Sign of the Times, Song Meaning and Lyrical Interpretation
When I first heard Sign of the Times, I was VERY confused. As you probably guessed, I love analyzing music lyrics and I tried so hard to really understand these lyrics with almost no avail. So let's try again!!!
Just stop your crying"It's the sign of the times" denotes that something serious and meaningful is about to happen, but it is said with a negative context. When I usually hear "Sign of the Times," I think "The world is ending." This is confirmed through "Welcome to the final show." "Wearing your best clothes" and "stop crying" suggests accepting that this is happening.
It's a sign of the times
Welcome to the final show
Hope you're wearing your best clothes
I think the above lyrics suggests that the world as a whole is becoming negative. (With the mass shootings, terrorist attacks, Trump/racist policy decisions).
You can't bribe the door on your way to the sky"Bribing your way to the sky" means you can't bribe your way into Heaven. The last two lines are confusing. Is Harry saying that you might appear to be good (i.e go to Heaven) but you actually aren't and should go to Hell? Rough Stuff.
You look pretty good down here
But you ain't really good
A different interpretation is that he's saying you look like you are fine, but you really aren't because these hard times are taking a toll on you. You want to bribe someone to stop the hard times from happening. Here bribing your way into Heaven, means bribing your way out of a bad situation.
You want to bribe your way out of the negative state of the world. You really aren't handling it well.
We never learn, we've been here beforeHarry is saying one bad thing after another is happening. He can't escape the bullets, they keep on firing. He tries to avoid the harm from all the bad stuff he is experiencing, but it's hard. He also hints that maybe these bad times, are a little bit our faults with "we never learn."
Why are we always stuck and running from
The bullets, the bullets?
We never learn, we've been here before
Why are we always stuck and running from
Your bullets, the bullets?
"We never learn," means the world never learns. The world has been fighting wars and killing each other for CENTURIES. We never learn how to get along with each other. So we as Earth's population keep on dodging the bullets from all the bad stuff that keeps on happening in the world.
Just stop your cryingMy favorite lyric in the song is "We gotta get away from here.' There's a real urgency and fight in that line.
It's a sign of the times
We gotta get away from here
We gotta get away from here
Just stop your crying
It'll be alright
They told me that the end is near
We gotta get away from here
I think here he says we have to figure out a way to make the world a better place. "Get out of here," means get out of the mess the world has gotten us into.
Just stop your crying
Have the time of your life
Breaking through the atmosphere
And things are pretty good from here
Every time I hear the words, "Have the time of your life," I feel like it's said with sarcasm?? It's like war and poverty and world hunger is going on but you should just ignore it and have the time of your life because you are privileged. That's just my interpretation.
In the last few lines, I think Harry is imagining breaking free of their harsh world, and going up into the atmosphere. Everything is alright when he escapes the world.
Remember, everything will be alrightI think here Harry is referring to meeting in the atmosphere again. "Bribing your way to the sky," and "Breaking through the atmosphere" are all ways to escape the hard world we live in. Eventually, we will be free of that harsh world (perhaps through death??).
We can meet again somewhere
Somewhere far away from here
We don't talk enough
We should open up
Before it's all too much
Will we ever learn?
We've been here before
It's just what we know
Harry is saying we should all be kinder to each other. We should hear each other out and listen to differing view points. "It's just what we know" - Fighting is the status quo and we probably won't change.
Stop your crying, babyWe have to change. We have to make the world a better place.
It's a sign of the times
We gotta get away
We got to get away
We got to get away
We got to get away
We got to get away
We got to—we got to—away
We got to—we got to—away
We got to—we got to—away
Do you agree or do you interpret these lyrics differently? Let me know what you think in the comments below.
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This was great! But as you probably know now, Harry was inspired by a dying new mother who only had 5 minutes to hold her baby. I think he used a really heavy subject and it's probably one of his best songs.
ReplyDeleteloved it!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really great interpretation. I always thought he was comforting someone who's going through a rough time and helping them out. ("Just stop your crying") but I like this much better
ReplyDeleteTripped over your blog by mistake but love it and will subscribe. First time I ever heard this song I right away thought it was written about a suicide but and ironically because of these times I had Alexa play it over and over and came to the conclusion it was about an untimely death. I thought she would probably pray if she would have had more time anyway that was my conclusion
ReplyDeleteJust to finish up my thought I was thinking the subject person had died very untimely but was a good wholesome soul. Love the song so much and went out and bought a new piano and I'm 64. It was the first song I learned on it all three chords LOL! But I have expanded my horizons keep up the good work bravo bravo
ReplyDeletei always listen to this song when im sad so yknow dont ruin his beautiful album
ReplyDeleteI have read and found your information very useful for myself. I thank you for sharing this information with us.
ReplyDeleteI hope to see more of your posts as it was very helpful to me.
Trip & Wellness
Excellent point! 👍
ReplyDelete