Monday, February 07, 2011

"She's Not There" by the Zombies

So after watching tonight's episode of Glee, which contained one of my favorite "oldies" songs, "She's Not There" by The Zombies, I got curious what the song was "supposed" to be about and did a trawl on songmeanings.net.

I discovered something fairly shocking: the line(s) is: "Well, no one told me about her" etc etc.

I had always heard it as "Will no one tell me about her" etc etc.


In furtherance to this (though less jarring), the line that follows, "It's too late to say you're sorry," which is actually, "How would I know? Why should I care?" came out to my ear as, "I would I know, why should I care?" (Which does make sense: "I'd say sorry if I could, though why should I?" essentially.)

This pretty much led me straight into interpreting it as being a song reflecting back on the life of a dead lover. (Possibly the fact that it was by "the Zombies" helped, though that would have been subliminal.)

The "actual" lyrics throw an entirely different spin on the song. My little musical world is rocked. It's a good example of how a very subtle change flips the meaning about, though.

I still will persist in thinking of it as "Will no one tell me about her," though.

2 comments:

Aubrie said...

I haven't heard of this song! I've have to check it out.

Lindsey Duncan said...

It's a great song. Of course, my Celtic roots are showing in that it's rather dark.