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And in this life like weeds, you're just a rock to me
I could have told you all that I love you
And in the places you go, you'll see the place where you're from
I could have told you all that I love you
And in the faces you meet, you'll see the place where you'll die
I could have told you all that I love you
And on the day that you die, you'll see the people you'd met
I could have told you all that I love you
And in the faces you see, you'll see just who you've been
I wish I could have told you all
In this life like weeds, eyes need us to see
Hearts need us to bleed, in this life like weeds
You're a rock to me
I know where you're from, but where do you belong?
In this life like weeds, you're the dirt I'll breath
In this life like weeds, you're a rock to me
All this talkin' all the time and the air fills up, up, up
Until there's nothin' left to breathe
And you think you feel most everything
And we know that our hearts are just made out of strings
To be pulled, strings to be pulled
So you think you've figured out everything
But we know that our minds are just made out of strings
To be pulled, strings to be pulled
All this talkin' all the time and the air fills up, up, up
Until there's nothing left to breathe
Up until there's nothin' left to speak.
Up until the better parts of space
I could have told you all that I love you
And in the places you go, you'll see the place where you're from
I could have told you all that I love you
And in the faces you meet, you'll see the place where you'll die
I could have told you all that I love you
And on the day that you die, you'll see the people you'd met
I could have told you all that I love you
And in the faces you see, you'll see just who you've been
I wish I could have told you all
In this life like weeds, eyes need us to see
Hearts need us to bleed, in this life like weeds
You're a rock to me
I know where you're from, but where do you belong?
In this life like weeds, you're the dirt I'll breath
In this life like weeds, you're a rock to me
All this talkin' all the time and the air fills up, up, up
Until there's nothin' left to breathe
And you think you feel most everything
And we know that our hearts are just made out of strings
To be pulled, strings to be pulled
So you think you've figured out everything
But we know that our minds are just made out of strings
To be pulled, strings to be pulled
All this talkin' all the time and the air fills up, up, up
Until there's nothing left to breathe
Up until there's nothin' left to speak.
Up until the better parts of space
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A part of him snarkily resents that people need this or that from him and are always pulling on his heart strings. On one level words are just words, people are just a collection of all their experiences and are no more or less real than the rocks and the weeds and the dirt. On another level we as people all need other people.
I think the person/people that represent the rock are both positive and negative. On one level the rock is a constant, always there filling that place in the narrator's life. In another level they're also a constant bother with their emotional needs. Everyone else is the weeds that appear in your life, disappear from your life and then are replaced with new people. Most of our relationships with people are such fragile little things and eventually they get phased out. We're always trying to find where we fit into the scheme of things but in the end the song is kind of saying it's all meaningless. There is no meaning to anything.
This is my favorite Modest Mouse song.
"I know where you're from, but where do you belong?" We are all from somewhere, sure, but belonging is different; belonging requires meaning, belonging requires intention. And life is like weeds, i.e. wild, unwitting, without our knowledge of intention or any grand design.
"You're just a rock to me": Typically, saying someone is a rock is a good thing, as a rock has long signified stability. But "you're just a rock" in a life like weeds means something negative: you're in my way. You're not even a living thing, merely an obstacle. Then later in the song he says it in a different tone, and takes out the "just." Now it seems he's bending the meaning of "you're a rock" to be something positive.
In this life like weeds, you're just a rock to me: Life like weeds, perhaps meaning life under a bed of weeds; i.e. death. A rock could symbolize stability, maybe the tombstone of the deceased. In that sense, it would mean that the subject defines the speaker. He/she is what reminds the world that the speaker existed. I think there could be a better meaning for this line, being that "just" has a bit of a negative connotation, but this interpretation is my favorite that I've seen/thought of so far... So I'll stick with it.
I could have told you all that I love you: In my opinion, this establishes that the speaker is deceased, and wishes that, prior to his death, he could have expressed his feelings to his family/friends.
