1000 Oceans

[ShockMeSane]

I've been told I have an interesting interpretation for 1000 Oceans. I'm not sure what Tori's interpretation is and I haven't read anything about it. I think most people think it's about someone dying or possibly about an end of a relationship.
For me it's always meaned something different. It's kind of a song to myself- about trying to save myself and find myself again. I have a habit of keeping myself down ("well, i can't believe that i would keep. keep you from flying.") and sometimes we have to cry oceans and feel the pain in order to get ourselves back again ("i would cry 1000 more if that's what it takes to sail you home sail you home. sail you home.")
I've pasted the lyrics below- as you read through them, read it as the "you" in the song is yourself. Tell me what you think

these tears i've cried.
i've cried 1000 oceans
and if it seems i'm.
floating. in the darkness

well, i can't believe
that i would keep.
keep you from flying.
and i would cry 1000 more
if that's what it takes
to sail you home
sail you home.
sail you home.

i'm aware what the rules are.
but you know that i will run.
you know that i will follow you.
over silbury hill
through the solar field.
you know that i will follow you

and if i find you.
will you. still remember
playing at the trains.
or does this
little blue ball
just fade away.

over silbury hill
through the solar field.
you know that i will follow you
i'm aware what the rules are
but you know that i will run.
you know that i will follow you.

these tears i've cried
i've cried.
1000 oceans
and if it seems i'm.
floating.
in the darkness

well, i can't believe
that i would keep
keep you from flying
so, i will cry
1000 more
if that's what it takes
to sail you home
sail you home
sail you home
sail...
sail you home

[raisangrrl]

i've always thought of this song in the 'me' aspect of it as well. I don't know, it's one of those songs that says 'you lost yourself somewhere on this path, and you know where, but are you willing to go and get that part of you back? are you ready for the tears, and the pain? are you ready for yourself to come back home?'

it makes me cry every time i hear it...

thank you for posting this!

[veela]

that is really interesting. i've never seen it that way. thanks for sharing!

[Julie]

I think they're pretty self-explainority lyrics.

Here's Tori's description of it:
"Some months ago, as I was working on my new double album in Bude in Cornwall, I had a really important dream. A voice appeared in my head. I call her my dark angel. She was a soulsister, who sang in my head. She was humming a melody to me. It was about half past five or six o'clock in the morning. I got out of bed and went over to the studio. In the country, the people there leave everything unlocked. So the studio was open. I went in and recorded the melody. From this melody the song A Thousand Oceans developed. I worked very long on it until it was finished.

Sometimes it takes an incredible amount of time for me to understand a song I have recorded. Because I am so much in it and I can't distance myself from it. Sometimes I don't really understand my songs until I go on tour and live with them. They are like girls for me that keep me accompanied. But sometimes I only understand my songs through the reactions of other people. This was the case with A Thousand Oceans. Mark had just lost his father. The two were very close, because Mark was an only-son. Before the death of my father-in-law they talked on the phone everyday. His father fooled us into believing he was getting better. He had cancer and one day he was just dead. It was a shock for Mark, because he had really believed it got better. They had already made plans for his father to come to visit us in the USA. He had never been there. After the old man had died my relationship with Mark got very difficult. He was inconsolable. You can't do much for somebody who has lost the most important person in his life. I often held him in my arms and took long walks with him. I was just there for him a lot. But I never really got through to him. I still have my mother and my father so I didn't have the experience. I only reached him with A Thousand Oceans.

After Mark heard the song, he always came to me, sat down next to the piano and said: 'Please, play that song again.' And I played it to him. Through that we got in contact once again. I took him back from that other galaxy he was in a million miles away from me. So that dream was very special to me. It renewed the connection between Mark and me."

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: 1000 oceans - Tori Amos

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