Release Party Interpretation - PLANETS OF THE UNIVERSE

[Stewy]

Here's another of Stevie's new songs off of Trouble in Shangri-La!!!

Stewy

P.S. - Please feel free to keep interpreting the songs that were posted last week!! We'll keep all the threads going into June!!




Planets Of The Universe

Words and Music by Stevie Nicks.


The bright light is lying down
The earth and the sea and the sky
Is at rest with the ocean
And the days go by

They go into the seas that have no shores
Haunted by that same closed door
Looking up at skies on fire
Leaving nothing left of us
To discover

1st Chorus:
And the planets of the universe
Go their way
Not astounded by the sun or the moon
Or by the day
You and I will simply disappear
Out of sight
But I'm afraid soon there'll be
No light

No doubt, no pain
Come ever again, well
Let there be light in this lifetime
In the cool, silent moments of the nighttime

2nd Chorus:
And the planets of the universe
Go their way
Not astounded by the sun or the moon
Or by the day
We will never change again
The way that we are changing
Well, you'll forget the chill of love
But not the strain

Now I know
Well, I was wrong
To live for a dream
If I had my life to live over
I would never dream, no
I still wish you gone
I will live alone
Yes, I will live alone

1st Chorus

You will never love again
The way you loved me
You will never rule again
The way you ruled me
You will never change again
The way you're changing

[Lee]

Since I like this song, this is how I interpret it.

Stevie initially said that this was an angry song about Lindsey. In the beginning of the song, basically she's saying life goes on (after a break-up), but she's afraid that he'll be mad forever, that they'll never get to be friends, that if they don't talk about it or get past it (the break-up), they'll never even be friendly towards each other. She wants to be friends. She tries to explain the reasons for the break-up; she was changing; he was changing. She didn't want to be controlled. Then towards the end of the song, it sound like she regrets breaking up, dreaming what she dreams, but still she's glad he left anyway. Then at the end of the song, she gets mad. She's just going to live alone; he's just going to never love again like he loved her.

Lee

[rhiannon1119]

Here is my interpretation of this song:

She has said that this song was written when her and Lindsey broke up and that is was a very angry, bitter song.

In a recent interview, she said that she had to add the first two verses to make it a little softer and not so angry. I think it is about her breakup with Lindsey and how pissed off and furious she was during that time. I think the way she uses the imagery of the sun, moon, sea and planets to describe her and Lindsey's relationship is very creative.

I think she is basically saying that they definitely should go their own way, but hopes that somewhere down the line, they can get past it and become friends again. If they would have stood together, it would have been a very dark relationship. There was nothing left of them...they weren't the same two people who fell in love....they changed. But she did want him to know one thing....that he will never have another relationship like the one he had with her and that he would never love again the same way.

...just my opinion

Michelle

[Grainuaile]

It's obvious that Stevie was incredibly upset with Lindsey when she wrote it...

And the planets of the universe
Go their way
Not astounded by the sun or the moon
Or by the day
You and I will simply disappear
Out of sight
But I'm afraid soon there'll be
No light


In the chorus, I think she's basically saying that even if she and Lindsey have their fights and whatnot, the universe will NOT come crashing down, and the planets will be the same as they always were.

Now I know
Well, I was wrong
To live for a dream
If I had my life to live over
I would never dream, no
I still wish you gone
I will live alone
Yes, I will live alone

Stevie's now saying that she wishes she had chosen not to be with him in the first place.

You will never love again
The way you loved me
You will never rule again
The way you ruled me
You will never change again
The way you're changing

I think this verse is pretty self explanatory.

[sara1998]

I could have sworn that Stevie said in an interview that Planets was about her fear of basically the end of the world. Really, I'm not making this up!

So, I have always thought as Planets as being about the end.