And in the places you go, you'll see the place where you're from: This, along with the other few lines that seem of a similar nature, seems to be about death, or perhaps the nature of life. If the speaker is referring to his death in this, "the places you go," he may have meant that, when you die, you look back on your life and see the influence of everywhere you've ever gone, realistically or emotionally. With the "faces" line, Isaac could have been talking about the day of reckoning, and how, upon death, you realize that you're a conglomeration of every individual person you've encountered and of every experience in your life. Everything has brought you to this point; everything has influenced you somehow. You'll see the things that have made you "you."
In this life like weeds, eyes need us to see... hearts need us to bleed: Probably two of my favorite lines from any Modest Mouse song. I think it's speaking about the symbiotic relationship between body and soul. Without a heart, you'd die.. And so you're dependent. But, if it weren't for us, hearts wouldn't have a reason to exist. They would be meaningless.. They define each other. In this life below a bed of weeds, our eyes no longer work, our hearts no longer bleed.. They need us just as much as we need them.
Hearts and minds are just made out of strings to be pulled:
The nature of emotion and thought: you pluck a string, and it begins to vibrate, producing a certain tone. Eventually, however, it does out, and there's but a remnant of the sound ever being played... Similarly, when a negative incident occurs, it is typically far more dramatic in the moment. In retrospect, things tend to cool down. In the end, though, there's still a tiny vibration, the dispersed sound wave that continues to flow through the air. Everything dies down, but it's still there somewhere. I feel as though the "so you think" part may be saying that our feelings aren't as worthwhile as we give them credit for. We aren't even feeling, we're just reacting to an action.
All this talking all the time and the air fills up until there's nothing left to breathe:
May be describing the vapid veneer over typical conversation. Sometimes in life, things can seem tedious... And, being that Isaac tended to use "thin air" as a reference to space/heaven throughout the albums, he means here that you literally die from monotonous living... You go up into the thin air... Up into the "better parts of space," maybe meaning heaven.
Who knows?
meant to post this as a comment, rather than a reply. my bad
In this life like weeds, you're just a rock to me: Life like weeds, perhaps meaning life under a bed of weeds; i.e. death. A rock could symbolize stability, maybe the tombstone of the deceased. In that sense, it would mean that the subject defines the speaker. He/she is what reminds the world that the speaker existed. I think there could be a better meaning for this line, being that "just" has a bit of a negative connotation, but this interpretation is my favorite that I've seen/thought of so far... So I'll stick with it.
I could have told you all that I love you: In my opinion, this establishes that the speaker is deceased, and wishes that, prior to his death, he could have expressed his feelings to his family/friends.
And in the places you go, you'll see the place where you're from: This, along with the other few lines that seem of a similar nature, seems to be about death, or perhaps the nature of life. If the speaker is referring to his death in this, "the places you go," he may have meant that, when you die, you look back on your life and see the influence of everywhere you've ever gone, realistically or emotionally. With the "faces" line, Isaac could have been talking about the day of reckoning, and how, upon death, you realize that you're a conglomeration of every individual person you've encountered and of every experience in your life. Everything has brought you to this point; everything has influenced you somehow. You'll see the things that have made you "you."
In this life like weeds, eyes need us to see... hearts need us to bleed: Probably two of my favorite lines from any Modest Mouse song. I think it's speaking about the symbiotic relationship between body and soul. Without a heart, you'd die.. And so you're dependent. But, if it weren't for us, hearts wouldn't have a reason to exist. They would be meaningless.. They define each other. In this life below a bed of weeds, our eyes no longer work, our hearts no longer bleed.. They need us just as much as we need them.
