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Somethin' filled up
My heart with nothin',
Someone told me not to cry.
Now that I'm older,
My heart's colder,
And I can see that it's a lie.
Children wake up,
Hold your mistake up,
Before they turn the summer into dust.
If the children don't grow up,
Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up.
We're just a million little god's causin' rain storms turnin' every good thing to rust.
I guess we'll just have to adjust.
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin' to be
When the reaper he reaches and touches my hand.
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin'
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am go-goin'
You better look down below.
My heart with nothin',
Someone told me not to cry.
Now that I'm older,
My heart's colder,
And I can see that it's a lie.
Children wake up,
Hold your mistake up,
Before they turn the summer into dust.
If the children don't grow up,
Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up.
We're just a million little god's causin' rain storms turnin' every good thing to rust.
I guess we'll just have to adjust.
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin' to be
When the reaper he reaches and touches my hand.
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin'
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am go-goin'
You better look down below.
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Being gay and growing up in a small Texas town, I felt that this song spoke directly to me. One thing most gay people have in common, especially those of us who grow up in a Christian environment it that we are taught from a very early age to hate ourselves and others like us. This song reminded me of that hopelessness and shame I felt as a kid “Somethin' filled up, My heart with nothin', Someone told me not to cry”. I didn’t start listening to arcade fire until after I had moved from my small town to the big city. It was then that I started to see the hypocrisy and bigotry in my upbringing “Now that I'm older, My heart's colder, And I can see that it's a lie”, I really did begin to wake up!
The reference to “children” seemed to apply to society in general. “If the children don't grow up, Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up”. My heart did get torn up. All the anger I felt back then at the ignorance, fear and hate that infects our society like a cancer was rusting my soul. “We're just a million little god's causin' rain storms turnin' every good thing to rust. I guess we'll just have to adjust”. My anger turned into hate, and I began to direct that hate at those people and environments that I believed was responsible for my suffering. It was this way for a long time.
One day I met the guy who would become my husband and my life changed forever. For the first time I knew what love was really all about. It changed me. I didn’t want to be like those people. “With my lightnin' bolts a glowin' I can see where I am goin' to be. When the reaper he reaches and touches my hand”. I woke up.
That’s how I am reflected in this song.
I think the "million little gods causing rainstorms turning every good thing to rust" refers to the cynicism of older generations casting down on the more optimistic, activistic younger generations. How we grow up wanting these things, but as we become older, we lose touch and become the people we hated.
I think the lightning bolts has to do with the destructiveness of the older (or younger) generations.
What clinches it for me are the references to his glowing bolts (lightening) and the reaper. Maybe I am wrong. But that is what I get out of the song.
I also interpret, when Win screams the "little gods" part, alludes to desperation, and that the bright tone of the melody alludes to the idea that no matter what, there's still hope.
In my opinion, the juxtaposition of beautiful, feel-good music and pessimistic lyrics make this song even more devastating.
My heart with nothin',
Someone told me not to cry.
Filled his or her life with material goods
Realizes that really means nothing
But society dictates that this ok so why feel bad.
Now that I'm older,
My heart's colder,
And I can see that it's a lie
Age brings wisdom to eventually see through the lies
Children wake up,
Hold your mistake up,
Before they turn the summer into dust.
Children of the earth realize that we are killing the earth
The summer turns to dust references global climate change
We're just a million little god's causin' rain storms turnin' every good thing to rust.
We all think of ourselves more than others or mother nature. Our actions as a whole is killing the earth causing extinction of species and depletion of natural resources
That being said, this is one of my all time favorite songs. "We're just a billion little gods causing rainstorms, turning every good thing to rust.."
"Somethin' filled up
my heart with nothin',
someone told me not to cry."
This refers to being "filled up" with religion ("nothin'") as a child; being told "not to cry" or feel fear about death, because it's a "fact" that you'll be going to a happy place.
"But now that I'm older,
my heart's colder,
and I can see that it's a lie."
Now that he's grown older, he sees that religion is false, though he acknowledges that this revelation comes with increased less blissful innocence ("my heart's colder")
"Children wake up,
hold your mistake up,
before they turn the summer into dust."
Here, he urges everyone, particularly the young, future generations, to throw off the mind-constricting shackles of religion, before "they" - those who pervert religion in order to justify war, terrorism, intolerance (racial/sexual/bigotry toward other religions), etc - end up permanently damaging or ruining the future. Turning the "summer into dust" Turning the "summer into dust" particularly seems to suggest a religion-based war or oppression.
"If the children don't grow up,
our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up.
We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms turnin' every good thing to
rust."
This is maybe the most explicit passage dealing with religion. If we don't sever our umbilical connection to religion, our "bodies will get bigger" but we will never emotionally grow, and our hearts will get torn up. Those of us who are particularly devout will become destructive little "gods" ourselves, using religion as an excuse to destroy things to feed our own messianic complexes. This reminds me of events like the Crusades, the KKK's use of religion, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (which has much more to do with land, but where religion is often a subtext). Also note that this was written in 2004, three years after 9/11 (an attack not catalyzed by religion, but one that Islamic extremists frequently justified with religious language) and one year after the Iraq War (also not catalyzed by religion, but where--in justifying it--Bush invoked God and Christianity more than any modern president since Wilson during WWI).
"I guess we'll just have to adjust.
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am goin' to be
when the reaper he reaches and touches my hand.
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am going
With my lightnin' bolts a glowin'
I can see where I am, go-go, where I am
You'd better look out below"
The use of lightning bolts I think is highly symbolic, and still up for interpretation. Given that lightning bolts have been associated with deities since the beginning of time (think about Zeus, etc), it's use is no mistake. I guess he is referring to science and reason which, with an amazing and almost magic/godlike power, lights up the world around chasing the darkness/unknown away and making it easier to understand and accept the ending because he now knows there is nothing to be afraid of.
The song might be construed as anti-religious, but it is clearly NOT anti-spiritual, a fact re-enforced not only by these lyrics, but by the hymn-like quality of the song.
At first he talks about empty promises being told to him as a child, so that he doesn't have to cry. Blind hope, faith. Something filled his heart up with "nothing." This makes me think he's talking about religion, since most of that stuff is just imaginary, passed down. "Nothing", so to speak.
"Now that I'm older, I can see that it's a lie."
I think he wants people to be more aware of their own faults so that they can prosper into future. I say future, because it seems like he's talking about how the last few generations soiled everything.
The next verse is self-explanatory. He sympathizes with what is happening to new children being born, but then goes on to compare humans to "little (isolated) gods causing rainstorms, turning everything good to rust." Which is at least partially true. Even in places where people are prosperous, the human or social conditions can be absolutely terrible, nullifying everything that is good.
The next verse: the master of his own personal rainstorm, he knows where he is going to go when he dies--to Hell.
The twist is that he is still religious, he just lost faith in mankind, and is ready to go to Hell.
My heart with nothin'
Someone told me not to cry.
Man. I love these particular lyrics. In them I see a kid who's parents are telling him to get a grip. To stop crying over "nothing". But whatever this kid is emotional about is obviously important to him, you know? I mean, it's filling his heart up completely.. Doesn't that count for something? I can relate to this entirely because my heart has been occupied with something that is so meaningful to me, and so utterly stupid to someone else. And I just feel like that overlooked middle child who no one will listen to or try to comprehend. Gosh, such a great introduction to the song. These guys have hooked me from the start.