gooood song.

This is my favorite song of all time. For whatever reason, themes of lost love have always appealed to me. It's very much like "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe. This song is beautiful; the swirling mist that the music creates serves to compliment the beyond brilliantly sad lyrics of Billy Corgan, the greatest songwriter of all time. This album, ADORE, is worth buying for this one song (not to mention the other fifteen amazing tracks that are on it). The ending gets me every time: To hold the flower I can't keep...

I think it's about Billy just trying to let go the death of a loved one. He explains that it's been tough but he can't "keep diggin' roses from your grave". He must move on. I love the "Adore" album...unfortunately Billy was ripped a new A-hole for this album because it wasn't as commercial as Dream & Collie were. I personally think this is the Pumpkins best album.

so may you come with your own knives
you'll never take me alive
with all the force of what is true
is there nothing I can do?

this part is great because he sounds defiant as if he saying, no way you'll ever take me/get the best of me and yet he's hopeless cause he says is there nothing i can do?

to linger on, beyond the beyond
where the willows weep
and whirlpools sleep, you'll find me
the coarse tide reflects sky

i like that part too because it seems a bit like a fantasy to me and very slow and mystical.

This song goes through many transitions.

In Creative Writing class, we were being taught how songs are formed from poems. The assignment was to bring in a CD, read the lyrics aloud like a poem, then play the song. I chose this one. I asked them to notice the different tones he takes in the verses.

"all you have to do is run away
and steal yourself from me
become a mystery to gaze into
you're so cruel in all you do
but still I believe, I believe in you"

Meek adoration. Love for something that's hurting him. Desire to break from it. It's quiet, almost whispered.

"so may you come with your own knives
you'll never take me alive
with all the force of what is true
is there nothing I can do?"

Yes, Nero, I feel defiance in this as well.

billy is a total poet

Agreed. The ending also gets me...I LOVE it.

This song is beautiful. The whole album is. I think he really took a different turn with his music. He added a lot more piano and stuff like that. There are no heavy songs or anything like that. But very very poetic. Billy is quite a poet.

Beautiful yet dark. He really showed his writing spectrum with adore

What does "Mare" mean?

THE SONG IS ABOUT FAITH IN GOD....!!!!!
I've faced the fathoms in your deep (god is represented through water)
Withstood the suitors quiet seige (withstood non believers attempts to dissuay his belief in god)
pulled down the heavens just to please you, appease you (saying that he has and would do anything god asks)
the wind blows and i know (the intangibility of his belief in god, he can't see it, but he can feel it; god is with him)
I can't go on, digging roses from your grave (christianity is a religion that largely morns the death of jesus in some ways, returning to his death again and again -no offense implied there)
to linger on, beyond the beyond. (morning jesus' death in order to get into heaven ..beyond the beyond)
where the willows weep (where plants (live/human life) meet water (symbol of god as said in "fathoms and deep") in heaven man meets god.)
and the whirlpool sleep (where god can rest)
you'll find me (yet again, man and god meeting)
The coarse tide reflects the sky
this is the idea in the psalm of david (in the valley of the shadow of death) that says god is with us even when suffering. god being the tide (water again) reflecting the sky)
and the Night Mare rides on... 2x
(nightmare and mare come from different old english words, one meaning female horse; the other meaning evil spirit. this "night mare" a dark image of a horse that is also this "evil spirit" which is something taht is inevitably part of life... death.)
with a december black psalm (a dark image that shows a direct reference to a psalm) (december being a reference to death -i.e. the december of our years)
and the night mare rides on (the repetition shows the continuity of life and the fact that it will go on even after someone's death)
What I fear is lost here (fearing being on earth or existing without a god existing...we all fear this, we all wondered at some point about the existence of god, this song preaches the contrairy: blind faith)
the wind blows and i know (intangibility, faith, belief...whatever you wanna call it)
all you have to do is run away (god leaving, hard times coming)
and steal yourself from me (steal not only means rob, but to come and go discretely; god is absent and we feel like we are all of the sudden abandonned)
become a mystery to gaze into (we analyze god much more when we are doubting as a society)
you're so cruel in all you do (saying about how god is responsible for everything and things like death are evil)
but still i believe, i believe in you (this is saying that although he feels god leaves him sometimes, he does believe in god... and he has faith in the end ..or finds faith in the end)
so may you come with your own knives (to kill wtih a knife rather than a sword is a cliché of a "sneak attack"; this implies that god takes some people swiftly without warning --possibly inspired by the sudden death of a loved one)
you'll never take me alive (god can take me away, but i wont be living anymore, so we will both lose..bc he wont have my life either, it will be gone)
with all the force of what is true, is there nothing i can do? (with god and predestination as preached by christianity... is there any way for man to change his destiny or his time of death?)
repetition of lines 16-13... then lines 1-3....
the sudden change is taht he says "to hold the flower i can't keep"
this flower is life... it shows how dearly he holds his life and does not want to let it go even though heaven is promised... this song seems to have been inspired by the death of a loved one and refers to his struggle to maintain faith in god)

