| Johnny Cash – Ain't No Grave Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I think the song is about unfinished businesses. The man doesn`t want to die yet. He asks those in Heaven who wanna see him to come down and meet him half-way and, even if he were to die, he would rise from the grave because he hasn`t finished with this live yet and has powerful reasons to stay alive. Reasons that make him stronger than death. I also think this is Tarantino`s interpretation of the song and that`s why he chose it for his film Django Unchained. ;-) | |
| UNKLE – Heaven Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| I think he wants to tell us that Heaven is a place on Earth that we build ourselves. | |
| Arcade Fire – Wake Up Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| "Nothing" is fake hope ... | |
| Arcade Fire – Wake Up Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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My interpretation of the song is that, while dealing indirectly with death, is primarily about religion, and coming to grips with the fact that it's really a myth. "Somethin' filled up my heart with nothin', someone told me not to cry." This refers to being "filled up" with religion ("nothin'") as a child; being told "not to cry" or feel fear about death, because it's a "fact" that you'll be going to a happy place. "But now that I'm older, my heart's colder, and I can see that it's a lie." Now that he's grown older, he sees that religion is false, though he acknowledges that this revelation comes with increased less blissful innocence ("my heart's colder") "Children wake up, hold your mistake up, before they turn the summer into dust." Here, he urges everyone, particularly the young, future generations, to throw off the mind-constricting shackles of religion, before "they" - those who pervert religion in order to justify war, terrorism, intolerance (racial/sexual/bigotry toward other religions), etc - end up permanently damaging or ruining the future. Turning the "summer into dust" Turning the "summer into dust" particularly seems to suggest a religion-based war or oppression. "If the children don't grow up, our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up. We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms turnin' every good thing to rust." This is maybe the most explicit passage dealing with religion. If we don't sever our umbilical connection to religion, our "bodies will get bigger" but we will never emotionally grow, and our hearts will get torn up. Those of us who are particularly devout will become destructive little "gods" ourselves, using religion as an excuse to destroy things to feed our own messianic complexes. This reminds me of events like the Crusades, the KKK's use of religion, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (which has much more to do with land, but where religion is often a subtext). Also note that this was written in 2004, three years after 9/11 (an attack not catalyzed by religion, but one that Islamic extremists frequently justified with religious language) and one year after the Iraq War (also not catalyzed by religion, but where--in justifying it--Bush invoked God and Christianity more than any modern president since Wilson during WWI). "I guess we'll just have to adjust. With my lightnin' bolts a glowin' I can see where I am goin' to be when the reaper he reaches and touches my hand. With my lightnin' bolts a glowin' I can see where I am going With my lightnin' bolts a glowin' I can see where I am, go-go, where I am You'd better look out below" The use of lightning bolts I think is highly symbolic, and still up for interpretation. Given that lightning bolts have been associated with deities since the beginning of time (think about Zeus, etc), it's use is no mistake. I guess he is referring to science and reason which, with an amazing and almost magic/godlike power, lights up the world around chasing the darkness/unknown away and making it easier to understand and accept the ending because he now knows there is nothing to be afraid of. The song might be construed as anti-religious, but it is clearly NOT anti-spiritual, a fact re-enforced not only by these lyrics, but by the hymn-like quality of the song. |
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