"Out Of This World" by Edwyn Collins

30 August 2024

I first heard "Out Of This World", by Edwyn Collins, when I was in high school, an impressionable time of life.

I didn't understand the lyrics fully, and maybe still don't. My initial vague understanding was that it was about a New Age person ("guru"; "love is in the season", as I misheard it, which I thought had something to do with astrology) who wants to "break out of this world". Maybe sort of like the Heaven's Gate cult. But now I look at the lyrics more closely and it seems like the song may be about a romantic relationship (or maybe also a social scene) that makes a "totality" that the singer wants to break out of. Or maybe his "New Age" romantic partner is the one who wants to break out of the world, combining the two previous interpretations. Maybe it's about a specific situation, perhaps from Collins' life.

I like Collins' song particularly for the emotional loading it puts on "I need to find a way to break out of this world / Yes, there's got to be a way to break out of this world." Maybe that's the main part of the song to me, and the rest does not come through in the emphasis.

The lyrics sites copy each other and seem to all be wrong, but I got a copy of the CD from the library and here are the lyrics from the liner notes:

I'm praying for rain
I'm praying that you'll come to your senses
Because whilst you bask in the warmth of the sun
We're vulnerable and defenceless
There are so many people who have come to depend on you
There are even some impressionable souls [but the recording says "fools"]
For whom you are a guru

And you turn to them and you say
Love is in this season
But the seasons change
Then what will you believe in?
When the winter comes
That's when I'll be leaving
I leave to find a way
To break out of this world
[Recording adds "Yes there's got to be a way
To break out of this world."]

You won't burn out
Yours is a love that smoulders
So why do you feel that you're carrying the weight
of the world upon your shoulders?
Not that it amounts to much
But I'd help you if I could
Now don't waste your breath refusing my help
That's already understood

And you turn to me and you say
Love is in this season
But the seasons change
Then what will you believe in?
When the winter comes
That's when I'll be leaving
I leave to find a way
To break out of this world
Yes there's got to be a way
To break out of this world