This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
I built my house from barley rice
Green pepper walls and water ice
Tables of paper wood, windows of light
And everything emptying into white
A simple garden, with acres of sky
A Brown-haired dogmouse
If one dropped by
Yellow Delanie would sleep well at night
With everything emptying into white
A sad blue eyed drummer rehearses outside
A Black spider dancing on top of his eye
Red legged chicken stands ready to strike
And everything emptying into white
I built my house from barley rice
Green pepper walls and water ice
And everything emptying into white
Green pepper walls and water ice
Tables of paper wood, windows of light
And everything emptying into white
A simple garden, with acres of sky
A Brown-haired dogmouse
If one dropped by
Yellow Delanie would sleep well at night
With everything emptying into white
A sad blue eyed drummer rehearses outside
A Black spider dancing on top of his eye
Red legged chicken stands ready to strike
And everything emptying into white
I built my house from barley rice
Green pepper walls and water ice
And everything emptying into white
Lyrics submitted by BrainDamage
Into White Lyrics as written by Yusuf Islam
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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.
Blue
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Page
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There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
Though not immediately obvious, the references to " yellow Delaney" and "blue eyed drummer" and "red legged chicken" are flowers. Flowers sleep at night and spiders climb on flowers. I don't believe there is any deep or existential meaning here. It is night time in the song but the dawn will bring day light and the images described will empty into white. It is simply a whimsical story that rolls off the tongue so freely and creates pleasing images for us to see while listening... Songs often do not have deep meaning....
wow the violin in this song really finishes it off. really good vibrato
I always think of this song as a companion piece to 'Lilywhite'. Whereas in that song I feel he is describing his reaction to the death of another, in 'Into White' I feel he is describing his own death; or the dying dream before death occurs. Everyone hopes for a painless, peaceful death and I think the lyrics here are representing the various things a dying person might contemplate before succumbing. After all, every image eventually empties into white.
@misco After some serious study and research I am fairly confident in saying this was probably written or at least conceived while convalescing in a white hospital room, presumably looking out a window. Perhaps he was into or maybe nearby was a beauford delaney painting who was especially known for his studies in the colour yellow. Just a thought.<br />
i think this song is about how nothing really maters in the world today, cause it could be gone in a heartbeat, a great song and im suprised it had no comments
This is one of my personal favourites by Cat.
I take this song to be a piece of creative writing. To me, it sounds like he's describing the serenity of this surrounding. The words he uses in this song are brilliant, accompanied with the light guitar and the delicate highpitched strokes of the violin, makes this song a quiet, delicate masterpiece.
"Green pepper walls and water ice Tables of paper wood, windows of light "
"acres of sky"
"A sad Blue eyed drummer rehearses outside" If you close your eyes and just picture what he is saying in this song, there's only one word for it, beauty.
The "into white" wraps up the tranquility, serenity and beauty in this song in a conclusion of oblivion.
I just love this song. Also love Tuesday's Dead and Can't Keep it In - my favorites.
I believe this song is beautiful interpretation of true 'white light' when it is shone through s prism (Newton) and is split into all the colours of the visible sepctrum (ie a rainbow ROYGBIV). All the colours of the visible spectrum are contained in this white light and therefore must 'empty into white' to return back to the source of light and love from whence it came. It also paints a picture for our 'house of nature' and in regards to the dogmouse, Delanie, drummer, chicken etc. I always thought these referred to plants and flowers (red legged chicken - type of plant - ready to strike - ready to put out a cutting) and a blue eyed drummer - pretty flower (with a black spider dancing on its middle black 'eye') Just some thoughts in love and light namaste
Cat Stevens is, as most know, a deeply spiritual man. Into White refers to the fading from the particular -- from the objects, the concerns, the "isms" that make up who we think we are, and the transition to the "unitive", to the whole, or, if you will, to "God" (not as the name is usually thought of, tho). Misco came close when referring to death, but not the physical death that he (?) mentions. Rather, it is the dissolution of that "self", which is the necessary precondition -- the work -- that has to be done to let go of our attachment to all that stuff. The house that he is building is real -- but it is a house for the heart, not for the head. Btw, I love the phrase "windows of light". I can't make too much out of the spider dancing on the eye. Thoughts anyone. I find that when I hear this song, it stays with me for days afterwards. Be well, all. -- Ken
I was also surprised there weren't more comments on this beautiful song. I have always 'assumed' that the references were to types of animals, birds, insects, etc., (i.e., dogmouse, Delanie, drummer, chicken). It feels so peacefully rural and pastoral - listening to the sounds of nature and being at one with them. I feel that this song is about the circle of life and nature and fading into a meditative state of serenity, (possibly in a garden?). Not sure specifically what a Delanie is, just always thought it was a bird or insect or something. I've heard my father, (a large animal vet. and farm boy), refer to a drummer before, but I don't remember if it was a bird or insect, (woodpecker or cicada-type bug?). It is an instantly calming and touching song that makes me stop and take stock of what's really important in life.
he is genius..... he is drawing a song in here
I thought this song was about the flash of a nuclear blast and how fragile the world is. Probably totally wrong.
To me "Into White" reads as though Cat Steven's is writing a song about how he writes song. Imagination springs into one's thoughts and then one puts those thoughts to paper and the most common colour of paper is indeed white. Therefore: "everything emptying into white". Well, to me it reads like a pent up songwriter releasing his weird ideas in the form of a song about his songwriting process. Anyway that's what I read from this song, peace.