Hearts and minds are just made out of strings to be pulled:
The nature of emotion and thought: you pluck a string, and it begins to vibrate, producing a certain tone. Eventually, however, it does out, and there's but a remnant of the sound ever being played... Similarly, when a negative incident occurs, it is typically far more dramatic in the moment. In retrospect, things tend to cool down. In the end, though, there's still a tiny vibration, the dispersed sound wave that continues to flow through the air. Everything dies down, but it's still there somewhere. I feel as though the "so you think" part may be saying that our feelings aren't as worthwhile as we give them credit for. We aren't even feeling, we're just reacting to an action.
All this talking all the time and the air fills up until there's nothing left to breathe:
May be describing the vapid veneer over typical conversation. Sometimes in life, things can seem tedious... And, being that Isaac tended to use "thin air" as a reference to space/heaven throughout the albums, he means here that you literally die from monotonous living... You go up into the thin air... Up into the "better parts of space," maybe meaning heaven.
Who knows?
"And in this life like weeds, you're just a rock to me." -Weeds grab hold of anything they can for support. They affect everything that is in their life's path. As it lives out its life and grows, the weed grabs hold of, and uses, everything that is in its life's path. This behavior mirrors the way we use PEOPLE in our own lives. We develop in synchronized patterns, and sort of "go with the flow of life", just like the weed. We have people in our lives that we meet along the path, they help us and we help them. We use them to get to different places in life. Think of how a weed climbs up a fence or how grow they grow through the sidewalk. The line could be: "My life is similar to the way weeds grow, respond, and react to their surroundings. YOU are just something that is in my path."
"I could have told you all that I loved you." -Death can sneak up on us. We don't realize the significance of life and our interactions with people because we perceive day to day life as routine. It is rare when someone dies that they get to fully express their true feelings for their friends. People are important. We help each other GROW.
"And in the places you go, you'll see the place where you're from. And in the faces you meet, you'll see the place where you'll die. And on the day that you die, you'll see the people you'd met. And in the faces you see, you'll see just who you've been." -It's a tough concept to explain. It's really something that has to be "felt" and "seen". We have to recognize these patterns in our own lives. Our lives have paths. We respond to the environments we live in. We are products of our environments. We "fall into place". It is our natural placement in the universe. The place we live, the people we see, the things we do. The people who we live closely with are the ones who are also in our "place." They fell into place with you. They ARE you in a way. When you die, you die under the conditions you have lived in.
"Eyes need us to see, hearts need us to bleed." -Life energy. The essence of the human being. What are we without it? organic material. Our bodies is a complex organizations of molecules molded like clay specifically for US. WE are life. Souls.
I could explain the rest but im getting kind of tired. Modest mouse lyrics are about things that need to be "felt" or "seen" rather than explained. Life like weeds is one of the best examples of a song that needs to be experienced to understand.
You all need to OPEN YOUR MINDS if you catch my drift. Divine Moments of Truth.
"Our hearts are just made up of strings to be pulled" -This is the same concept but with our emotions. Our hearts have many variations, just like our minds. Your passionate about a piece of music, a song you feel is an example of authentic beauty. Then you find something that is completely new, and even more unique and innovative. Your surprised to find that you can feel more passion for this new song, then you did for the one you loved so much before. This parallels the way we behave when our hearts are broken. One could think that he/she had experienced a lot of pain and loss in a previous break-up, but someone new comes along, who is better than their ex. And they feel even worse at the new break-up. Worse than he/she thought possible
The circular motion is obvious:
"and the places you go, you'll see the place where you're from"
"and in the faces you meet, you'll see the place where you die"
"and on the day that you die, you'll see the people you've met"
When you go to a funeral, it's like a sick reunion. You see people that strike memories, and at your funeral, the people you've met will be there. Thanks to this song, every time I see someone I care about I think about what they will be like at my funeral. Sad I know, but true. I think what Isaac is trying to say here, which leads to my B point,
Human life is infectious.
