fuel.

Hmmm...

You're too far away for me to hold,
Too far away...
You're too far away for me to hold,
Too far away...

I wonder...Could Fuel say it any better? Let's try.

If you were here with me right now,
I'd ne'er let go...

Seriously, who uses accentuation nowadays? Let's try again.

If you'd run away with me right now,
I'd love you so...

Now that was just terrible...What's wrong with this picture? We're not using EXEGESIS, darn it! Afterall, this IS the exegesis section of my webpage. Have I made my point yet? You can't just interpret a work without using exegesis to understand what the author / composer meant. I know what you're thinking..."Why the heck would you interpret a song? It's just supposed to be for entertainment."

Well, my friends, that's where you must bow to the Exegetical Wizard of Interpretation. You must, because there is the strong likelihood that the composer / singer intended his audience to develop some meaning from his work.

Now, the lines I generated from the common misconception of the song are obviously not what the composer intended his listeners to pick out of the song. But before we can start interpreting the song, let's develop a character sketch of the situation. Be sure to take notes, because this is the core of exegetical analysis.

The Protagonist:
We can clearly see that the protagonist is the guy in this song. From the intro, we are presented with the protagonist as a man that is stuck in passivity, as he is verbally assaulted by the one he loves.

The Antagonist:
The initiator of the problem is explicitly the female character. From what we learn in the beginning, she was the one that called off the relationship in the first place. She even tries to justify it with beautiful nonsense and attacks all the things that their relationship was based on.

The Story :
Let's take it straight from the lyrics.

She calls me from the cold,
Just when I was low,
Feeling short of stable.

What is this "cold" that the protagonist mentions? By reading / listening on, we get the connotation that the cold is from where of the protagonist finds his pain. From these few first lines, the narrator exhibits the idea that the girl had recently dumped our protagonist. As he is "feeling short of stable," she calls out to him again.

All that she intends
And all she keeps inside
Isn't on the label.

The protagonist can no longer read his former love's mind, like he once could. Like the FDA, he expects to be able to see the thoughts of the antagonist clearly, as if it were read from a can label, but the things she says to him does not bring forth any insight.

She says she's ashamed,
Can she take me for a while?
Can I be a friend?
We'll forget the past,
But maybe I'm not able...
And I break at the bend.

We can see that the protagonist is not convinced by the girl's apologies. The alliteration and the consonance in the first line of this segment shows the deception in her statement. She is not sorry for leaving him, but she needs to have him in her life, maybe as a friend. The protagonist questions himeslf about this proposition. Can he be just a friend? She wants him to forget all the memories they had together; to forget the breaking up and to wear a mask.

Maybe he can do it. But would it be right? Could he take it? If she tries to bend his feelings for her too far, he sees that he cannot withstand.

Here and now,
Will we ever be again?
I have found,
All that shimmers in this world
Is sure to fade
Away, again...

The external struggle shifts to an internal struggle within the protagonist. He questions himself: "Will I ever have the one I love again? Is it truly over?" The things that "shimmer" in his life represent his happiness. He admits to defeat, for he believes that his happiness will always fail him. He sees more dark times ahead with the antagonist.

She dreams a champagne dream
Strawberry surprise,
Pink linen on white paper.
Lavender and cream
Fields of butterflies,
Reality escapes her.

We begin to see the absurdity of what she has in mind. She thinks she can push aside the hard times with fairy tales in her mind. She hides behind her utopian world, where there are no cares, rather than seeing reality. She thinks that if she covers up the incongruities, things between her and the protagonist will be just fine. She won't have to commit to the guy and won't feel guilty for throwing him away.

She says that love
Is for fools who fall behind.
I'm somewhere between
Never really know
Until I find my savior.
'Til I break at the bend.

She tries to convince our protagonist that love is foolish. It's a thing of the past. Nobody loves anymore. He cannot fight what she says, because he doesn't know where he stands, anymore. He lies somewhere in between believing that love is hopeless and fighting on for what he once believed in. He mentally seeks for something to help him decide for himself. Once again, he can feel himself breaking under the girl's pressure.

Once again, we enter the "Here and now" chorus. Unsure, he once again asks himself asking, "Is it truly over? Is there no turning back?" And, as if to answer his question, the "You're too far away for me to hold" stanza begins to recur. It is equivalent to our protagonist admitting defeat. The girl has pushed herself away from the protagonist, yet bends his will by remaining just out of reach. We see the protagonist's suffering.

Guess I already know...

Who says that the protagonist always wins?

There you have it: exegesis of songs. Now, if you were to take this in the context of the ancient Hebrew society, this text would be nullified. In that time period, women did not have such control over men and could not choose their suitors. But that's another story...