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Ask for help > what message does the song"immortality" convey?
what message does the song"immortality" convey?
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gharbi2009
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what message does the song"immortality" convey?
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I was teaching a listening activity based on Celine Dion �s song �Immortality � and a student asked me what the relation between the title of the song and its content was. I told him the singer wanted to be immortal by being by everyone and not one person, thus fulfilling her dream. In other words, she wanted to be a philanthropist and I supported my argument with a detail from the poem " An I must choose to live, For all that I can give" Is my interpretation of the song correct? Please help if there is any other message the song conveys? |
3 Nov 2015
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Tapioca
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Hi Gharbi,
I always tell my students that not all songs are well thought through, for many reasons, often the meaning is not deliberately clear. It�s not always easy to write lyrics for a song AND at the same time make them interesting, emotional and meaningful!
I think you �re broadly correct. It seems to me the song is about a musician or artist who has to choose between her/his career and the dream of achieving immortality through that, on one hand, and following her/his heart and being with a lover, on the other: love or career. In this case, the choice is career, so it�s not very romantic!
So it�s not actual immortality, perhaps, but fame. It was written specifically for a show (see below), so I guess it is used to explain part of the plot for the main character.
When she sings �For all that I can give�, I would understand that as �give to my fans/give to my career�, rather than philanthropy, but it�s subjective and I can be cynical sometimes ;-)
I found an interview with Maurice Gibb (of The Bee-Gees), where he talks about the writing of the song.
PS: Maurice I can imagine, it �s different than writing a song for you three, than for writing, for example, for Celine Dion, for other artists...
Maurice: Exactly. Well, there, an example with the song "Immortality" for Celine Dion was, ah, we needed a song for - the stage show for "Saturday Night Fever" was starting up, and they needed one song for like a climax-type of song, so we wrote this song "Immortality", and as we were doing it, we were saying. `wouldn �t it be great if Celine Dion could do this`? We imagined Celine when we wrote it. And then even though... �cause we were told at that time a girl singer was going to do it in the show, which eventually ended up as a guy singing it. But Celine heard it and loved it so much, it was so ironic that we imagined her singing it, and then she wanted to do it.
SOURCE: http://www.brothersgibb.org/mauricegibb-poems-page7.html
btw his use of the word �ironic� there is confusing. I think he meant �a coincidence�.
I sometimes use the website songmeanings.com and this one is also on there:
http://songmeanings.com/songs/view/46694/
Tap
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3 Nov 2015
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gharbi2009
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Thanks Tap for the useful information you provided me with. Anyway, I think a piece of literature is always open to different interpretations and knowing the reason for writing is always helpful. Have a nice day, Gharbi |
4 Nov 2015
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houda ben ali
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As for me the question I have always asked(to no avail!) " what has this song to do with holidaying and art shows?" |
5 Nov 2015
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