Like Suicide by Soundgarden Lyrics Meaning – Decoding the Elegy of Desperation and Despair
Lyrics
Eyes were making up just to fall asleep
Love’s like suicide
Dazed out in a garden bed
With a broken neck lays my broken gift
Just like suicide
And my last ditch
Was my last brick
Lent to finish her, finish her
She lived like a murder
How she’d fly so sweetly
She lived like a murder
But she died just like suicide
Bit down on the bullet now
I had a taste so sour
I had to think of something sweet
Love’s like suicide
Safe outside my gilded cage
With an ounce of pain
I wield a ton of rage
Just like suicide
With eyes of blood
And bitter blue
How I feel for you
I feel for you
She lived like a murder
How she’d fly so sweetly
She lived like a murder
But she died just like suicide
Yeah
And my last ditch
Was my last brick
Lent to finish her finish her
With eyes of blood and bitter blue
How I feel for you
I feel for you
I feel for you
I feel for you
I feel, oh
I feel for you
Ah ah yeah (I feel, I feel)
She lived like a murder
How she’d fly so sweetly
She lived like a murder
But she died just like suicide
Grasping the strands of grunge that dangled in the tumultuous skies of the early ’90s, Soundgarden knotted a noose of poetic bleakness with ‘Like Suicide,’ a track that seeps into the listener’s consciousness with its darkly woven lyrics and haunting melodies.
As we unravel the threads of this sonic tapestry, we find a labyrinthine exploration of mortality, grief, and the eerie calm that envelops the act of letting go. Whether it’s a literal recollection or a metaphor for grapples of the mind, ‘Like Suicide’ serves a poignant soliloquy on the precipice of existence.
The Metaphorical Murder – Love and Its Deadly Embrace
Through the somber prose of ‘Like Suicide,’ love is depicted not as the conventionally saccharine emotion but rather as an act of self-destruction, a paradox that aligns passion with demise. It’s this complex affinity that Soundgarden bares for us, presenting an oxymoron as the fundamental crux of this compelling dirge.
The repetitive comparison of love to suicide is neither casual nor flippant. Instead, it suggests a powerful and often destructive force that consumes the soul, leaving in its wake a confusion that marries the ecstasies of love with the agonies of death.
Visions of Death – The Imminent Descent
Imagery of a ‘garden bed’ and a ‘broken gift’ evoke thoughts of something precious and life-giving now tarnished and beyond repair. It conjures the moment postmortem, where life is acknowledged, but only in its absence, a chilling narrative that floats through the entire song.
The ‘broken neck’ symbolizes an abrupt end, a violence inflicted either by external forces or oneself. This graphic portrayal nestles itself into the psyche, leaving us to ponder the nature of the ‘broken gift’ and the finality it represents.
The Silent Scream – Rage Camouflaged in Serenity
Soundgarden deftly layers ‘Like Suicide’ with contradictions that paint a serene fury. ‘Safe outside my gilded cage / With an ounce of pain / I wield a ton of rage’ epitomizes the song’s undercurrent of anger, a sentiment harbored safely but with the potential to explode into violence.
This fury is silent yet potent, a calculated form of emotional self-defense against the horrors of love and loss. It is a rage that is not exhibited by loud cries or physical outbursts but through the subtle, quiet resignation of a soul adrift.
The Hidden Meaning – An Ode to Survival Amid Grief
Beneath the surface of ‘Like Suicide’s’ visceral lyrics lies an obscured layer of resilience. The songs speak to those moments when survival seems like an act of rebellion against an urge to succumb, an ode to the human spirit pushing through the heavy drapes of despair.
As Chris Cornell’s voice carries this elegy, it becomes clear that it isn’t merely about the end but is also a testament to the struggle between life’s anguish and the inherent will to press on, even when the darkness seems insurmountable.
Memorable Lines – The Conflicting Emotions of Sympathy
‘With eyes of blood / And bitter blue / How I feel for you / I feel for you’ – these lines interplay with the themes of empathy and sorrow, painting a picture of someone witnessing the suffering of another, feeling deeply, yet trapped in the helpless realization of their inability to alter the fated course.
It’s a visceral acknowledgment of pain – the blood-red of injury mixed with the bitter blue of melancholy. Cornell’s poignant words here serve as the crux for the emotional labyrinth Soundgarden navigates, a testament to the complexity of human emotions in the face of irrevocable tragedy.
