Heartland

I have mixed thoughts about ‘No Time to Cry’.

On one hand, it seems like a positive song masquerading as doom-and-gloom Goth, saying life is hard but you only live once, so make the most of it.

On the other hand, the opening verse and the third verse (the one that goes ‘everything will be alright/everything will turn out fine/some nights I still can sleep/and the voices pass with time), it comes off as a guy deeply disturbed and depressed, but is denying it and telling everyone he’s fine and that it’s ‘just a feeling I get sometimes’.

Are both versions correct, are either versions correct, or have I totally missed the point of the song?

EDIT - then again, is the song ironic? The protagonist of the song is saying that you only live once so there’s no point in crying and is pretending he can handle it all, telling everyone he’s fine, when in fact he can’t pull himself out of a depressed stupor. Or something like that…

Indeed.

Given Von's well-reported state of mind at the time, either, both or any other interpretation could be valid.

Maybe dehydration from overdoing the whizz means that he couldn't cry. And he's hearing voices from amphetamine psychosis.

markfiend wrote:Maybe dehydration from overdoing the whizz means that he couldn't cry. And he's hearing voices from amphetamine psychosis.

I Like Your Style

according to my friend who lived above the chemist it's about steeling yourself for an onion chopping session and the results thereof.

i think it's rather something of a satire and self-ironic. Pure optical magnification into a small thing in life, people always dwell on small things and act and emote as if their lives depend upon them whereas to an outside observer it's obvious that the sadness is caused by such a small thing.

Just consider the overexaggeratedly turgid epic quality of the presentation and lament. No one can take that seriously, can they?

Thought not.

Plus a million little things on the side.

Forgot to mention, that none of that means that it's all inconsequential. It's just recognising the absurdity in the serious things in life. Etc.

It's about there not being any time to cry.

Which is of course a load of bollocks.

WHBT

paint it black wrote:according to my friend who lived above the chemist it's about steeling yourself for an onion chopping session and the results thereof.

you should chew bubblegum/chewinggum whilst chopping onions, it stops the crying...

nick the stripper wrote:Are both versions correct, are either versions correct, or have I totally missed the point of the song?

Yes, yes, and yes. As for the "everything will be alright..." bit, I believe that it was meant to mean exactly what it sounds. My belief can serve as proof if you wish.

It's about being constipated and trying to s**t out a lyric.

Seriously. Listen to the embrionic Peel Session version; a mere sketch of a song; a tune in need of words and words which will not come. Fast forward a few months and the pan is still not filled..

"It's just like always coming down" is about the only worth it adds to the lexicon. I have always loved that line. The rest is, alas, mostly worthless.

I think it's about being in denial.

It reminds me of when my boyfriend and I first started dating, my parents got divorced. I was falling in love, and therefore had "no time to cry" over my parents' divorce.

of course it's a genuinely upbeat song written with one of those hard to maintain but oh so necessary "bollox to the f**king lot of 'em" philosophies ....and is undoubtedly about taking speed. same thing.

just listening to the boot from last wednesday (16th feb 2011)

and i'm sure he switches the 'feeds' and 'bites' around, eg:

"You've got to feed the hand that bites"

which i do love... it feels like he's talking about us

Quiff Boy wrote:just listening to the boot from last wednesday (16th feb 2011)

and i'm sure he switches the 'feeds' and 'bites' around, eg:

"You've got to feed the hand that bites"

which i do love... it feels like he's talking about us

Yeah I noticed that too.

markfiend wrote:

Quiff Boy wrote:just listening to the boot from last wednesday (16th feb 2011)

and i'm sure he switches the 'feeds' and 'bites' around, eg:

"You've got to feed the hand that bites"

which i do love... it feels like he's talking about us

Yeah I noticed that too.

Ah, and they changed this too:

"Everything will be alright
Everything will turn out fine
Some nights I still can't sleep
And the voices pass with time
And I keep"

to

"Everything will be alright
Everything will turn out fine
Some nights I still can't sleep
And the voices pass with time
And I See "

Anu wrote:I suspect Andrew is singing about our survival as humans and the resulting fear we have about survival; and that life has always been a situation of the strong, taking over the weak. He shows us that life has been this way since time beginning...

To survive, men have had to be cruel, others might 'shake the hand that feeds' in order survive - and in survival, there is no time to cry.
Very Darwinian. He presents Adam as a man, who explains these fact to us...

A sad, but beautiful song; and I suspect, he would like men to evolve past this evolutionary phase somehow. Although Andrews never says so directly, he repeats '...Everything will be alright, everything will turn out fine...' This hope is shrouded in fear, and these two emotions run continually throughout the song.

nice! good insight

i've wondered the same about the "adam" reference and the rather plaintive trying-to-convince-myself voice when he sings "everything will be alright..."

and hello

I think it's another "all there is to fear is fear of fear" song. "Sometimes the world's a scary place - well stop being such a baby and deal with it cos crying about it won't get you anywhere."

Presumably Adam's a friend of Igor.

stufarq wrote:I think it's another "all there is to fear is fear of fear" song. "Sometimes the world's a scary place - well stop being such a baby and deal with it cos crying about it won't get you anywhere."

Presumably Adam's a friend of Igor.

That makes sense to me. Seeing as from the few clues has given, a few of the songs on FALAA seem to refer to the ongoing break-up of the band, I always imagined that NTTC also nods to that theme. The high-pitched "It's just a feeling" (repeated ad nauseam on the Peel embryonic version) could be a (whiny) unnamed band member trying to explain (in a "It's not you, it's me") kind of way why the direction the band is taking seems wrong. And after all, "Knowing doesn't mean so much when placed against the feeling". Or it could be himself admitting that he has the same fears - but that it's "no time for heartache..to run and hide...to cry" etc. In this context "shake the hand that feeds" could refer to WEA. As for "Adam", it could be Adam Ant who had trodden a more commercial path in the relatively recent past, or pro Sisters journalist Adam Sweeting. It could even be a pun on Adams (seeing as the next word starts with an s). then taunts the doubter(s) - "What did you expect to find ?", ending up in the usual argument - "just like always, here again" (like "a million conversations going where they've been before"). reiterates that he has his own doubts to the point of being unable to sleep but that ultimately he believes that "everything will be alright" for the band.

"Not so hard to understand" ? More like "(I've heard so many things) I fail to understand at all".

Anu wrote:Igor and Adam? Hmmm.....

It was just a joke really (referring to the mysterious Igor mentioned in A Rock And A Hard Place in case anyone wasn't sure).

Anu wrote:Your comment about white-washing and the shaved monkey was amusing...

Clowns are never amusing. But I'll accept the compliment and reduce your punishment to a custard pie and a squirt of my soda siphon.

Nikolas Vitus Lagartija wrote:could be a (whiny) unnamed band member trying to explain (in a "It's not you, it's me") kind of way why the direction the band is taking seems wrong. And after all, "Knowing doesn't mean so much when placed against the feeling". ...More like "(I've heard so many things) I fail to understand at all".

Er that's a different song and one that's almost certainly about sex. Are you suggesting that Von was screwing one of the guitarists?

Nikolas Vitus Lagartija wrote:As for "Adam", it could be Adam Ant who had trodden a more commercial path in the relatively recent past, or pro Sisters journalist Adam Sweeting. It could even be a pun on Adams (seeing as the next word starts with an s).

The third sounds most like Von although I suspect there's some more highbrow reference we're all missing. The mention of Jesus in the same verse has always drawn me toeards the Biblical Adam but I can't see any link to the song.

everybody knows where Igor is. Duh!