If you made a game of bingo out of this video, some of the squares might ask for:
Awesome black muscle shirt
Entire band playing air instruments
Wharf
Jean jacket
Keyboard glued to a wall
Aloof-looking girl with big hair and dangly earrings
Lead singer overemoting while leaning against a bright yellow wall
Drummer wearing a cutoff maroon T-shirt that says "FOOSBALL"
Synchronized head swivels
Porn 'stache
Slow motion jam session
Lead singer calling a holding penalty (also the internationally recognized symbol for "those chains that bind you")
Shocking final twist that makes no sense
And now, take it away, Robocop!
Here we stand / Worlds apart, hearts broken in two, two, two / Sleepless nights / Losing ground, I'm reachin’ for you, you, you
I don't quite understand the need for the parenthetical "Worlds Apart" in the title of this song. "Separate Ways" is a fine title. Although, I like to think that this was the inspiration for that Radiohead album where every song had two different names.
Feelin' that it's gone / Could change your mind / If we can't go on / To survive the tide, love divides
Not sure I quite get this part. Is he saying that experiencing the feelin' that it's gone could change her mind? Or is he feelin' that it's gone, but also thinks he could possibly change her mind? Steve Perry? Little help over here? Oops, looks like he's too busy fighting crime in dystopian Old Detroit.
By the way, the foray onto the Robocop Wikipedia page necessitated by that last paragraph revealed this little gem: "RoboCop was written by Edward Neuemeier and Michael Miner. Edward Neumeier stated that he first got the idea of Robocop when he walked past a poster for Blade Runner. He asked his friend what the film was about and he replied saying, 'It's about a cop hunting robots'. This then sparked the idea for him about a Robot Cop."
The movie was also inspired by the Judge Dredd comic book and the Marvel superhero Iron Man. And people say Hollywood lacks for original ideas ... sheesh.
Someday love will find you / Break those chains that bind you / One night will remind you / How we touched and went our separate ways
Umm ... what? Love will find her, thereby breaking whatever chains are binding her, and only *then* will she remember how the two of you were also once in love? Guh-wha?
If he ever hurts you / True love won't desert you / You know I still love you / Though we touched and went our separate ways
But on the other hand, if "he" ever hurts her, she will *also* remember this love affair with Steve Perry and then ... who knows? Hmm. I'm starting to think Steve Perry might be kind of self-centered.
Troubled times / Caught between confusion and pain, pain, pain
"Confusion" and "Pain" are the names of Steve Perry's two Bengal tigers.
Distant eyes / Promises we made were in vain, in vain, in vain
I think this song should've been called "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart (Distant Eyes))."
If you must go, I wish you love / You'll never walk alone / Take care my love / Miss you, love
The last two lines are sort of funny if you imagine Steve Perry saying them in a British accent.
I still love you, girl / I really love you, girl / And if he ever hurts you / True love won't desert you / No....no...
Hey, girl! Even though we're (apparently) breaking up and are, in my own words, "worlds apart," you can take comfort in the fact that if you later find yourself in an abusive relationship, you can always look fondly back on our "true love" that is for some reason ending. Silver lining, am I right? OK then! Wow, being a robot is easy.
Posts
I'm uncomfortable with the whole "we touched" refrain. Was this originally "we schtupped" but the label made them change these shocking, frank sexual lyrics, but they wanted to keep the same basic vowel sound?
ReplyDeleteuh, yeah, i'm sure "schtupped" was the word they replaced.
ReplyDeleteI'm really enjoying your blog, just to let you know. I laughed uproariously at "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart (Distant Eyes))." I always thought this song sounded very delusional, you know? This girl is clearly moving on to another guy and eager to be rid of him, and he's all on about true love and hearts broken in two. I like to imagine a companion song from her perspective, "Get Over It, Drama Queen (We Dated For Like Two Weeks, WTF??!!!").
