Comments on: The Musical Talmud: Don’t Stop Believing

By: The Musical Talmud: Chinese Democracy | Overthinking It

The Musical Talmud: Chinese Democracy | Overthinking It — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:17:24 +0000

[...] Talmud” is our ongoing series that finds the true meaning behind pop music lyrics. See also Part 1, “Don’t Stop Believing,” Part 2, “The KKK Took My Baby Away,” and Part 3, “I Want It That [...]

By: The Musical Talmud: The KKK Took My Baby Away | Overthinking It

The Musical Talmud: The KKK Took My Baby Away | Overthinking It — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 12:07:23 +0000

[...] [Second in a series. See also part 1, "Don't Stop Believing."] [...]

By: heyref

heyref — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:01:55 +0000

They’re not on the same train. She takes a midnight train from her small town, he takes a different midnight train from his city, and they end up in the same place, where there is a nightclub with a singer.

By: mlawski

mlawski — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 20:49:56 +0000

Oooh! Oooh! Do Separate Ways!

(Also I think your interpretation makes perfect sense.)

By: Gab

Gab — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:02:50 +0000

PS- heart the “Sopranos” reference. I chortled to myself.

By: Gab

Gab — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 18:01:47 +0000

I think “the feeling” being referenced is the feeling/belief that it can always get better. Life, it “never ends,” and with that means two things: moments of sorrow and happiness also never end (as in they keep occurring- not that one moment is neverending). That midnight train will never reach its final destination because it doesn’t have one. As such, that movie will always be playing, going back and forth between good and bad scenes. What we need to “believe” in is the possibility that not all of those scenes are the latter. Happiness comes in moments, and we, as emotional beings, need to be able to accept them when they present themselves, or we will never experience happiness. If we are too busy worrying about what can potentially go wrong or what did so earlier, we aren’t really trying to be happy or accepting its possibility. We need to believe in happiness in order to feel it. Since this comes from the “chorus,” I always took the song as a message to the audience about this. Perry is telling his audience not to give up on life- that a happy scene like the one between the two people is possible, even if the previous scene was really depressing; and in order to enjoy life, they need to embrace their own opportunities like the one he portrays. The reference he makes to himself is to put himself on the same level as the audience he is singing/preaching to, a way for him to say, “Yeah, I’m like you. My life can sometimes suck. I understand. But wait, there’s more to it than that, so listen to this…”

I’d love it if you did something like this once a week. I do this kind of thing all the time for fun- glad I’m not the only one.