We are infectious to eachother, and to our planet. When you look at it on the grand scheme of things, our life is literally useless. We've created all this shit that doesn't even matter (money, cell phones, the internet, yada yada) I am thinking maybe the "rock" he refers to could be our planet. Yes, it's a rock, and we all take it for granted. "In this life like weeds, you're just a rock to me" or in other words, in this sad, infectious, material, human (weeds) life we kick around our rock (Earth) without realizing how rare our life is. So humans are the weeds of Earth, because we don't take care of our itty bitty spot in the universe. At the same time, leading into point C,
Our life is so fragile.
When we do finally come to the realization of our life and how it evolved, we finally see how fragile we are. How our "hearts are made out of strings to be pulled", and even if we think we've felt almost everything, something always comes back to pull our heart-strings again.
amazing song, I will be surprised if anyone read this post all the way through. And if you are at this point: thanks for reading, and congrats for sticking it out.
I think ddr06001 pretty much already said this, though.
Why are you a rock to me? Not because you are lifeless, but because of your unmoving strength. Someone who sees you thinks you're only a rock, but you are my rock. A plain and pointless life, in this life like weeds, just a rock, but you are mine! This is what matters most, despite the meaninglessness of our weed-like lives. We have each other.
If you're a weed, you're going to grow where you want to grow, and rocks are trying to stop you... but without rocks you wouldn't be able to grow
He states in the song that he could have told them all that he loved them (not the rocks :P) but also wishes he had told them all off, so its something that he can't really get rid of, and can't decide what to do with them
Now that's only about three lines of the song, and am waiting for something to hit me that could further decode the song to fit my life :/
and this is MY interpretation.. im not saying im right or wrong
"And in this life like weeds, you're just a rock to me"
First off "life like weeds" - weeds are meant to be pulled out and thrown away, no? so by comparing life to weeds i interpret it as, as we live.. the people we meet, the things that we do, the things that we say, anything and everything eventually comes to some sort of end... (or gets pulled out)
"your a rock to me"
just like in many other modest mouse songs there is question or wonder or belief in something more than just this life... or at least i think so
but "your a rock to me" there is a realization that perhaps somethings to stay with you forever after all don't rocks usually stay and one place and aren't moved?
"I could have told you all that I love you"
I think that in general as you go through life meeting people you are afraid to get too close or "tell them that you love them" because in the back of your mind you think that its just going to end and that there would be no point in meeting them or meaning anything to them since it is just going to be pulled out
"And in the places you go, you'll see the place where you're from"
no matter how far away you go to try and escape or find out more meaning to your life you will always remember where you from that made you who you are
"And in the faces you meet, you'll see the place where you'll die
And on the day that you die, you'll see the people you'd met"
all those people that you know will not just end up being pulled out of your life and forgotten about.. you will see them again after life......
"I wish I could have told you all"
when i hear this line in the song i think that after all this time living life afraid to get close to people because you think that there is no point.. you get to the point where you realize or believe that there is more and you will see those that you thought you would forget in the afterlife
"In this life like weeds, eyes need us to see
Hearts need us to bleed, in this life like weeds
You're a rock to me
And you think you feel most everything
And we know that our hearts are just made out of strings
To be pulled, strings to be pulled
So you think you've figured out everything
But we know that our minds are just made out of strings
To be pulled, strings to be pulled"
we were made to be like this.. we were made to be tested... to wonder.. to analyze... to think...to love.. to be hurt.. things are going to be bad sometimes but there is a point and it wont just be forgotten or "pulled out"
"All this talking all the time and the air fills up, up, up
Until there's nothing left to breathe
Up until there's nothing left to speak
Up until the better parts of space "
just as we are doing now on songmeanings.com we are spending soooo much time trying to understand.. trying to interpret... trying to find a way out.... out of your town or out of your mind.. and sometimes it may make us suffocated in our own heads just like stated in other modest mouse songs "my thoughts were so loud i couldn't hear in my mouth" but yeah.... it will all be okay there is a point to our lives and we will eventually float on to the "better parts of space"
tell me what you guys think :)
I <3 Modest Mouse