What does Away mean?

The Bolshoi: Away Meaning

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Album cover for Away album cover

Song Released: 1986


Away Lyrics

We're in love, let's be together
Happy times or heavy weather
Mother says "Today's a special day"
So let's not fight, O-K, yeah.

When you were at school you were a honey
The boys all loved you - you loved their money
The boys would stare...

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  1. Krakatoa69
    click a star to vote
     Aug 25th 2022 !⃝

    I love this song and always suspected the lyrics to have some deeper meaning. I also do not know how much the fact that I am not native speaker may impact understanding the text or some of its parts (actual meanings and idiomatic expressions).

    For a long while, I didn’t know if this was titled “A Way” or “Away” (giving different nuances about the story’s character and events), and just placing the story in an accurate period of time was a challenge for me. For some time, I thought this could be late 19th/ early 20th century scenarios but the “tv dinner” part corrected that – still, I cannot state this was in the 50’s or later. For the dynamics it is not important ultimately.

    The 1. Strophe:
    “We're in love, lets be together
    Happy times or heavy weather”
    Mother says "Today's a special day"
    So lets not fight, O-K, yeah.

    Sounds like two once lovers, one of them bringing up some silly promise made in the younger days of their genuinely passionate hearts. We know this is a “special day”, but not whether the preceding lines are brought in an imploring, confrontational or even sarcastic manner. That could matter for us to understand how the lover’s mood/ role changes overtime, but not change that this is a melancholic moment.

    The mentioning of Mother could mean the man (or more scandalously, female lover?) is an acquainted to the family, or even more convoluted, if these two are actually blood related (as cousins that did in fact love each other). That is always something seen as negative, even disgusting. And sure fuel for gossip.

    Another possibility that comes to mind is that this first “strophe” is actually the only personal account of the woman center of the story, later told by someone else. Whatever this “special day” is (wedding, prom night), it must bring her on edge, resurfacing some deeper memories or desires. That is, till she remembers what Mother “determined” and concludes to accept it, as is.

    Whatever the case, this first strophe superficially summarises the entire story: a fond memory or fantasy (“We're in love, lets be together/ Happy times or heavy weather”); its shock when confronted with reality‘s cruel facts (Mother says "Today's a special day"); the inescapable acceptance of the situation.

    The 2. Strophe IMO serves to show us she already had a predisposition to take advantage of her looks for an easy (er) life… Whether she already was familiar with a higher life standard, we cannot know (yet).

    3. Strophe
    “Money's scarce, but family honor
    Brings it home, brings it home”

    This part of 3. Strophe may refer to a once important family, living off some sort of past contribution (war veteran, ex nobility). So once rich/ important and still proud. But why is “Brings it home” mentioned 2x in a row? Maybe just a detail, but I always wonder with these rich lyrics.

    At first I found it curious that nowhere in the whole text a father is mentioned. Maybe because fathers of struggling families tend to work extra hours or jobs to provide for, or maybe this one was “chasing” candidates for his daughter. A father (or fatherly figure?) is implied as per some instances of “they”. But it could also very well be that this family centre strangely revolves around the mother, as the one who has (had?) the resources. Or perhaps she is even a recently divorced (abandoned?) woman, now with little means to progress in a richer life, forcing her to work two jobs herself - or something “less honourable”. A future she certainly does not want for her daughter. In any case, repetitions can be used to draw attention and either emphasise or contradict the very nature of a previous statement. Like ‘that person over there? Very loyal… very loyal’, with a touch of sarcasm, could mean it is *not* family “honour” at all that is bringing that measle $ home. I can only leave it as an ambiguity.

    All this could fit very well in part of the “tongues that snicker” at shoppes in older times. These gossipers may be aware of their tensed situation, indicated by “TV dinners - beer and liquor, oh yeah”. Whatever these gossips are about – suspicion of a crime, association with unwanted elements, or nothing so shady, like loss of business – may be enough to be admonished by public opinion. Hell, even having a similar family name could bring disgrace, undeservedly.

    TV dinner sounds to me those occasions, where the family cannot have a conversation and turn on tv to cover for uncomfortable silence or discourage unpleasant themes. Adding beer and liquor (cheap drinks instead of wine e,g,) would just intensify an already stressed environment, so not surprisingly loud discussions could have been overheard. And who knows what secrets escape an inebriated tongue?