1 Reply

I just love how the piano fades into the song, and how it gets more dramatic as the minutes fly by. I'd rather think its about this special girl and how life goes on after her.

Damn warneri! Your all over this song literally. I like Corgan's meaning. Brilliant writing for brilliant person. New Billy album in Spring 2005!!!! Then a DVD to follow etc...we'll be suprised I'm sure. ADORE may be the best Pumpkins album although there isn't much influence by the rest of the band.

this song is about billy's dead mom just like all of adore.

What an incredible song. The song seems like it's about someone Billy loves and has lost, be it his mother or another woman he loved.

I think the best part about this song is how similar the lyrics in it are to the poetry of Shakespeare.
ie. "I pulled down the heavens, just to please you"
That's just good writing, period.

I think Billy really went out on a limb with this album, and if you don't like the sound then that's ok... but if you don't think the songs aren't good then you haven't heard this one.

I think I read somewhere that this song was about a horse.

Mare means horse... but I don't think this song is about a horse.

Imagine loosing the person you love most and forever longing to be reunited with them-Your lost without this person and no matter how much they will live in your heart it just isn't the same. To dconley I have to agree brilliant writing for a brilliant person. This is the DEEPEST song I've ever heard!

I would have to assume that this song was inspired by the unfortunate passing of Billy's mother, as are most of the songs on Adore. My personal interpretation of "The Night Mare Rides On" is two fold. 1) some one on a black horse rides on: as in Life goes on. And 2) it could be a play on words: nightmare- as in a living nightmare that goes on after a loved ones death. Any one care to comment on that idea?
I definitely have to agree that the last line is the best and most haunting line I have heard.

Um.. To the guy who says this was about god:

Billy Corgan doesnt believe in God, at least in the christianity sense.. Ever hear the song Zero?

... This song is about death and his mother, as most of Adore is. Its pretty obvious.

This is such a great song. All true Pumpkins' fans should appreciate this song simply for it's poetic elegance, and great structure of instrumental variations. From his soft singing, to the loud, muffled guitar. Listen to how he sounds when he says "pull down the heavens." His voice is awesome! The Smashing Pumpkins are God's gift to music.

This song is my favorite of all time. Well i think it is about someone loving another person a lot.

"pulled down the heavens just to please you
appease you"

Now this line represents something, it is basicaly saying he did everything for her. But as you can see from the rest of the song he lost her.

Actually, contrary to most of these posts, I found the song to be it's own kind of satire; Corgan speaks of this msytasl place to which we have all be subject to find love overwhelming. however, love isn't about putting someone on a pedistal. it's about the synergy that comes from the two people involved in the relationship. Furthermore, the part of the song that kind of plays a goofy piano (pardon my musicial ignorance to styles), makes the clearest sense of what drives young lovers together in the first place. Almost like a bad joke, he makes mention that "All you have to do..." which, when a heart is broken, is the first thing the heart broken lover chooses to ignore "what you must do from here". Instead, (or at least in my case), the world ends up with another whiny goth, looking beyond the answer for a sign of what must be done to repair the illusion of what was believed to be a strong relationship.... It's not a song about the girl that got away, it's a song about acknowledging the fact that I cannot let go of this girl.

i.e. My nightmare.

This song is clearly about billy and his relationship with his mother. I can't explain it exactly, but i can give you the instructions to realise this. Just listen to 'for martha' then listen to this.