submissions
| Bright Eyes – Firewall Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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I've heard swastikas referred to as "crooked crosses" before. With the imagery of Hitler and other tyrants popping up in other songs on the album, I think it's possible that that's what's being referred to here. It would go along with the opposing imagery set up earlier - jump ropes vs slit wrists, blinding light (symbolizing, perhaps, enlightenment) vs the swastika (representing the darkest corners of the human mind and the greatest evil that can come from us). |
submissions
| Bright Eyes – Firewall Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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Yes! That's what I've been thinking, too. However, I think it's meant to be uncertain. I think the imagery is fluid here - sex, music, spiritual enlightenment, etc all intertwined. |
submissions
| Bright Eyes – Jejune Stars Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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I don't think jejune stars, as he uses it here, is an oxymoron. While jejune can mean dull/boring/lacking in originality, etc - it can also mean childish (in terms of one's understanding of a subject). So when i read the title of the song (long before I heard it or read the lyrics), my first thought was "Baby Stars" - which ties in a bit to the Ladder Song's reference to a star being born. I think the idea here is that we are just at the beginning of our consciousness - that when we live a long life and die feeling old and decrepit, we'll still be just babies in terms of the universe. You see shades of this in Beginner's Mind (with the reference to dying young at heart) and even back in Don't Know When But A Day's Gonna Come (I'm not a child, I'm so much younger than that.) |
submissions
| Bright Eyes – Firewall Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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I also want to add that I think the section about Madeline is ripe with sexual imagery. Not that it's about sex in and of itself, but there's a long standing tradition in both poetry and rock music (not to mention in many religions) of conflating sex and spirituality. |
submissions
| Bright Eyes – Firewall Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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There is a folk singer named Madeline who put out an album called "Slow Bang." I haven't heard the album, so I'm not sure how it relates to this song, but I'm pretty sure that's not a coincidence.
And I agree with the comments about the "land of tomorrow" being a clear reference to Disneyland (or Disney World, but since he's also talking about the palisades, I'm going to assume we're dealing with LA rather than Orlando). Growing up in Southern California, I spent a good chunk of my adolescence at Disneyland, and I think there's something about Tomorrow Land that leads to inspiration/revelation.
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submissions
| Bright Eyes – Shell Games Lyrics
| 13 years ago
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I see it as a piece of work reflecting a sort of Emersonian transcendentalism, with clear homage being paid to Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence."
I think the "heavy love" is a reference to group consciousness - the love for world can't be borne alone, that changes must be made in everyone, everyone has to carry their piece of the world. It's about transcending our isolation, transcending our bodies, moving beyond what we see when we look out our own windows.
I would imagine that "Shell Game" is a reference to the short sci-fi story by Phillip Dick http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell_Game_%28short_story%29
Conor has said that the new album is a science fiction album. |
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