Only as you go through it, and experience it, you find that’s not really what love is all about. Love and passion, a person always there for you, will never let you down or disappoint you. That all you need is love, and your person will be everything you dreamed of, forever and always. That love is a fairy tale, and when we find it we’ll live happily ever after. Or that they bring rain, or block out the sun, when the sun is what we need. That wispy clouds, beautiful, that help block out the sun, are just pretty little things, failing to realize, they’re here one minute, gone the next. When young and innocent, we believe in fairy tales. As we go through this life, we pursue the good. Most things are a mixed bag of good and bad. There’s a saying that everything that ends ends badly, otherwise it wouldn’t have ended. We live in a shadow world of memories and thoughts. Life is too complex to break down into simple, real bits. So, in "recalling" clouds, love, or life, it is merely the memory we have - an idea, an "illusion" really. In the same sense that it is not possible to objectively "own" an object or person, perhaps it is also impossible to truly "know" anyone or anything. Memory helps construct our perception, cognition, and consciousness: how we understand the world. One theme no one else has mentioned is the theme of memory. Its balance of abstract imagery (verses) and narrative voice (refrains) is peerless. This is reflected in the poetic structure as well, with extensive use of rhyme and parallel construction. It's got metaphors interlocking on several narrative levels. The way that the song progresses from specific to general (clouds - love - life) is incredible and classic. He touches on the fact that a major theme of the song is duality. I think mickzzzzzz's post from 06 is closer than most. Even this has a duality: you can look at it as being hopeful or unrealistic. The dreamer seems doomed to repeat the same mistakes by choosing to sugar coat the true nature of life and love with their own romantic illusionment. Even when experience teaches the true nature of something, the dreamer can continue to live with their illusions about life and love. I think both sides now is a song about illusion versus reality from the point of view of a dreamer. While the coming of age/changing perspective thing is the subject of the verses the chorus goes beyond that by adding that although she has seen things for what they really are, she continues to choose illusion over reality. In other words, it would mean that the protagonist used to see clouds & love as beautiful, and after subsequent experiences saw them in a different & more realistic light. If it were, it would mean that the author's point of view evolved from one earlier naive state to a more enlightened state through experience. To me, both sides now isn't so much a coming of age song.
Well something's lost, but something's gained
Oh, but now old friends they're acting strangeĪnd they shake their heads and they tell me that I've changed I've looked at clouds from both sides now
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