards
Embracing me with two hands
Write, we’ll take you places
Yeah maybe to the beach
When your friends they do come crying
Tell them how your pleasure’s set up on slow-release
Hey wait
Great smile
Sensitive to faith not
Denial
But hey who’s on trial?
It took a life spent
With no cellmate
The long way back
Saying meanwhile can’t we look the other way?
He speaks about travel
Yeah, we think about the land
We smile like all people
Feeling real tan
I can take you places
Do you need a new man?
Wipe the pollen from the faces
Make revision to a dream while you wait in the van
Hey wait
Great smile
Sensitive to faith not
Denial
But hey who’s on trial?
It took a life spent
With no cellmate
Find a long way back
Saying meanwhile can’t we look the other way?
You’re weightless, you are exotic
You need something for which to care
Saying meanwhile can’t we look the other way?
Leave some shards under the belly
Lay some grease inside my hand
It’s a sentimental jury
And the makings of a good plan
You’ve come to love me nightly
Yeah you’ve come to hold me tight
Is this motion everlasting
Or do shutters pass in the night?
Rosemary
Oh heaven restores you in life
I spent a lifespan with no cellmate
The long way back
Saying meanwhile can’t we look the other way?
You’re weightless, semi-erotic
You need someone to take you there
Saying meanwhile can’t we look the other way?
Why can’t we just play the other game?
Why can’t we just look the other way?
I find that this song has alot of meanning for myself. My mother was killed as a passenger with the driver that was drunk (they were in the same car). I did not think of him as a good person. ( I was right) So with that here is my 2 cents on the meaning of the lyrics.
Rosemary, Heaven restores you in life
You’re coming with me
Through the aging, the fearing, the strife
(This is a reverse statement, Rosemary is dead and is being redemed from sin but before that they are going though sinfully stuff that causes aging, fear and suffering)
It’s the smiling on the package
It’s the faces in the sand
It’s the thought that moves you upwards
Embracing me with two hands
Right will take you places
Yeah maybe to the beach
When your friends they do come crying
Tell them now your pleasure’s set upon slow release
(Again these two statement are in effect, and then cause for that action is explained. Right is refered to family and friends that take your cremated body to the beach for speading. That is why friends are crying. Rosmary is an Angle now and pleasure comes in a different form and not by sin. Sin usally gives fast pleasue to a person where Goddness usally is a slower pleasure. The smilling on the package is ether a Drug or Alcohol that is given by a friend. The thought is dying from such an fate of using drugs. The embracing of two hand is a calaboration of using the substance to the end)
Hey wait
Great Smile
Sensitive to fate, not denial
But hey, who’s on trial?
(Hey wait….meaning….don’t DIE….great smile….angles smile offten or….smiling that her sin is finally over…and that would be the reason that she is sensitve to her fate but not denial…she knows that she died and cannot deny it…the trial is who ever is at falt or judement to the one that is guilty)
It took a life span with no cellmate
The long way back
Sandy, why can’t we look the other way?
(I agree with you on this statement that both persons are lonly. The way back I belive is back to the creator, or heaven where we all come from. He wants to look the other way because HE is in denal.)
We speaks about travel
Yeah we think about the land
We smart like all peoples
Feeling real tan
I could take you places
Do you need a new man?
Wipe the pollen from the faces
Make revision to a dream while you wait in the van
(Travel is dying, the land is heaven,,,,They thought that they knew everything and that they were above it all…..Beatiful and "tan" I could take you place do you need a new man means that he know that he killed here and took her to heaven and she needed a different man. Pollen is from the flowers in the funeral, faces are the friends. And revisons of the dream are of course becasue death. The van is most likely a hearse.)
Hey wait
Great Smile
Sensitive to fate, not denial
But hey, who’s on trial?
It took a life span with no cellmate
To find the long way back
Sandy, why can’t we look the other way?
You’re weightless; you are exotic
You need something for which to care
Sandy, why can’t we look the other way?
(same as before but notice that addes was weightless…exotic….Angle like…..Need something which to care means that if she cared about someting that maybe should would have stop doing drugs and survied the accident. )
Leave some shards under the belly
Lay some grease inside my hand
It’s a sentimental jury
And the makings of a good plan
You’ve come to love me lightly
Yeah you come to hold me tight
Is this motion ever lasting
Or do shudders pass in the night?
(The first 2 sentences are dealing the physical aspect of the crash. Sentainental jury is that Rosemary does not blame the driver. The makings of the plan is death by the sin…many songs in the 60’s show referance that most of them would not live past 40. ‘love lightly, hold thight’ Many drug partners don’t love eachother but hold tight to one another because they need people that enable them to do more drugs. )
Rosemary, Heaven restores you in life
I spent a life span with no cellmate
The long way back
Sandy, why can’t we look the other way?
You’re weightless, semi-erotic
You need someone to take you there
Sandy, why can’t we look the other way?
Why can’t we just play the other game?
Why can’t we just look the other way?
(Here we go again….but it is changed just a little bit . Semi-erotic, meaning it was a waste now and not so great….and finally play the other game refers living a life with out drugs…..)
Thank you
Nathan Jones
nathan@capsoff.com
I really appreciate you sharing this. I think your interpretation is extremely insightful and deep. Shows just how amazing music can be.
~david macias
wow…. iv been thinking about what the lyrics could mean for ages…and while i do think that lyrics are very subjective, that thats a really good interpretation of them!….and it gives the song lots more meaning, as if it wasnt addictive and drawing enough as it is as just a melody and instrument piece befor you even consider the lyrics!
this has got to be the best explination I’ve heard so far…the complexity of this piece both musically and lyrically…I guess you really have to through something similar to understand it…but still I find it fascinating…10xs
Hey wait
Great Smile
Sensitive to fate, not denial
But hey, who’s on trial?
It took a life span with no cellmate
To find the long way back
Sandy, why can’t we look the other way?
You’re weightless; you are exotic
You need something for which to care
Sandy, why can’t we look the other way?
The underlying meaning of the song is coping with loss. Specifically in “Evil” by Interpol a fatal car wreck is used as an analogy for a previous relationship.
Unlike most love songs about face-less masses of emotion, “Evil” has given names and partial descriptions. Rosemary was the old, conservative girl friend. Sandy is the new exotic one. The singer is constantly reminded of what he had with Rosemary and how badly it ended. It is made worse when he is with Sandy.
Why do people look at car wrecks? A driver’s lapse of concentration serves only to endanger and pisses off other drivers stuck behind them. Its is a natural human reaction to want to see blood and guts.
The singer is still looking for reasons for why things happened the way they did with Rosemary. Constantly asking himself who’s fault was it, really? Not coming to any definitive answer he is sure of one thing: it’s done and over. Rosemary is dead to him.
He wishes he could move on, stop being so introspective and blaming only himself. Learn something from it and ignore the charred, twisted metal. Instead he should be happy and start over with Sandy.
I’ve actually herd from a lot of people this song is based on actual events,regarding the lives of a man in a woman who were romaticly involved and went on a murder spree together.
Yes I know for sure now.
The song is based on the murders commited by Fred and Rosemary West.
Wow, that’s great information, I had no idea, thank you for sharing that.
~david