| Wolf Parade – I'll Believe in Anything Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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I actually created an account to post my interpretation of this song, because I think this song is so touching because it's deeper than the superficial "boy loves girl" interpretation it seems to be receiving. As depressing as it is, I interpret the entire song as a liberating cry of escape for someone who is terminally ill in a hospital. From the start, if anyone has ever been with a patient under those circumstances, the opening electronic melody sounds exactly like an EKG machine, measuring someone's erratic heartbeat. There are a number of references throughout to suffering from a debilitating disease, including the knees, being able to bravely walk around on both legs, etc. "Give me your eyes, I need sunshine, Your blood, your bones, your voice, and your ghost" I think is spoken by whomever is laying in the hospital bed, a plea for the singer to stay with them because essentially all hope is lost at this point. The singer's healthy blood, bones, voice and ghost all bring the patient 'sunshine." "Look at the trees, look at my face, look at a place far away from here..." "Where nobody knows you, and nobody gives a damn." For someone suffering from a terminal illness, they can start to feel defined by the hospital, by the healthcare, by the pity and the sadness of what's wrong with them. The speaker in the song is basically saying that he wants to take the patient away from the suffering and the hospital in which they've been trapped so that they can live the rest of what life they have free of oppressing worry. "If I could take the fire out from the wire, I'd share a life and you'd share a life" - I think the narrator is basically saying that he'd give up half his life if only that'd help the patient live, who is probably on life support at this point, which could be creatively described by "fire" in a "wire." The line "I'll believe in anything, if you'll believe in anything" is easily the most heartwrenching in the entire song. To me, it is indicative of the last hope they share of being able to find some kind of miracle cure, when they both know that's not going to happen. It's like when you say ironically "Anything's possible, I suppose..." This interpretation is further supported by the "Wait for the scary day, We both pull the tricks out of our sleeves" line... I can't see "Wait for the scary day" being interpreted as anything BUT the day the patient will die. The patient's 'trick' will be death and the singer's trick will be trying to cope. It's a heartbreaking song, and one that touches me and brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. It might actually be one of my favorite songs of all time, because although it focuses on an extremely depressing topic, it offers the liberating hope of reconciliation in the knowledge that both the singer and the patient can find happiness and freedom in those last moments, though they are too aware of impending tragedy. |
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