We walked in the cold air
Freezing breath on a window pane
Lying and waiting
The man in the dark in a picture frame
So mystic and soulful
A voice reaching out in a piercing cry
It stays with you until
You are pumping out that old highly stylized 80s synthesizer music, but who really cares. Midge Ure was one of the finest songwriters, even if he rarely made use of "real" instruments. This was the guy who co-wrote Do They Know It's Christmas with Bob Geldof and spawned a new concept in music. For a band such as Ultravox, whose catalog is hopelessly dated, only Vienna seems to stand up to the test of time. Why? Because the words seem to cry out with such raw emotion, backed by such unemotional music, that it becomes the ultimate tale of internal conflict. We had real feelings back in the 1980s, but so often it seemed to be accompanied by a shallow backing track. When the most powerful musical shadow of your words is a simulated thunderstorm, you indeed must be thinking, "This means nothing to me."
The song feels like ghosts waiting to be remembered. It reminds one of events currently happening that you will one day look back on and shake your head. I remember the strange impact it had on me once upon a time. It was a cooling and relaxing feeling, coupled with much anxiety. The song reminded me all too often about how the things that were upsetting me then would mean very little in years to come. I've never seen a song with that kind of power. In those days I was obsessed and constantly fretting over things that were currently happening. Only Vienna could shake me out of those doldrums. I was in college and trying to find my way. I cried over girls and worried about class schedules and fulfillment of the foreign language requirement for my major. I still can't speak a foreign language and still can't meet women, but it doesn't matter anymore. I came to realize that one day I would look back on those days and wax poetically about them but that the tragedies of the day would not be tragedies when I looked back. They would be nothing but little missteps on the road of life.
It is a strange epiphany when you are struggling with something and growing disenchanted and even depressed and you suddenly realize it means nothing. You still feel the pain and the emptiness and the sorrow, but you realize that it isn't going to amount to much of anything in the big picture of your life. You might come to regret having put so much into what was essentially a sideshow act, but mostly you'll realize that it was not a big deal. You'll shake your head wondering why you were so concerned with that girl across the hall who wouldn't give you the time of day. Instead, you'll fondly remember the late night trips to the all-night hamburger place and the time you thought you would be helpful by taking your hot fudge sundae off the waitress' tray before she steadied it. The moments you remember and long to feel again are rarely those you think are important at the time. There is always something you miss.
You'll one day wonder why. You'll wonder why these things meant so much. There are other things that will continue to weigh heavily on your soul, but thought would become wooden nickles in the rear view mirror. The power to realize, at the time, that it means nothing is something that encroaches on raw power. If you can feel the pain and at the same time dismiss it as meaningless in the larger order of things, you can become something. There is always doubt, but in the back of our minds we know. That which is so big today will one day mean nothing. Let it rain. Pain teaches us too much to be casually brushed aside. Drink.
This means nothing to me
This means nothing to me
Oh, Vienna
Lyrics sample from lyrics copyright Midge Ure
As recorded by Ultravox on the album Vienna