Digital Ghost

[veela]

Digital Ghost

it started as a joke
just one of my larks to see
if somehow i could reach you so

i swam into your shores
through an open window
only to find you all alone

curled up with machines
now it seems you're slipping
out of the land of the living

just take a closer look
take a closer look
at what it is that's really haunting you

i have to trust you'll know
this digital ghost
but i fear there's only so much time
'cause the you i knew is fading away

hands lay them on my keys
let me play you again
i am not immune to your net

find me there in it
i won't go even if in
your heart only beats one and o's

switch you on my friend
pull you from that rip current
but only you can find against this and

take a closer look
just take a closer look
at what it is that's really haunting you

i have to trust you'll know
this digital ghost
but i fear there's only so much time
'cause the you i knew is fading away

fading
fading
away


so my take on this song is that it's about someone who is suffering from depression (or something like it) and has retreated to their own little world of computers and other gadgets instead of being with people. this person is slowly losing themselves and becoming nothing more than a "digital ghost" whom the people around him/her can barely recognize anymore.

tori is trying to help this person but is getting sucked into the sadness (i am not immune to your net/find me there in it) but wants to help this person and is willing to stick by him/her. however, there is only so much she can do because this is something that really only that person can truly battle (only you can fight against this).

the line "i won't go even if in/your heart only beats one and o's" is a reference to binary code. she's saying that even if these machines are all that you can connect with anymore, i'm still going to be here and i'll still try.

so that's my take... i actually thought it's one of the more straight-forward of her songs! but then i read Jenni's review in her livejournal where she mentioned being physically connected to machines for breathing and such and i had never really thought of that. that's part of what i love about tori -- her songs can be so many things to so many different people depending on their own experience and pov.

so what do the rest of you think???

[Koalapupu]

I like your view! My machine idea came from this one sound in the song that sounds like someone breathing deep in and out with the help of a machine. But at the same time, with all the references to the Internet and keyboards, I think the computer metaphor makes more sense...

Originally I was comparing the song to Kate Bush's Deeper Understanding (the lyrics can be found here, which is about computers, but now I feel like this could work as a reply to that song! In Deeper Understanding, the singer is retreating into the world of computers, finding her only solace there. And now, in Digital Ghost, we have a narrator who is reaching the person from Deeper Understanding, trying to pull her/him away.

Still, if this song is really all about reaching for a person who only lives through computers... I will be disappointed, because that is the stereotype of people online: that they have no friends at all and are basically sad "ghosts" of what they used to be. But we all here at the forum know that that's not right, right?

By the way, is the Digital Ghost here the narrator/Tori or the person the song is about? My first thought was that when she sings "I have to trust you'll know this digital ghost" it's aimed at the person she is trying to reach--but the online-Tori is not quite the same as the RL-Tori, so she hopes that she is still recognizable. Other view could be that "I have to trust you'll know" is aimed at the listeners. Perhaps? What do you think?

[veela]

i think that's interesting that you picked up on a sound like that! very cool. could definitely be... and the idea that it's a response to another song. hhhmmmm... interesting!

i don't get the idea that the message is that this person doesn't have a life because they spend a lot of time on the computer. more like this person is retreating and it happens to be machines that he/she is connecting with/retreating into. it could be a combination of musical instruments, computers, tv, mp3 players, etc. just not really interacting with people anymore because of this darkness that's sweeping over him/her. does that make sense? it's much less about "not having a life" and much more about the darkness that is depression.

i thought about the "i have to trust you'll know this digital ghost" line too. i'm not sure what i think about it. my current thinking is that she hopes this person will find themselves inside of this "digital ghost." that they'll still be recognizable and can pull their true self from out of what they've become. and that this needs to happen soon, before it is too late and he/she is lost forever. again, there is only so much that she can do from the outside so she has to trust that this person will be able to come back to her as who they really are.

[Julie]

Whoops, I didn't see that you already started a thread for Digital Ghost.

I think this song is about taking a leap of faith in someone who is closed off to a lot of people and she falls in love with them and he lets her in his circle but he starts fading away ultimately and it really is his issue and not her's. I think the lines like "curled up with machines" and referencing him as a "digital ghost" may mean that he's turning to other things to escape reality, like TV, movies, and whatnot. She loves him unconditionally and wants this person to figure out what is really bothering him because she doesn't want to leave his side.