Moby - Into the Blue

Artist: Moby
Song: Into the Blue
Album: Everything Is Wrong

All alone, I open my eyes

Wild ride
Hold your fire
I'm not about to die
Keep back
Let in some air I dare lie down
To stare at the sky


[Refrain:]
I am wide open
Reaching forever
I fly into the blue
I am wide open
Reaching forever
I fly into the blue


Flat mark
High tide
Frantic to stay afloat
Stay calm
Let in some air I dare lie down
To stare at the sky


[Refrain]


From above
I am so small
So fast
I move I move
The light the light
Here comes the tide

[Refrain]


With water surrounding me
I am wide open
Reaching forever
And I fly into the blue
Into the blue
I am wide open
I am wide open
Reaching forever
Reaching forever
I fly
I fly into the blue
I am wide open
I am wide open
Reaching forever
Reaching forever
I fly into the blue
Into the blue
I am wide open
I am wide open
Reaching forever
Reaching forever
I fly into the blue
Into the blue

Like its name this song is vague and does not have any definite meaning. Blue could be a reference almost anything - the sky, the ocean, or even the future or unknown. In fact, reading over the lyrics gives the impression that blue is meant in multiple contexts, ocean, sky, and maybe more. The lyrics, the first three verses in particular, would seem to suggest a tangible meaning. My search so far has only yielded hypothesis, nothing that I would call conclusive and plausible at a stretch.

My first theory, and I think this still seems the most potentially accurate, is that this song is about death. The "blue" we are talking about would then be the afterlife and "into the blue" would be crossing over, into the afterlife. It is quite easy to find support for this hypothesis in the song as the lyrics are admittedly ambiguous. In the first verse "Wild Ride", "Lie down", and "stare at the sky" could all deal with death. The wild ride is of course the narrators life, and then lying down and staring at the sky most likely has to do with being on your death bed and staring at the heavens, contemplating your life and what it has meant. Of course the "I'm not about to die" line is problematic, and is the biggest point against this interpretation, to be addressed later.

Verse two lends even more support than the first. A "flat mark" of occurs when your heart stops, "frantic to stay afloat" refers to someone trying not to drown - or die. In this case the narrator seems to be clinging to life. Interestingly enough the drowning metaphor adds another layer of meaning here - we discussed blue as the afterlife, but it could also be, at the same time, the ocean depths. As you drown you fall into the ocean deaths as well as crossing into the "blue" that is the afterlife.

The third verse is where things get a little enigmatic. Everything, except for the last line, does not have any strict connection with death or dying. A little bit of creative interpretation does a fair job: "From above" could be in reference to the afterlife, "So small, so fast, I move..." could be about the narrators spirit, leaving the body, and "the light, the light" would be the light of the afterlife, as it is so often described. Lastly, the tide represents the double meaning of both water and death that we described earlier. The tide has the literal meaning of the water, in which the narrator is trying to stay afloat, the the more metaphorical meaning of death.

The refrain and last large verse are the most ambiguous and can easily be interprited to fit the dying hypothesis. The "water surrounding" refers to the whole, possibly metaphorical, piece about drowning. Flying into the blue presents a different approach but one that still fits quite nicely. Interestingly enought blue in this context could also mean two different things, the blue of the sky, which is also refered to as the heavens, or the blue of the afterlife or great beyond. "Reaching Forever" and "I am wide open" are harder to interpret. Perhaps forever has something to do with the infinite amount of time that you are dead and "wide open" refers to the deceased nature of the narrators body.

As mentioned before this interpretation of the song fits very well except for the lone line in the first verse, "I am not about to die." I do not know what to think of this, it could be the narrator clarifying things: "Hey, it might look like it, but this song is not about death." Or maybe it is the narrator calming friends and family: "No, everything is okay, of course I'm not going to die." Taking on a positive attitude ahead of the inevitable. Perhaps though it is something more, maybe the narrator does not see the end of life as death, rather it is crossing over to another place, into the blue.

I would love to end on that very wise note, but my analysis demands rigor and so I must mention a few more things. If death is not the correct analysis then I think the next best guess would be dreaming. Staring at the sky and lying down could easily be associated with dreaming or day dreaming. The rest of the song could simply be about the narrator dreaming or in a dream, more creative interpretation would be easy, especially with the abstract nature of dreams. A few other postulates did cross my mind. What if the narrator in this song was an abstract object, like the sun or moon? Or maybe the narrator is some kind of sea creatureor bird? Ultimately none were as convincing or well supported as the death hypothesis. The very ambiguous nature of the song, however, allows for multiple interpretations and I doubt there is one, concrete, meaning.

Interestingly enough Wikipedia, Songmeanings.net, and Google all lacked content on this song. I might be one of the first people to have seriously analyzed it.