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.
We pay to shed a sombre tear in the darkness together here
One among the hundreds, crying for the millions
And when the house lights break the trance
Only then unclasp our hands
Compose ourselves and fix our hair
"We would have all been Schindler there"
Drive in silence slowly home
Now horror's more than skin and bone
And can you see in twenty years
We'll pay to shed the same cheap tears
In a film about an island, watch our hero take a stand
Pay our money gladly to wash our hands
Watching the movie we'll ask how the people might have known
Let it happen there without a fight
Kept driving on quietly home
Left the Timorese alone - 400 miles from Darwin
The two-minute hate is now the three-hour love
With any action left to up above
Those people then could turn their heads
Now all the same we sleep instead
While 400 miles from Darwin
East Timor is dying
Watching the movie we'll ask how the people might have known
Let it happen there without a fight
Kept driving on quietly home
Left the Timorese alone - 400 miles from Darwin
One among the hundreds, crying for the millions
And when the house lights break the trance
Only then unclasp our hands
Compose ourselves and fix our hair
"We would have all been Schindler there"
Drive in silence slowly home
Now horror's more than skin and bone
And can you see in twenty years
We'll pay to shed the same cheap tears
In a film about an island, watch our hero take a stand
Pay our money gladly to wash our hands
Watching the movie we'll ask how the people might have known
Let it happen there without a fight
Kept driving on quietly home
Left the Timorese alone - 400 miles from Darwin
The two-minute hate is now the three-hour love
With any action left to up above
Those people then could turn their heads
Now all the same we sleep instead
While 400 miles from Darwin
East Timor is dying
Watching the movie we'll ask how the people might have known
Let it happen there without a fight
Kept driving on quietly home
Left the Timorese alone - 400 miles from Darwin
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@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Mountain Song
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Gentle Hour
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
No Surprises
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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.
"We pay to shed a sombre tear in the darkness together here One among the hundreds, crying for the millions And when the house lights break the trance Only then unclasp our hands Compose ourselves and fix our hair "We would have all been Schindler there""
This is describing people watching the movie "Shindler's List" at a theatre, "one among the hundreds, crying for the million, house lights break the trance" and how in retrospect/thinking of their own actions in the same situation, people always assume the best of themselves "we would have all been Shindler there", when in reality, only a tiny amount of people have the courage to do something like that.
"And can you see in twenty years We'll pay to shed the same cheap tears" In the future we will be reading/watching about the East Timor massacre just like movies of the holocaust.
"Watching the movie we'll ask how the people might have known Let it happen there without a fight" i think this is another reference to the holocaust and how locals could hear screams and smell the burning of flesh from the gas chambers/crematoriums and did nothing, and now we ask "how could they not have known/turned their backs?" on what was happening and in 20-50 years Australians will be watching the movie of the East Timor attrocities and think "how could they (meaning YOU and ME) not have known and just turned the other cheek.
"We pay to shed a somber tear" isn't about a candlelight vigil, it's about paying to go and see a movie about attrocities, and then at the end of the movie, composing yourself, going home and then forgetting about it.
"A two minute hate is now a 3 hour love" to me means that the horror of the past, in the scope of history really didn't last for long, but now it has been glorified and enhanced and is now a widely talked about "blockbuster" movie.
yeah eebee is right. history repeats itself.
Tim wrote this shortly after the Dili massacre. It's about the genocide in East Timor, which was a horror committed by the Indonesian military, and the Australian government's involvement. At least, that's how I see it.
i agree with the poster above me, the song is about apathy, how 400 miles from their costline, they sleep safe at night while there is terror going on, and no one cares until retrospect, when the time has passed to do something, then everyone comes out of the woodwork wishing they had "known" the "scope" of the terror, otherwise they would have done something about it, sure they would have!!! its telling people to take a stand and not just let people get massacred, when they see the chance do something, do anything, hold a sign, donate money, do anything dont just goto bed and forget about it, it has nothing to do with the aussie governments involment so much as their reaction, they let it happen, and thats the entire point, dont turn your head, do something about injustice ...
It's sort of focussing on Australian reactions to the Dili massacre. There's a candlelight vigil (we pay to shed the sombre tear in the darkness together here) but then everyone just goes and sees a happy movie afterwards, like it's just a token effort that makes us feel good about ourselves and then we can escape and stop worrying about it.
"We would have all been Schindler there." We like to imagine ourselves being in places like Timor and helping people in a way that's actually workable and possible like Schindler, but how many of us actually do anything?
"A two minute hate is now a three hour love" is the most interesting line. Two minute hate is from 1984, and it was just this organised time when everyone concentrated any feelings of hate on a particular enemy of the state and it was a way of controlling the people. Perhaps the line sugests that this token effort of a vigil (the three-hour love) is just a way of keeping people complacent about the issues and problems in East Timor. "I care, I spent three hours caring, now I'm a good person and I can get on with life."
It's just drawing attention to this sort of faux-caring and apathy, which is just a natural part of being human. It's a very cleverly written song
i agree with the poster above me, the song is about apathy, how 400 miles from their costline, they sleep safe at night while there is terror going on, and no one cares until retrospect, when the time has passed to do something, then everyone comes out of the woodwork wishing they had "known" the "scope" of the terror, otherwise they would have done something about it, sure they would have!!! its telling people to take a stand and not just let people get massacred, when they see the chance do something, do anything, hold a sign, donate money, do anything dont just goto bed and forget about it, it has nothing to do with the aussie governments involment so much as their reaction, they let it happen, and thats the entire point, dont turn your head, do something about injustice ...