I think the first verse explains life as it is now:
The bright light is lying down
The earth and the sea and the sky
Is at rest with the ocean
And the days go by

I think the second verse explains the beginning of the end:
They go into the seas that have no shores
Haunted by that same closed door Looking up at skies on fire
Leaving nothing left of us
To discover

Skies on fire, I believe would refer to the book of Revelations, which I believe says that fire will come from the sky..."leaving nothing left of us to discover"

"You and I will simply disappear...I'm afraid soon there'll be no light"
No light, earth is gone, existance is gone.

No doubt, no pain
Come ever again, well
Let there be light in this lifetime
Pritty self explanitory.

We will never change again the way we are changing.
I think this refers to the human race, the human life, the way we are now as opposed as to how life was 100 years ago. We will never change again.

Now I know
Well, I was wrong
To live for a dream
If I had my life to live over
I would never dream, no
I still wish you gone
I will live alone
Yes, I will live alone
Why dream if were all going to perish this quickly?

I guess the more I read through it, the more I do realize a lot of it does have to do with Lindsey. I still believe that I heard her say it also had something to do with her fear of the end of the world. And this is what I think about when I hear the song.
Any thoughs on this, anyone?

Maria

[lasindy]

Someone already mentioned Stevie's comments in this interview, but thought I would transcribe this piece. The interview is just great (thanks, Kristen!)

(AD = Anthony deCurtis, SN= I'm sure you can guess)
AD: I'm really struck with "If I had my life to live over, I would never dream." What prompted you to write a line like that?
SN: Well that song was written in 1976 at the end of the first 2 months of recording Rumours.
AD: Wow.
SN: And it is basically such a hateful song, I never did put it on an album until I went back and wrote the first two verses. (singing)..."the ocean and the days go by...no doubt, no pain, come ever again, let there be light in this lifetime..." That is the apology for that song to Lindsey.
AD: Wow, interesting.
SN: I tried to put something on to soften it up a little bit. It was right when we broke up. We really broke up, for real. We had broken up many times, but this was the real thing. I was furious and angry. And that song is just furious and angry. You know when you're leaving someone and you say, I will never have another relationship, I will never live with somebody else, and I'll never take this stuff again. So I went straight to the piano with (singing) "And the planets of the universe go their way. Not astounded by the sun or the moon or by the day." I was mad. So I waited all these years because I knew this was a really good song, but I had to figure out a way to soften the blow. Lindsey knows all this. He's fine with it. (laughing) He's been listening to me sing "Planets of the Universe" for 25 years. He goes, "Alot of these songs are kind of about me. " And I said, "Aren't you so flattered that you are so inspirational to me, Linds."

[Rumours]

This was the first song I heard from this album, and it's the first one I fell in love with...........so, here goes, my 2 cents worth.....

The bright light is lying down
The earth and the sea and the sky
Is at rest with the ocean
And the days go by

As the time has passed, they are both at peace with each other now, and all the anger (I think of the bright light as anger) has gone away.

They go into the seas that have no shores
Haunted by that same closed door
Looking up at skies on fire
Leaving nothing left of us
To discover

They would rather cast away the anger and be friends now, even though everyone knows about their relationship, how it ended, how they both used to feel, etc. And even though they're haunted by the memories & everybody bringing up the past, they choose to move on, try to forget about it, and have a great relationship now.

And the planets of the universe
Go their way
Not astounded by the sun or the moon
Or by the day
You and I will simply disappear
Out of sight
But I'm afraid soon there'll be
No light

They will now forever, no matter what day, no matter how many days go by, be seperated. They will not be together again, the "Us" relationship is no more. But she wonders and is worried that they'll never move past the anger and hate, to be friends or have any kind of relationship ever again.

No doubt, no pain
Come ever again, well
Let there be light in this lifetime
In the cool, silent moments of the nighttime

Maybe she thinks about it at night, in bed.......about how, now that he's gone, she feels so much pain and is in doubt she will ever want to love like that again.

We will never change again
The way that we are changing
Well, you'll forget the chill of love
But not the strain

They are very different people now......have grown apart.......their "roles" are not the same as they used to be. One day, he'll get over not being in love and not being with her anymore........but he wouldn't get over the strain on them both emotionally if they tried to continue their relationship.

