hide and seek
london cycling, originally uploaded by lomokev.
Neb and I have both really been into Imogen Heap lately (of Frou Frou fame but she’s even better on her own I think). Tonight we were listening to ‘Hide and Seek’ and thinking about how cryptic the lyrics are. What’s your take? Trains and sewing machines?
Where are we? What the hell is going on?
The dust has only just begun to fall,
Crop circles in the carpet, sinking, feeling.
Spin me round again and rub my eyes.
This can’t be happening.
When busy streets a mess with people
would stop to hold their heads heavy.Hide and seek.
Trains and sewing machines.
All those years they were here first.Oily marks appear on walls
Where pleasure moments hung before.
The takeover, the sweeping insensitivity of this
still life.Hide and seek.
Trains and sewing machines. (Oh, you won’t catch me around here)
Blood and tears,
They were here first.Mmm, what you say?
Mm, that you only meant well? Well, of course you did.
Mmm, what you say?
Mm, that it’s all for the best? Ah off course it is.
Mmm, what you say?
Mm, that it’s just what we need? And you decided this.
Mmm what you say?
What did she say?Ransom notes keep falling out your mouth.
Mid-sweet talk, newspaper word cut-outs.
Speak no feeling, no I dont believe you.
You don’t care a bit. You don’t care a bit.Ransom notes keep falling out your mouth.
Mid-sweet talk, newspaper word cut-outs.
Speak no feeling, no I don’t believe you.
You don’t care a bit. You don’t care a bit.You don’t care a bit.
You don’t care a bit.
You don’t care a bit.
You don’t care a bit.
You don’t care a bit.
November 30th, 2005 at 4:59 am
There, I entered the name of the *other* rabbit this time :)
To me, there’s definitely a theme about the industrial revolution; trains and sewing machines harken back to a simpler time, and the writer sounds none to happy about modern society.
November 30th, 2005 at 11:20 am
I like to think it’s about how cars suck! And make oily marks! :D
November 30th, 2005 at 11:42 am
Cars?
I think it’s about children getting hurt in factories.
November 30th, 2005 at 12:30 pm
children in factories? Hm.. sewing machines ok. How do trains fit in? Also what about the claims of meaning well and how it’s all for the best?
industrial revolution could be it … who’s being criticized tho?
November 30th, 2005 at 8:01 pm
Maybe not just people in factories but people who worked on trains as well. Sure, the trains transported goods and people — but they also brought about new dangers and injured many workers. Working on the trains was a very dangerous occupation.
December 2nd, 2005 at 12:35 pm
I think it’s an adolescent who is being uprooted from the only home they’ve known. They are standing in the empty house during this song. The processing of the voice makes it more of a surreal, robotic feeling they have, to separate from the pain a bit.
First verse is disbelief, looking at the “crop circles” the furniture made in the carpet.
Second, memories of hide and seek (playing, growing up). Trains (dad going to work) sewing machines (mom the domestic). It all happened here first (but not any more).
Third, oily marks on walls are the spots from where pictures hung- still life is the empty house because it seems dead now.
Fourth, same, just added “blood and tears”, more memories.
The last verses are the discussion with the parents, who try to make light of the issue, or even down to “ransom” of the child’s life/heart etc. Clearly the child doesnt believe the parents care.
It’s a great song.
December 2nd, 2005 at 12:39 pm
Are you sure it’s not about cars?
December 2nd, 2005 at 12:52 pm
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:KcWofmJoHdUJ:www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php%3Flid%3D3530822107858544081+imogen+hide+and+seek+%22crop+circles%22+%22parents%22&hl=en&client=safari
December 2nd, 2005 at 12:52 pm
With the Bjork connection, you could be right- she says cars lived in mountains until the right moment…
December 2nd, 2005 at 1:04 pm
i think the split parents theme is the most cohesive idea. not sure about the busy streets phrasing? unless people are somehow giving the child/her family looks of pity or disapproval. indeed.
