Miss You Love - an analysis of a beautful Silverchair song

The other day when I was searching for a video of Silverchair's Freak song on YouTube, I came across their song Miss You Love.

Miss You Love is maybe my top favourite Silverchair song, and up there with favourite songs of all time. I adore it.

I also love with equal parts: Ana's Song, Emotion Sickness, Without You, Across The Night, Cemetery and The Greatest View. I pretty much like their old stuff better than their new stuff.

My love for their music is very specific. It starts at Freakshow and stops at Diorama. I think Daniel Johns looked his best in this period (despite his unfortunate illnesses of anorexia and arthritis) and their music was the most imaginative and beautiful.I love the metaphors in the lyrics, the theatrics of the music particularly with the Neon Ballroom and Diorama albums. I am not keen on Young Modern nor Frogstomp apart from Tomorrow.

I think Daniel Johns is so creative and articulate, and damn good looking to boot. His honesty is refreshing. I really admire how he has overcome his adversities. I once met Ben Gillies when he played in Tambalane. I asked Ben how Daniel was. He said 'aren't you going to ask how Chris is too?' - I was very embarrassed.

I digress.

You may recall in this blog entry that Neon Ballroom was one of the albums that influenced me during 1999.

I loved the darkness, and could relate to some of the isolation Daniel Johns wrote and sang about.

Miss You Love was of course my favourite song, The lyrics are beautifully sad. There's a sense of love and despair because of the adoration from others.

Daniel said that at the time of writing Neon Ballroom, he was in a dark place and he hated music.

"I wrote . . . Neon Ballroom in that time where I hated music, really everything about it, I hated it. But I couldn't stop doing it and I felt like a slave to it."

I believe Miss You Love was written about the pressures of stardom Daniel (and probably Chris Joannou and Ben Gillies) felt at such a young age.

'But I'm not too sure
How I'm supposed to feel
Or what I'm supposed to say
But I'm not, not sure,
Not too sure how it feels
To handle every day'

That fame they had, at what, 15 years old? I can't imagine.

On Andrew Denton's Enough Rope in 2004, Daniel spoke of the overwhelming feeling of fame:

'I think having three million people owning the first thing that you've ever recorded makes you kind of have to live up to it, in a way. It kind of puts pressure... It put pressure on me and I was obsessed with spending every second of every day studying music and becoming better and better and... Just because I felt like I wasn't worthy of what had come to me at a really early age. I needed to live up to it, I guess, you know?'

I guess that is where my favourite line of the song comes from - 'I love the way you love, but I hate the way I'm supposed to love you back'. This line is beautiful, and selfishly, I always wanted it to somehow relate to me - where I wanted to be adored by someone but wasn't sure how to feel. I guess it does apply in reverse though - I am always on the unrequited end of unrequited love!

The video clip of Miss You Love is equally compelling.

Many of Silverchair's videos tell a story or are artfully directed, like short films.

Miss You Love tells a few stories of love. The detail is amazing.

It details difference audience members' feelings as they watch a film, and also the feelings of the film's characters, too.

Silverchair enter the cinema theatre via a back entrance. Maybe to avoid the crowds and the attention that goes with fame. Yes. They don't look on comers in the eye.

Daniel sits away from Ben and Chris, tense, wary, hands clenched and teeth gritted. Isolated. Thin. I feel sad for him. Like the song Ana's Song, this video probably reflects his life back then quite truthfully.

I love how immersed in the film and music the audience members are, to the point where Chris catches Ben singing along and they both laugh.

There's the guy who looks reluctant when his girlfriend takes his band in the first 'I love the way you love...' line.

The film's characters are two lovers on the verge of break up. Their subtitled dialogue says:

~'Are you falling asleep?'
~'No I'm falling apart.'

Sigh.

There's the usherette who is reading by torchlight through the film. I can't figure her out. She's emotional.

Sometimes I think she is immersed in the sadness or love story of the book she is reading, imagining herself as a character, trying to escape from he mundane reality of her job as an usherette.

Other times I think just wants to be noticed amongst the crowd because she feels insignificant - being stepped over by audience members. I can't help think she wants to be noticed by the reel operator. But he's being more than just noticed by another girl. And this probably happens every film he reels.

And then, the handsome guy watching the film intently. He sings along with the song. He looks uncomfortable in some parts of the film. Like he's identifying the situation of the lovers on screen. Like he's got a lover he's about to break up with. Is he walking out of the cinema before the film's end to make up or break up with his lover?

I love the way the video to Miss You love shows so much emotion from different characters.

Gosh that was an in depth analysis. I have not analysed something that much since year 12 English. But I love that video clip and have thought about its meaning a lot over these past 11 years.

I would love to chat to Silverchair about the thought process behind the making of the clip.

What are your thoughts on this remarkable song and video?

Here is the video and the lyrics.



'Millionaire say
Got a big shot deal
And thrown it all away but
But I'm not too sure
How I'm supposed to feel
Or what I'm supposed to say
But I'm not, not sure,
Not too sure how it feels
To handle every day
And I miss you love

Make room for the pray
'Cause I'm coming in
With what I wanna say but
It's gonna hurt
And I love the pain
A breeding ground for hate but...

I'm not, not sure,
Not too sure how it feels
To handle everyday
Like the one that just past
In the crowds of all the people

Remember today
I've no respect for you
And I miss you love
And I miss you love

I love the way you love
But I hate the way
I'm supposed to love you back

It's just a fad
Part of the teen, teenage angst brigade and
I'm not, not sure,
Not too sure how it feels
To handle everyday
Like the one that just past
In the crowds of all the people

Remember today
I've no respect for you
And I miss you love
And I miss you love

Remember today
I've no respect for you
And I miss you love
And I miss you love

I love the way you love
But I hate the way
I'm supposed to love you back'

(Miss You Love - written by Daniel Johns, performed by Silverchair)