Wishful Sinful by The Doors Lyrics Meaning – Diving into the Mystique of Desire & Reflection
Lyrics
Water covers everything in blue
Coolin’ water
Wishful sinful
Our love is beautiful to see
I know where I would like to be
Right back where I came
Wishful, sinful, wicked blue
Water covers you
Wishful, sinful, wicked you
Can’t escape the blue
Magic risin’
Sun is shinin’ deep beneath the sea
But not enough for you and me and sunshine
Love to hear the wind cry
Wishful sinful
Our love is beautiful to see
I know where I would like to be
Right back where I came
Wishful, sinful, wicked blue
Water covers you
Wishful, sinful, wicked you
Can’t escape the blue
Love to hear the wind cry
Love to hear you cry, yeah, yeah
The Doors, a band synonymous with the psychedelic sounds and profound lyrical poetry of the 60s, left an indelible mark on the music landscape with their evocative tunes and Jim Morrison’s soul-penetrating voice. Among their lesser-discussed gems is ‘Wishful Sinful,’ a track that whispers the opiate fantasies of serenity and introspection amidst the turbulent waves of human desire and the unnerving calm of deep waters.
Unraveling the meaning behind ‘Wishful Sinful’ isn’t just an exercise in literary interpretation, but rather, a spiritual descent into the azure depths where Morrison’s words, Ray Manzarek’s haunting keyboard, and Robby Krieger’s guitar blend into an eerie siren song that beckons listeners to explore the intricate planes of their own consciousness.
The Siren’s Call to the Unfathomable Depths
The lyric ‘Wishful crystal / Water covers everything in blue’ immediately sets the scene with an image of a vast, engulfing blue abyss. It’s an invitation into a surreal, almost otherworldly dream where the familiar is painted with the brush of the fantastical. Morrison’s voice serves as a siren’s call, luring us into a realm that promises both the tranquility of clear, cool water and the danger that comes with its deceptively serene surface.
As listeners, we are engulfed by this ‘cooling water,’ the metaphorical representation of the mind’s wishful, sinful nature—desires that offer solace yet can overwhelm and consume if one delves too deeply.
A Dance Between Desire and Destiny
‘Our love is beautiful to see / I know where I would like to be / Right back where I came.’ These lines speak to a cyclic journey of the human spirit, highlighting a longing to return to an origin—perhaps an Edenic state or an inner peace that once was. The Doors guide us through a meditation on the cyclical nature of desire, pushing and pulling between the pursuit of happiness and the acceptance of our innate nature.
It’s in this dance between what we wish for and where fate leads us that ‘Wishful Sinful’ finds its true heartbeat, pulsing with a rhythm that’s as much a part of us as the blood coursing through our veins.
The Inescapable Hue of the Human Condition
Wishful, sinful, wicked blue; the term ‘wicked blue’ is an exquisite tapestry of language that paints a vivid picture of moral complexity set against a backdrop of endless ocean. It’s a metaphor for the profundity of the soul and the nuances of our moral compass that often lead us astray from what is traditionally considered righteous.
The phrase ‘Can’t escape the blue’ serves as an echo in the hollows of our mind, reminding us that no matter how we might try to surface from the depths of our own nature, it is the very essence of what makes us human, with all its beauty and flaws.
Sunshine Beneath the Sea: The Contradiction of Emotion
In the line ‘Magic risin’ / Sun is shinin’ deep beneath the sea,’ Morrison captures the contradiction inherent in our emotional landscape. The sunshine represents the joy and warmth we seek, yet it remains hidden beneath the surface of a deep and tumultuous sea—symbolic of our inner turmoil or the subconscious.
The Doors are not just singing about love or desire; they’re exploring the paradox of their coexistence with our darker selves and the world’s hidden forces.
The Haunting Refrain: Cries Carried on the Wind
The repetition of the desire to ‘hear the wind cry’ evokes the sensation of being at one with the elements, of being so in tune with nature and oneself that even the wind carries the emotional weight of our dreams and sorrows. It’s as if the song itself longs to be part of the grand tapestry of life, echoing the natural world’s raw, unfiltered communication.
This wistful desire to connect with the elemental, to feel the cry of the wind as deeply as one’s own, underscores the undercurrent of yearning that flows through ‘Wishful Sinful,’ cementing it as a siren song for the soul searchers and the eternally pensive.
