Photograph

Album: Villains (1996)
Charted: 53
Play Video
  • if you want beautiful, pitiful,
    have me in a picture
    and if you want make me dance,
    throw me round spin upon your
    finger

    blind labors the blind and i am
    unwilling to uncover my eyes

    and if you want take your time rifle
    through, find a very nice one
    if there's a crease in my face over
    time, there's plenty more where
    that came from

    words, frozen, will thaw when i am
    wasted, i am better shut up
    and a frame is quite confining,
    hang me up...hang me up

    i'm in the photograph

    when i'm alone and the world is a
    fist, i am weightless
    a universe, gravitate, orchestrate,
    i am fearless
    and spin, the sky surrounding free
    from all the picture perfect
    and spin the sky surrounding,
    larger than life, meanwhile
    Writer/s: George Harrison, Richard Starkey
    Publisher: BMG Rights Management, Songtrust Ave, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 2

  • Will C. from New YorkSomeone posted this on songmeanings.com and it seems like a pretty accurate interpretation:
    I think that this song is about photographs, and their interplay with our perceptions of people. When the speaker says "if you want beautiful, pitiful, have me in a picture," he's suggesting to the listener that she cannot make him be what she wants (beautiful, pitiful), but she can have a picture of him, and imagine that the person in the picture has those qualities. Similarly, the listener cannot really make the speaker dance, but she can make the picture "dance" by spinning it around.

    When the speaker says "if there's a crease in my face over time, there's plenty more where that came from," he's responding to the unspoken objection that a photograph can become creased and aged by pointing out that he, as a person, is sure to wrinkle and age himself. A simple crease in the photo is relatively insignificant. If the listener wants the speaker perfect, she's better off with a creased photograph than an aging person.

    "Words, frozen, will thaw when I am wasted; I am better shut up" speaks to the fact that a moment in time characterized by something the speaker says will pass, as he goes on to do or say something that undermines those words. But moment itself and what the words represent can be frozen in time in the picture.

    When the speaker says "when I'm alone and the world is a fist, and I am weightless," I think he's referring to himself not as an actual person, but as the person that is in the photo. He's alone, the world is a fist, and he is weightless because "he" is merely a picture being waved around in somebody's hand. "He" is fearless because, of course, he's not real. The act of "spin[ning] the sky surrounding" has a literal and a figurative meaning. Literally, the sky surrounding the person in the picture can be spun because the picture itself (and all of its contents) can be physically spun. Figuratively, "spin[ning] the sky surrounding" is recontextualizing the picture's scene in the listener's own mind. For example, if you have a picture of a person in front of a sky, you can imagine that sky is the sky of Alaska, Kyoto, Texas . . . it doesn't matter. You can contextualize what is in the picture any way you wish.

    This song is really about the fact that pictures never lie, but we can use the pictures as tools to lie to ourselves.
  • Chris from Germany boring. typical for a one hit wonder. a great song which they couldn’t repeat (the freshmen)
see more comments

Editor's Picks

American Hits With Foreign Titles

American Hits With Foreign TitlesSong Writing

What are the biggest US hits with French, Spanish (not "Rico Suave"), Italian, Scottish, Greek, and Japanese titles?

Allen Toussaint - "Southern Nights"

Allen Toussaint - "Southern Nights"They're Playing My Song

A song he wrote and recorded from "sheer spiritual inspiration," Allen's didn't think "Southern Nights" had hit potential until Glen Campbell took it to #1 two years later.

Danny Kortchmar

Danny KortchmarSongwriter Interviews

Danny played guitar on Sweet Baby James, Tapestry, and Running On Empty. He also co-wrote many hit songs, including "Dirty Laundry," "Sunset Grill" and "Tender Is The Night."

Rock Revenge Songs

Rock Revenge SongsMusic Quiz

John Lennon, Paul Simon and Lynyrd Skynyrd are some of the artists who have written revenge songs. Do you know who they wrote them about?

N.W.A vs. the World

N.W.A vs. the WorldSong Writing

How the American gangsta rappers made history by getting banned in the UK.

Donnie Iris (Ah! Leah!, The Rapper)

Donnie Iris (Ah! Leah!, The Rapper)Songwriter Interviews

Before "Rap" was a form of music, it was something guys did to pick up girls in nightclubs. Donnie talks about "The Rapper" and reveals the identity of Leah.