December 2nd, 2005 at 1:10 pm
Guess I missed that one- I think that’s the friends and neighbors who are sad to see them go. Busy street/train, they lived in a city.
The link neb has almost the same thought, but I think its really the house they’ve just moved out of, and trains/sewing machines signifies the parent roles from the child’s perception.
December 3rd, 2005 at 4:34 pm
I can’t make “the sample plant” work!
December 7th, 2005 at 1:18 pm
I couldn’t make the sample plant work either. I remember it did once tho…
December 24th, 2006 at 11:23 pm
You people are close but not quite having it. The song is about the feeling a house… a home itself is having about the last member of the family that has lived there for years dying. Its recalling the memories of the family that lived there. (hide and seek, trains and sewing machines) It is also mourning its new fate as it is paraded to be sold to people who have no idea of the history and moments that happened inside it. (They were here first) Perhaps the house will be sold off to an investor who plans to tear it down.. perhaps it will be used for an uncaring commercial purpose. The last part refers to the realtor talking up the hte house to potential customers(Mid Sweet Talk) Newspaper cutotuts refer to the for sale adds in the newspaper. “MMM what you say” refers to the comments the house is hearing from potential buyers.. that its “for the best” for them, that its “just what they need” etc. Even though the house thinks that they dont care a bit… It doesnt want to be owned by anyone else except the original family. And it is mourning their passing and its fate.
July 13th, 2007 at 5:00 pm
There’s nothing deep to understand. It’s like writing down everything that comes to you/you see/you think of and not stopping to select words. It’s impossible to understand this song unless you’ve listened to a lot of Imogen Heap’s songs. A lot of them are like this.
July 19th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
I think its about a confused teenager, and shes stuck between her pass ”
Trains and sewing machines. All those years they were here first”.
some teens are confused “Where are we? What the hell is going on?” “sinking, feeling.” could be feelings, she wants to hide, and be found.
Possibly, she could had a moment with a guy.
“Oily marks appear on walls
Where pleasure moments hung before.
The takeover, the sweeping insensitivity of this
still life.”
but he already has a lover which explains the conversation
“Mmm, what you say?
Mm, that you only meant well? Well, of course you did.
Mmm, what you say?
Mm, that it’s all for the best? Ah off course it is.
Mmm, what you say?
Mm, that it’s just what we need? And you decided this.
Mmm what you say?
What did she say?”
She thinks he should be with her, and ransom notes are falling out of his mouth. but hes not saying how he feels, and she doesnt believe him.
She thinks that he doesnt care a bit.
November 6th, 2007 at 11:27 am
the meaning of this song is obviously a girl who one day just finally realizes what her lifes become, and it seems so unbeleivable to her, theres obviously a partner that shes lost, and shes having thoughts about suicide and its especially easy to find this out when she sais “when busy streets a mess with people would stop to hold there heads, heavy”..
all her life has been a game of hide and seek, everyone has a hidden secret side of them that they will hide there whole life and shes been seeking for someone special…
November 28th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
Trains and sewing machines? Maybe the train isn’t the mechanical type. You know, like the train of a wedding dress? Pathetic how everyone is stumbling on that one.
December 27th, 2009 at 7:00 am
all good impute. a couple of you are close but i bet i am closer.
the song is about her childhood house that was gifted to her as a married woman and now they are divorcing and he wants his have. the song takes place on the last day before the sale and they/she needs to know ware they are at at this point the she turns her back on him, starts to cry, and gos into the thought proses of memories which are interrupted near the end of the song by him talking about ware they are at. she is not really listening to him because she doesn’t care what he has to say. then the tempo changes because her thought proses is broken and she says “hmm,… what ch say,… oh yah of course. what ever you say. (because she just wants to get through it.) then back into thought ransom notes keep falling out your mouth. the amount of his have from the sale of her child hood home and the settlement.
Thank you thank you thank you
Good night.
December 27th, 2009 at 7:05 am
ie what she has to pay to get it back