    The next strophe (the most artistically magnificent imagery to me) could reaffirm this line of interpretation:

    “Skeletons fall out of cupboards
    Curtains drawn, fall open to allow
    The light shows up the dust
    That plays around your face”

    Somehow, aspects of their lives that they made effort to conceal now surface. A rumour is just so, until a source with perceived authority sheds its “light” and alter its status to fact or truth – some sort of court summons or recent news involving their family names, now or in the past.

    But “skeletons, dust, curtains drawn”, these are all signs of something that did not just simply happen. There is a history to whatever the damning events are: not only are they ugly or embarrassing, the family made no effort to come clean, as the amount of “dust” accumulated is suggested. Maybe they even couldnt. Regardless, it is against such dirtier frame that the pretty faces will be viewed, which is how I see this 4. Strophe concluding.

    The next 2 strophes have a different rhythm and may be the only point in this text, where she and the narrator actually exchanged an encounter - if we accept that in the beginning she is just by herself of course. “Innocence and lies don't make a perfect match”, this person knows her well enough so no need to pretend, she can “leave the door unlatched”. He is there as someone to comfort her (“A word can be untrue/ And yet still move you”). This is followed by how she was displayed for her parents friends. Nothing here is surprising, but what follows next is at least weird: “And all the time they told you it was true/ Well I'll believe you now”

    It appears that, whatever the conversation was and whatever “they said was true”, must have been quite something he learnt (or deduced) here. Because now his transition towards the conclusion shows an erratic content:

    “But then I just don't know I / Think I'd have to reconsider, yeah”

    This sounds like *until* the supposed conversation, he could still have feelings strong enough to try anything for their fantasy together. But now, a game changer in his heart makes him “reconsider”.

    We know he remained close enough to attend the marriage, in which she “looked fine”, the word “look” used intentionally for ambiguity. But the accounts seem now more distanced or even uninterested.

    “Oh yeah she had a baby
    It was painful, it was worth it”

    We can assume “It was painful, it was worth it” to her, given all previous content centered on her. Never having actually been herself, she graduated from “bride in shelf” character to become “mother of someone”, who will now be the center of attention. Some sort of relief perhaps, as women tended to be regarded only fit for being mothers. As if her destiny is realized, period.
    But since the narrator feelings were at stake too, maybe that is his experience he is talking about. Seeing his loved one getting married is hard enough, but seeing that she now is a mother, not just puts her at a more difficult distance: she is now at another level, one that he has no business intruding.

    Finally, what I *really* struggle here is this sudden graphic description of a violent act:

    “And all the time they stuck the knife in
    Pulled it up and twist it around”

    So “they” as in everyone else, unaware of or indifferent to the love life that these two “unlived”. And for someone who nurtured any feelings for someone else – even if abandoned or ignored – that would be a pretty angry way to describe its conclusion. Anger not necessarily targeted at her, could be the family, or a hypocritical society as a whole. Maybe not targeted at all – just blind resentment for being deprived of a chance of true happiness.

    For a long time (before I had access to the lyrics) I was under the impression that this was the description of *an abortion*, as if the lady had gotten pregnant and that would be a no-no for a struggling (yet honour based) family. Ever more so if they were grooming her for the best suitable candidate. Now it occurred to me, the possibility of such an unplanned pregnancy could very well be the catalyst of a rushed preparation for husband candidates and potentialize an already tense and fragile situation. We do not have an accurate passage of time anywhere... Could be the events are separated by years, as well as only weeks till the marriage. In fact, such a thing *could be* one of the “skeletons in cupboards”, causing murmur in “shoppes” and “tongue snickers”. And here’s what this (maybe faulty) interpretation could help with the whole song: how intimate the narrator is with the situation (assuming he is exchanging conversation with her in the beginning), opens up the possibility of his direct and personal involvement – in which she is expecting his child - and thus his ultimate bitterness in the end, as she actually gave birth to a son and a life someone else will cherish in his stead. Hell, “they” may even include her now, with her indifferent acceptance of the situation; the knife metaphor being several moments of violence against their fantasy love life: intrusion (“all the time they stuck the knife in”), the cutting/ severing them apart through arranged marriage (“pulling up”) and making it all an absurd and hurtful lie about whose baby that is (“twist it around” having a double meaning of sadistic movement and twisting the nature of a fact).

    There is so much left for us “to assume” throughout this story that the entire song could be the telling of several different tragic love stories, and not just one.


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