It is quite easy for the author of a song, when you do not quite understand it, to say that the theme is one of not being understood.
This is the case with Twist in my Sobriety, as singer-songwriter Tanita Tikaram explained :
“The song is really about not being understood, when you are 18 years old, you have a very particular emotional relationship with the world, you feel very isolated, and everyone else is so distant and cold. And I think I was singing about not feeling anything or not being moved by the things around us”.
I think the “not being moved” is a big part of the appeal of that song.
The lyrics speak of immense pain and confusion, but the emotional reaction is unremarkable, the way the song is sung is sweet and calm to the point of being paradoxical.
Take the chorus, probably the only coherent part of the song :
Look, my eyes are just holograms Look, your love has drawn red from my hands From my hands you know you’ll never be More than twist in my sobriety
Very fascinating images.
On the one hand, Tanita claims to be a hologram, a distant representation of herself, untouchable and unattainable, the distance of which Tanita herself claims the entire song speaks.
On the other hand, there is an ironic and literal handshake, a love so painful it squeezes the blood.
The only thing holograms don’t do is bleed…
In fact, the only thing holograms don’t do is bleed, and so the distance feels like an overreaction to a relationship that has now become too visceral to experience.
An oboe enters to remind us how much more sentimental and simple these lyrics are than they appear on the surface.
In dialogue with Tanita, it appears as a question, inviting her to emotionally move somewhere else, to realize that the lyrics are emotional even if she is not.
Those hands are there, bleeding and trembling like the oboe, no matter how tight and stable her vocal range.
“More than twist in my sobriety“, Tanita replies, trying to convince herself.
“Definitely a little more” is the answer from the oboe’s 15-second solo.
Anyway, how can one interpret the verse (and title) “Twist in my sobriety”?
Beautiful, poetic, but almost meaningless.
A little deep and a little mindless, as teenagers tend precisely to be.
And the rest of the song ?
If you read carefully between the lines, you know how to interpret it.
I don’t care about their different thoughts Different thoughts are good for me
That is, I don’t care how similar my thoughts are, I like them to be different and unconnected.
There is a part of me that wants to further connect the thoughts when they are disconnected, but I want to suppress this desire to solve a puzzle.
Other interesting verses are :
All good people read good books
A quote from Bourdieu’s distinction or social critique of taste, in short, the idea that people use taste (in books, songs, clothes) to distinguish themselves as a class.
Also :
I like to think I can be so willed And never do what they say. Sweet and handsome, soft and porky.
A combination of individualism and determinism, a sense that Tanita’s budding intellect (she was only 19 when she wrote this song) wants to be completely independent, but has enough integrity to realize that this is a fantasy, something she “would like to think” rather than something that can be : achieving enlightenment through obesity, perhaps imagining that a binge leads to a physical and psychological low from which one can only rise.
