The uncertainty

[rickiep00h]

I think that the music of Ænema is what shows what is really going on in the song...

I don't think it's about cleansing L.A.

I think it's about the general instablility and difficulty found in L.A.

Underneath Maynard's lyrics, the music simmers and boils, steadily gathering strength, then releasing it in the chorus, after which, it goes back to its burgeoning and writhing.

The tension created by Danny's drumming and Justin's rumbling bass seem to show the overall feeling of the city, as before the Rodney King verdict. A thick feeling of rage, almost palpable. On top of that is the thin veneer or Adam's guitar, trying to mask the boiling anger hidden below. Finally the whole works lets loose, and the song, and city, explodes. Riots wreak havoc on the city. Adam's slide solo rages through the song, and finally the song closes, suddenly cutting off. Such is the way of L.A., changing gears and shutting out it's own past.

Things go back to normal until another thing comes along. The city's instability is shown through the music's instability. Manyard may be singing about the fake actresses and the terrible religious leaders, but in the end, it still comes back to the city, and how it feels as an entity. It's in need of cleansing, yes, but it will ALWAYS be in that need.

[fireplaceporno]

I do agree with the point made in "The uncertainty", and have come to believe that this is a common analysis of the song, although greatly spocken by the writer of the original post. However, I do believe there is an alternate interpretation as well.

It could be considered that L.A. is used as a metaphor throughout the song. L.A. could mean anything as chaotic, unorganized and fake as the actuall L.A. really is. A disfunctional family system, for instance, can be considered an L.A. type function. A person struggling within themselves, depressed, and near suicide could be considered an L.A. The list of people MJK mentions two thirds into the song could be considered the vices or irritants in such a persons life. Thus, there is a cleansing process that should take place, a flood, in which the subject should learn to swim through this cleansing and emerge a different being, possibly better for it. This theory is also supported somewhat in my post "A Preachers Rant"...

[rickiep00h]

:)

You remind me of a play by Christopher Durang called "The Philidelpia".

In it, the main character discovers that there are little pockets of temporality that encompass the characterisics of certain cities, including, well, Philidelphia.

It attaches a geographical stereotype to each city, as Ænema sort of does... it paints Philidelphia as a dour, horrid place, where everything you ask for is the opposite of what you get, and San Francisco as a laid back, cool, wind through your hair place.

Ænema paints L.A. as an absolute nightmare... so when I run into the worst, most fake people I've ever met... I'll be in a Los Angeles. :)

[rickiep00h]

I said Durang but meant David Ives. Oops on me.

[canable friends]

well I belive that the song isn't actually about LA They just use LA as an indaviduel example of the big picture!( kinda like saying I've lost hope in revren Johnson could be used to say i've lost hope in christianity). I think that he's saying that that our lives, and not just LA are disturbed.

Then he becons "mother" to knock down the dirty walls of our lives so we can rebuild it. So he's asking to get rid of all the bad things not only in his life but in all peoples lives so we can live happyer lives (and not "fret for" the little things and get in touch with the big).