ReplyDeleteIm not sure how to put this nicely..... so I won't
ReplyDeletefuck you, for making fun of this song.
that is all
I know hese comments are several years ago...But I'm commenting on behalf of of what I think and for future people and fyi Journey is awesome!! I don't care for what movies this song is made for or is featured in..But I do know people's opinions is indeed their op's but each person can relate to a this song like this.. The girl in this song could have choose to end it or the circumstances changed things but see that's where I relate to it..The guy I'm in love with and I relate to it in a non sexual way..He played it to tell me after unfortunate circumstances caused us not to get to fulfill our plans within...See. he figured out I was being abued physically and emotionally...Before then we were drawn to each other and have a strong connection we still do... I did leave my husband hence the words "breack the chains that bind you" but went back because of unfortunate events in my family and other events that's when he played that one night befoe we picked "him" up from work...He's telling me He loves me that he's protecting me that my true love won't desert me and I'm so in love with him too but its our soul we feel each other's pain love happiness hope etc the part refering "how we touched and went our seperate ways" is his references to the night we huged and later ended up going our seperate ways and living in "hypathetical worlds apart" me traped him helpless cause he's a lover not a fighter and I'm an an adapter to the current entrapment..So our heart ARE broken into...Also before any future comments judge me none of my past exs nor my husband was mutual love as in both ppl fall at thesame time...non of them I have done the pursuing and they didn't love me bk or it was bad notions and there were lies like my husband I thought I knew kept very dark scary secets fr me that I founf out fr his family and him his self he admitted within that last several yes not wanting me even in the beginning and not wanting a child all bdays holidays through these years have been horrible one mothers day he said in front of thekids that he doesn tsee the fkn sense of mothers day and why they got to make something..all I can say is be careful who u choose to rush in with u may not know them at all u would want to know about my husband nor any of my oher exes.But far as true love I founf but I should have been more patient for him instead of looking true love will find you and u have to be careful about who u choose to let in your life and our cause it could be a mistake and put u in grave dangerand then your true love is found and then you will be hurt and feel hopeless but its not..Other songs he and I relate us to is wonderwall by oasis, iris by goo goo dolls, yellow by coldplay, you found me~the fray, tom petty~ won't back down, stand by me~ ben e king, secrets ~one republic,breath ~ breaking benjamin, we get these songs by hearing them on eachothers phones its our only way to communicate.... he is my brother bstf he is good, he is pure his soul is beautiful and completes mine and he feels and sees what compltes his in mine.. So every one knows not every thing is about sex and every one has reasons and ways to relate to music..I don't care this is long but that song relates strongly to the man I'm in love with and dido him to me...I will brak these unheathy abusive prison chains that bind me but til then he's watching he's waiting with uncoditional protective love for me.... Later musci people...
ReplyDeleteThis is so hilarious..awesomely entertaining, the 'rock bingo' especially! And the 'we touched' lyric has always felt so cringe worthy to me every time...I felt badly for this. Still an awesome lyric though-whether or not schtuping was truly involved.
ReplyDeleteI am embarrassed to say that I am so, so glad I am not the only person who thinks about why Journey is so ambiguous in their lyrical content...while singing in such a passionate manner, all arena rock-demi-god fashion...and spandex with bouffant hair. I started to feel like I wanted to break up with this particular Journey song, for good, but now I realize it's not just me! Here I was feeling badly for being so completely distraught at the pointlessness of the entire intro leading up to a bunch of cliche nonsense, but now I realize it's just a muddled mess, and am able to forgive myself for my confused heart.
The video to this song was rushed and not well put together but the song itself is great. It's sung from the perspective of a man who loves a woman who has been abused in the past and is not able to recognize true love. Instead, she is drawn to abusive men. I don't know why you guys have trouble with the "touched" lyric. Must you interpret it as a physical touch? I just think it means that their lives touched each other but now they are no longer together but their lives are different because of knowing one another. It also could be about a man in love with a married woman who is no longer in love with her husband but with the singer, but she is staying with her husband out of a sense of obligation. I like the lyrics and have always been TOUCHED by them.
ReplyDeleteStandard Journey hit song cheese. Have you broken down Wheel in the Sky? Imma gonna look for that now. Wrote that letter made of silver (not of clay-ee-yay-aay, you know...)
ReplyDelete