Lift Me Up

All things hold in themselves both intentional and subjective meanings.
-

Ever since I first heard Moby’s Hotel album a couple years ago (has it seriously been that long!) one of my favorite songs has been Lift Me Up. Of course, this being a Moby song, the meaning of the song has always been rather vague to me. But it was fun! This weekend I finally took a few minutes to figure out the lyrics and the story behind the song. Taken from my own listening and readings on several websites, I present to you the full lyrics:

Plain talking (plain talking)
Will take us so far (take us so far)
In broken down cars (broken down cars)
Like strung out old stars (strung out old stars)

Plain talking (plain talking)
Served us so well (served us so well)
We traveled through hell (traveled through hell)
And oh how we fell (oh how we fell)

Lift me up!
Lift me up!
Higher now Ama!
(4x)

Plain talking (plain talking)
Is making us bold (making us bold)
So strung out and cold (strung out and cold)
I’m feeling so old(feeling so old)

Plain talking (plain talking)
Has ruined us now (has ruined us now)
Never know how (never know how)
Sweeter than thou (sweeter than thou)

Lift me up!
Lift me up!
Higher now Ama!
(4x)

(Various background vocalizations)

Lift me up!
Lift me up!
Oh la la lala!

And for your audio/visual enjoyment of this truly energetic song:

Now, that last bit of the chorus “higher now ama” confused me for years. For a while I figured that it might be “higher now onward” but that didn’t seem quite right. After a lot of digging I found a lengthy and meandering discussion of the song that included a link to Moby’s post on the topic.

It would seem that the whole song is supposed to be about politics and religion.

Now, I had taken it as being about a relationship that fell apart after someone said too much. Or someone feeling sad about honesty backfiring… but then all of the troubles being left behind in the exultation of some good music.

Now it seems that the song was written with the intention of discussing politicians who “talk plain” to get people to support them. Then there is that interesting little neologism: Ama.

I would refer you back to his post, but in summary: “Ama” is a drastically over-thought word that Moby invented for the song to refer to God in an obscure manner.

Hmmm.

Well, be it about politicians or friends or life in general, I still like the song.

-Otto

Week Off Charts

Had the week off from work and, as a result, spent much more time listening to music. Thought that it was worth making a quick post in regards to this fact. I also would like to point out that the insane number of Moby plays is the result of starting my a shuffle of all my Moby tracks while eating a midnight snack and then forgetting to hit pause when Ms. Bean came into the room. Good conversation is distracting indeed.

I would also like to draw attention to E.S. Posthumus. I discovered them during this week and very much enjoyed listening to their album all the way through several times. I came across several other new artists, as well as a couple old favorites I had lost, as well. More on all of this at a later date.

Top Artists this Week (see more)

23 Mar 2008 – 30 Mar 2008

7	1		Moby	78
	2		E.S. Posthumus	42
20	3		Jars of Clay	26
	4		Robyn Miller	19
	5		Barenaked Ladies	18
14	6		Kevin Max	17
	7		NeXuS	16
2	8		BT	15
2	9		Imogen Heap	14
21	10		Michael W. Smith	12

New Moby Album

Just browsing the interwebs and found out that Moby has a new album coming out in March. He describes it as “basically a love letter to dance music in new york city.”

He has posted a free preview on his website.

My interest in Moby has grown and faded over the years, but in general I do like his work.