| Morrissey – I'm Not Sorry Lyrics | 4 months ago |
| @Johnjay1991 you tagged the wrong user | |
| Iron & Wine – Belated Promise Ring Lyrics | 4 months ago |
|
I don't have much to add except questions: - I'm surprised no one's mentioned the significance of the name Rebecca yet. Sam Beam frequently sings about Christianity and Rebecca is a central figure in Genesis (wife of Isaac, mother of Jacob and Esau), plus Beam invokes Christianity in the second line. I don't know what to make of it but there must be a significance to the name. - The song evokes a lot of 'living in the moment': we jump from sleeping in, to a kid kicking a can, to being outside in the cold, to being back inside while it's cold outside ("The weather can close the world within its hands" means that they're indoors protected from the cold and they are each other's entire world in that moment), to the narrator talking with his mom about Rebecca ("stubborn"), to them both calling to him...practically every line for the whole song is a different scene with/about Rebecca, each meaningful in a different way. She's always in the moment, she doesn't exist in the past or present. - Rebecca is definitely the narrator's lover, not daughter. They are sleeping together, they are talking about having/not having kids, he gives her a promise ring...y'all are weird if these lines make you think "daughter". - There's a bug in the thimble because it's never used. There's a band-aid on her thumb because she tried to sew once without learning how. This points to her whimsicality and breaking of norms: She never cared to learn to sew. She needed to mend something once and just went for it without using the thimble (she is carefree, maybe verging on careless) and hurt herself, though she also probably doesn't care much because poking your thumb with a needle isn't a serious injury. She tried something new on a whim and got hurt a little bit. Oops! Moving on. - "A pony in the river turning blue"—Y'all, it's the pony that's turning blue. The pony is drowning. I don't know what this means. To me it kind of suggests that Rebecca was riding her pony around carelessly without ever actually learning how (hence the pony, not a full-sized horse) and the pony somehow ended up in the river and drowned because of her carelessness. It could also be that Rebecca was trying to escape from something by crossing the river. - We go from "Sunday morning" in verse 1 to "Sunday evening" in the last verse—it's the same day, even though between those verses we've run the course of an entire relationship. This is more evidence of Rebecca always existing in the moment. The narrator is daydreaming, thinking about all their memories together, thinking about a nebulous future ("time may give you more than your poor bones could ever take"), while she's just kicking around the house on a lazy Sunday. Anyway I could go on forever. Absolutely beautiful song and intricate writing. |
|
| Iron & Wine – Sacred Vision Lyrics | 4 months ago |
|
As everyone has said, this is about a woman leaving the narrator, and the pain and regret that he feels as he tries to bring her back. I just want to home in on some of the specific things that make this song so beautiful and painful and intricate. [VERSE 1] "There's no way to temper your thirst With lasting impressions or pictures of home "Temper" is a word usually used for anger or desire, not thirst, so we immediately get the idea of restraint, being held back or limited. Since these lines are the woman speaking to the narrator, we have to ask what this "thirst" of his is. "pictures of home" reveals that the woman tried to make a picture-perfect home for the narrator, but ultimately was unable (or unwilling) to satisfy his desires. Their wants and needs were irreconcilable. The narrator refuses to see this, but the woman has had enough. Although she loved him, he was trying to make her into someone she wasn't. I admit I don't know what to make of "lasting impressions"! There's no way to grow that don't hurt" She growled from the station then hung up the phone The first of these two lines is addressed from the woman simultaneously to the narrator and to herself: she's saying it to him to get him to stop calling ('I know it hurts right now but it's for the best, you'll be okay'), and to herself to give herself courage and consolation to go through with the act even though it hurts. The choice of "growled" shows that in addition to the wisdom, maturity, and benevolence of the woman, there is also significant resentment, fear, and danger because of how he hurt her. She's trying to do this cleanly, but if he keeps poking, he's going to get bit. [CHORUS] There's no sacred vision like her No eye-crushing mountain or jewelry to wear In a sacred vision, a person sees God or an angel or something. So the narrator is saying that seeing her is better than seeing God or an angel. She is also more magnificent than any mountain and more beautiful than any jewelry. There's no granted wish I prefer Than she to be with me, OR us to be there There's no wish he'd rather have granted than for her to be with him. Since he's already drawn the link between her and God, and God is the one who would have to power to grant a wish, the implication is that *she* would be the one granting this wish. He is begging her, 'Please come back.' But wait—"or us to be there". (I think this word is "or", not "for".) He's adding a second wish he'd like to have granted: either she can be here, or we can be there. Just a second ago, he was so sure of what he wanted from her, but he immediately goes back on it and hedges. These five simple words reveal the frailty and immaturity of his attraction to her: 'I am sure I want ths...wait, or this'. Plus, he doesn't even name where "there" is, because he doesn't know. It's anywhere, anything, anytime. He's desperate, he's flailing. This is why he needs to grow. [VERSE 2] "I'd rather to be all alone Forgiveness is fickle when trust is a chore As others have said, she'd rather be alone than continue to be hurt by him. She can't possibly forgive him because she struggles to even trust him. It's not every sin that's atoned" I heard her speak softly then HURT her no more I take the first line to mean that he has so many sins (he's hurt her so many ways) that he can't possibly atone for them all, even if he's already atoned for many. In the second line, we see she's move from "growled" in verse 1 to "speak softly". This is more evidence of how painful it is for her to go through with this. Furthermore, she hung up on him in verse 1, yet here they are on the phone again. He won't stop desperately calling her, and she can't bear to just ignore his calls, although she is still leaving. Lastly, my second edit to the lyrics. This word (hurt/heard) has a double meaning: Obviously, as the transcriber interpreted, there's the parallel between "heard her speak..." and "heard her no more", indicating that she's hung up again, and if he never hears her again, then that really was the last time; she's gone. But this word can also be written as "hurt" because now that she's really gone, he can't hurt her anymore. Even though the break was painful, he finally accepts that he did in fact hurt her and gets some peace from knowing that he won't again. I think the ambiguity of this single word, which is definitely intentional on Beam's part, perfectly demonstrates his mastery of language and emotion and encapsulates the beauty of his writing. Finally, the fact that he sings the chorus again shows how he will remember her and their relationship: beauty and desperation, but no pain. He has only good memories. Amazing little song! |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.