Thru the Eyes of Ruby by The Smashing Pumpkins Lyrics Meaning – Unraveling the Labyrinth of Youth and Time
Lyrics
And drag me in with maybes, yeah
Your innocence is treasure, your innocence is death
Your innocence is all I have
Breathing underwater
And living under glass
And if you spin your love around
The secrets of your dreams
You may find your love is gone
And is not quite what it seemed
To appear to disappear
Beneath all your darkest fears
I believe in never
I believe in all the way
But belief is not to notice, belief is just some faith
And faith can’t help you to escape
And with this ring I wed thee true
And with this ring I wed thee now
And with this ring I play so dead
But no one’s asking for the truth, so let me tell you
If you spin your love around
The secrets of your dreams
You may find your love is gone
And is not quite what it seemed
To appear to disappear
Beneath all your darkest fears
To the revelations of fresh faced youth
No one will come to save you
So speak your peace in the murmurs drawn
But youth is wasted on the young
Your strength is my weakness, your weakness my hate
My love for you just can’t explain
Why we’re forever frozen, forever beautiful
Forever lost inside ourselves
The night has come to hold us young
The night has come to hold us young
The night has come to hold us young
The night has come to hold us young
The night has come to hold us young
The night has come to hold us young
In the depths of Smashing Pumpkins’ expansive discography lies ‘Thru the Eyes of Ruby’, a track that delves into the enigmatic journey of innocence and experience. As the rich, layered instrumentation swells and subsides, the lyrics penned by frontman Billy Corgan entice listeners into a world of allegory and introspection.
The song, featured on the band’s 1995 double album ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’, stands out as a hauntingly beautiful meditation on the passage of time, the ephemeral nature of love, and the bittersweet pangs of youth. It serves as a stark reminder of how life’s fleeting moments are often the ones that shape us the most profoundly.
The Fragile Allure of Innocence and Its Price
Central to ‘Thru the Eyes of Ruby’ is the theme of innocence—a treasure that holds within it both life and death. This paradox suggests that naivety, while precious, may also lead to one’s undoing. As the song’s protagonist clings to this innocence, they find themselves caught in a stasis, enveloped by a life under inspection, akin to being under glass.
Corgan’s evocative wordplay, comparing innocent love to breathing underwater, signifies a love that feels necessary for survival yet is inherently dangerous. Such imagery portrays the suffocating and protective elements of innocence and encapsulates the listener in the struggle between retaining purity and succumbing to the revelation of harsher truths.
Unveiling Love’s Illusions: The Hidden Meaning Behind the Spin
Repeated throughout the song is the line, ‘If you spin your love around,’ suggesting the cyclical and dizzying dance of relationships. As the ‘secrets of your dreams’ collide with reality, love’s visage starts to deteriorate, unveiling disillusionment as it fades from grasp.
This spinning of love serves as a metaphor for the various trials and tribulations lovers face. It implies that the more one tries to hold onto or manipulate love, the more its true nature reveals itself—often proving to be transitory and elusive. The song wades through the idea that in the chase and rotation of affection, one might lose sight of what was once deemed as pure and concrete.
Youth’s Fading Echo: The Inevitability of Growth
Corgan’s poignant observation that ‘youth is wasted on the young’ is a melancholic reflection on the ironies of aging. With wisdom comes the realization of opportunities lost, and the innocent chatter of youth becomes a whisper—a ‘murmur drawn’—as time advances.
The song paints youth as a paradoxical time filled with vigor and potential, but all too often, this potential is not recognized until it has passed. There is a longing for the ability to communicate the valuable lessons learned, yet the awareness that every generation must come to these conclusions on its own, in its own time.
The Futility in Vows of Everlasting Love
Notably, the song takes a sharp, narrative turn as the lyrics discuss the act of wedding ‘with this ring’. Here, Corgan both embraces and scrutinizes the concept of eternal commitment, suggesting that marriage becomes a performance (‘I play so dead’) where the quest for truth is silenced by the sanctity of the vow.
By addressing the theatrical elements within the rituals of love, the song evokes the harsh reality that such demonstrations of commitment might merely be facades that hide the true complexities and eventual decay of a relationship. It begs the question of whether promises of ‘forever’ are precious lies we agree upon to mask our deepest fears.
Memorable Lines that Bind the Soul to Song
‘The night has come to hold us young’—these words close out ‘Thru the Eyes of Ruby’ with haunting repetition, enveloping the listener in the embrace of darkness and the unknown. Such a night is symbolic of the ultimate union with youth itself, a bittersweet holding onto the fleeting moments that forge our identities.
As the chorus fades out and the instruments retreat into silence, Corgan and The Smashing Pumpkins leave us to ponder the cyclical dance of love and time. The ethereal echoes linger, inviting us to return again and again to the kaleidoscope of emotions that is ‘Thru the Eyes of Ruby’.