Now I know
Well, I was wrong
To live for a dream
If I had my life to live over
I would never dream, no
I still wish you gone
I will live alone
Yes, I will live alone

Ok, I love this part. One reason--She uses that whole "Dreams" thing again. And you know how when we all get depressed and angry about something, we kind of try to take it out on others but also on ourselves as well. I believe she starts to think something like "well this totally sucks, I had dreams and visions of writing my songs and performing and making it big, and I wanted to do that with you. But now, if I could turn back time, and had it to do over, I DON'T WANT THAT TO HAPPEN, I DON'T WANT TO BECOME THIS BIG STAR, AND WRITE & SING, AND I DON'T WANT TO HAVE LOVED YOU OR BEEN IN THIS DREAM WITH YOU!!"......But then she says "wait a minute, that's not right, I don't want to give up what I really want to do with my life, it means too much. And if I want to continue this dream, then I do want to give you up & give up on our relationship, and just be by myself."

You will never love again
The way you loved me
You will never rule again
The way you ruled me
You will never change again
The way you're changing

Ok, she's pretty to the point with this one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You go girl!!!!!!!!!! Great song, thanks for letting me try an interp!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stephanie

[BBALLGYPSY17]

Hey All

LASINDY~thank you for transcribing that interview,I haven't seen that before,it was cool

SARA I never thought about that song as the "end of the world" BUT here's a thought----> maybe at the time she was thinking it was the "end of the world" because of how she forced herself to give up Lindsey and it hurt that much....pretty interesting-Her thinking the WHOLE world though didn't even occure to me

Anyways she did soften this song up BIGTIME as far as I'm concerned,I like BOTH version's,but the
"angry one" has got to be my favorite
I converted this song into poem form for speech class because we had to do a poetry,interpretation-it was so much fun

Here's what I think:

She added the first part at a point when she felt that they had somewhat gotton over the whole thing.(not in the original)She's refering to they're whole mood towards eachother.The anger has stopped and time passes so everything is at kind of a calm.BUT on the other hand she might be talking about the "bright light" as the good things about their relationship and how deeply she was in love with him,how that's "lying down" meaning over.There are so many ways to interpret things
Second part it seems is about how they tried to avoid eachother.They anger just goes out the window and turns into indifference.In Fm's behind the music she said at one point that they were so worn out and confused about some of the things that were taking place that they just stopped being emotional altogether."haunted" by that because things weren't like that in the very beggining..."closed doors" because they weren't being emotionanl and didn't feel like talking to oneanother."leaving nothing left for us to discover" is about how they changed and our pulling apart from eachother....
In the chorus more talk about the time rushing by and how everything will go on even if they aren't together.BUT when she says "no light" she knows at the back of her mind that there is going to be lots of hardtime's in their relationship and it's going to take a lot to deal with eachother on a day to day basis and will probably take even more to get back a friendship between the two of them....
"The apology to Lindsey" she wants both of them to get over this,and she's sincere about wanting the best for both of them because she wouldn't have broken up with him in the first place if she didn't think that it wouldn't be for the better...
"Changing" they went from being "us" to Stevie and Lindsey that is a pretty BIG change." you'll forget the Chill of love,but not the strain" Sooner or later they'll forget how cold and mean they were to eachother BUT they'll remember the good times and all the reasons there IS for them to get back together even though that won't happen-that's why it is a "strain" on the both of them.It was hard for them to get over eachother....
Next she resents having thinking that everything would turn out "perfect",that their relationship wouldn't collapse underneath their new gigantic career they both have going for them.And she says if I had to do this all over again I wouldn't think that because it would save me all this heartache if I didn't.Reinforcing the fact that YES she wants to be independent....
LAST LINES are pretty easy to understand. Talking about what happened in their relationship and how HE dominanted it,that he won't find someone that loves him as much as she did to stay there and take all that B.S.

I LOVE this song,it's my absolute favorite

LOL
~alex~*