In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
I will
Lay me down
In a bunker
Underground
I won't let this happen
To my children
Meet the real-world coming
Out of your shell
With white elephants
Sitting ducks
I will
Rise up
Little baby's eyes
Eyes, eyes, eyes
Little baby's eyes
Eyes, eyes, eyes
Little baby's eyes
Eyes
Eyes
Lay me down
In a bunker
Underground
I won't let this happen
To my children
Meet the real-world coming
Out of your shell
With white elephants
Sitting ducks
I will
Rise up
Little baby's eyes
Eyes, eyes, eyes
Little baby's eyes
Eyes, eyes, eyes
Little baby's eyes
Eyes
Eyes
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Standing On The Edge Of Summer
Thursday
Thursday
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
This song is about a bunker that was destroyed during the first Gulf War that ended up being a bomb shelter full of women and children. From Thom:
"You said it’s the angriest thing you’ve ever written." Thom: "Yes. Well yeah, I guess it is. I mean… It’s quite simple really, I had an extremely unhealthy obsession, that ran through the ‘Kid A’ thing, about the first Gulf War. When they started it up they did that lovely thing of putting the camera on the end of the missile, and you got to see the wonders of modern military technology blow up this bunker. And then sometime afterwards in the back pages it was announced, that that bunker was not full of weapons at all, but women and children. And it was actually a bomb shelter. And so everybody… we all got to witness the wonders of modern technology. And it ran through so much stuff for so long for me. I just could not get it out of my head. It was so sick. And so that’s where the anger comes from. We did the most dreadful version of it. It was all that programmed… just a disaster. But interestingly something good came out, because we turned the tape over and it became ‘Spinning Plates’." (XFM, spring 2003)
when i first heard this song in meeting people is easy (it was just the harmony part at the end of the song) the notes were so perfect and so desperate...and i thought to myself "this is the most beautiful melody i have ever heard". now that i have heard the entire song and melody that goes with the harmony...it just really tears at my heart.
what i think this song means: the above comment about it being about war may very well be true. thom is very political and it seems to make perfect sence. however, when i think about the lyrics, i saw something different. the part at the end "little babies' eyes" reminded me that thom just had a child, and maybe this song is a sort of lullabye for his child. he doesnt want what happened to him to happen to his children...white elephants might have something to do with republicans.. (in my version of the song, he sings "with white elephants/ sitting ducks/ i will/ rise up") so im gonna put two ideas together.. maybe this song is about protecting your children from war. or about thom wanting to protect his child from war.
i hope you folks could follow my thoughts...im a bit scatterbrained.
I agree with you about the music- purely lovely. I also like Thom's voice in this song, because he's not in his falsetto. I love it both ways, but I also admire that he can sing well either way. Not like Chris Martin, unfortunately. Coldplay's only good song where Chris sings lower than usual, in my opinion, is Amsterdam. <br /> <br /> And this song sorta sounds like "See You Soon" by them... hmm...
I'd say your mostly right, though I don't think it's just about war. I think it's more so about the change in heart that came along with having kids. Cause at the start he's more just running away/hiding, but then it seems he gains the resolution for to rise up after staring into his little babies eyes and/or just having a baby.
Haven, you most likely got "Like Spinning Plates" which, insturmentally, IS this song being played backwards. The first few lines of which are sung backwards, too.
I've always felt that white elephants could refer to the republican party. I know this sounds kind of crazy considering the fact they are english. But the title of the album "Hail to the Theif" was inspired by the theories that George Bush "stole" the election. I don't believe the title to actually be about Bush himself, but about dictators like the one he is accused of being.
ok.. i played the song backwards, and I can make out some words, but not the same as the ones posted above... I wonder if I'm listening to a different song here...
i downloaded the songs so im sure they are right...i dont know what you got
believe it or not, i think this song is about war. "lay me down/ in a bunker/underground" = what soldiers/civilians do during war. "i won't let this happen to my childen / and / little babies' eyes" reflect the effect war can have on the youth...i'm sure the song is most likely about something else, but this is just my little interpretation..
side note: the way thom sings "little babies' eyes" along with the background vocals has got to be one of the most beautiful parts on the CD
beautifully put, saturnine
i think white elephant is like a white elephant sale, where you donate something you dont need or dont want anymore for a cause and then somebody buys it at auction and the proceeds go to charity. but before that he says meet the real world coming out of my shell. maybe a metaphor for absurd self sacrifice and the struggles of fatherhood. a good compliment to there there?i dunno
I think saturnine is right. Thom said in the NME that this is kind of a scary song about a guy who will do anything, including commit murder, to protect his family. Whether or not Thom is approving or disapproving of this idea is not clear.
"What would I do to protect my family?" is a question a lot of people find hard to answer, and I think Thom isn't really trying to answer it in this song, but instead to convey the feeling of being absolutely sure.