sign of the times lyric analysis disproving the “mother theory”
credits to me and @rainberryy28 at like two in the morning for coming up with this:)

tw// childbirth & d*ath
all thoughts mentioned are just theories and don’t have to be taken seriously at all this was for my own entertainment at two in the morning

this song was first credited to the “mother theory” but when we inspected the article there was no direct quote of harry ever confirming that theory it was all just written. disclaimer that these are just our theories and songs are always up to interpretation.

let’s start off by saying that i believe this song may be about closeting in the industry and i’ll be skipping over some lyrics because i can’t add them all to the thread or i’m stumped on what they may mean if you would like please add your thoughts in the replies!!

“welcome to the final show, hope you’re wearing your best clothes” it was always odd to me how this lyric was there when the babies life would have just begun? i’m assuming that “the show” is referring to the parts that they play for their images in real life.

“you can’t bribe the door on your way to the sky” i interpret this lyric as the sky being a metaphor for fame and the door being a metaphor for the closet. that there is no price you can pay for the closeting in the industry not to hurt you if that makes sense

“we never learn, we’ve been here before” this struck me as odd as well because the mother literally just gave birth to the child so what would they not be learning if that makes sense? it seems to remind me of something that you would say to someone that you already know and -

- this lyric to me suggests that whatever this struggle is, it is a constant in their life and that that they have yet to fully comprehend how this struggle continues throughout their lives without anything being done about it.

“we gotta get away from here” i interpret this as them wanting to escape whatever the struggle they have is and run from it. this lyric strongly reminds me of the song ready to run which the whole song is basically about leaving your life behind bc of being closeted in my opinion

“they told me that the end is near. we gotta get away from here” i interpret this as maybe at he was told that whatever the struggle was would end, but it didn’t in the grand scheme of things. he’s lost all hope and wants to get away from it all because he has lost faith.

“just stop your crying, have the time of your life” this lyric seems like something he might have been said similar to being told that you should be thankful for where you are in life and to enjoy it even as horrible as it is. he might be using this to remind himself of-

- how people think he should be “grateful” for the opportunities he’s been given and that being closeted is seen to be outweighed by the positives in his situation.

“remember everything will be alright” this is a constant reminder to himself that one day things will get better and the struggle that he is currently facing will get better with time. something that he may be reminding himself and others.

“we don’t talk enough, we should open up, before it’s all too much” it always struck me odd how this would have been a mother saying it to her newborn child that she has never met before? i believe this is talking about two people who have been together through -

- this closeting and them lacking communication because this struggle has been driving a wall between them and that they need to start opening up more before the whole situation becomes way too much to handle and they blow over.

honorable mention:

harry is known to use metaphors in his lyrics and it makes very little sense that he would use lyrics that have direct meanings and just give away the story like that. all the lyrics that could possibly relate to the mother theory have direct links there is not a single -

- metaphor that could be made to suggest that the song is about that theory. i literally tried but it makes no sense honestly. also it’s very suspicious how in the article there is no direct quote of harry mentioning that theory and we just took their word for it.

anyways that’s the end of my rant if you have anything you’d like to say about this reply please and if you disagree it’s okay these are just my own thoughts and opinions feel free to believe whatever you’d like just please do not send me any hate for this.