Arcade Fire – In the Backseat

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  General Comment:My initial thought upon hearing this, and I'm surprised I haven't seen it written here, is that it is told from the point of view of a dead person. The person is in a coffin in the backseat of a hurst heading towards a Funeral (get it?) Therefore, they "like the peace" because they are at rest. Idk maybe its just me..

  Flagged lingeronon May 18, 2012   Link

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  My Interpretation:I agree with the comments that "sitting in the back seat" has a connection with not being in control. I do think it has a deeper rooted meaning in the context of this awesome album though. When we are young, our parents always sit in the front seat. We get so excited when once in a while our mothers would say, "you can sit in the front this time". There comes an age where we start to dream how it would be like when we "learn to drive", and when we can say, "Dad, why don't I drive? You can sit in the back seat" Most of us have that dream. There comes a point where we are older that our parents do let us drive and they gradually sit in the back seat. My interpretation of the final song of the album is this - When our parents reach a certain age, they give up the responsibility of sitting in the front seat. Maybe Arcade Fire is talking about how at a certain age, we just want to go back to being a kid. Just forget the responsibility. The sadness in the album is that the singer is feeling this phase of life at such a young age. Idk, maybe I'm wrong. But that's what I think it means.

  Flag themiko48on March 31, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:
  i always viewed "alice" as a reference to alice in wonderland because its about like growing up and accepting the fact that you have to deal with the world instead of just wanting to live in your day dreams

  Flag kelstown69on December 05, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:My first post!
  Arcade Fire often makes songs with recurring metaphors(bombs in Neon Bible), and I believe this song has one matching with Wake Up,
  "The lightning bolt made enough heat
  To melt the street beneath your feet"
  in this song and
  "With my lightning bolts a-glowin'
  I can see where I am going to be
  When the reaper, he reaches and touches my hand"
  in Wake Up. In wake up the lightning bolt represents the awareness that comes with growing up and maturity. In this song the lightning bolts of awareness have returned and shocked Regine into awareness about her mother's death and how she must be independent and must "drive" herself. These lightning bolts also represent an awareness of mortality. When they come I can see that I and those I love are all going to die. "When the reaper, he reaches and touches my hand" is obviously about becoming aware when you witness death and I believe that this is the essence of this song too.
  

  Flag kropotkinon August 15, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:okay so heres the deal. I think that in the beginning she is a child and she just kind of listens to her elders and lets them teach her things that she needs to know for life(aka driving) but as she gets older she gets more rebellious and irritated at being told what to do all the time. and then the people she looks up to who used to drive for her are dying in "car accidents" which are really just untimely deaths,lioke that of Alice, so with this newfound lack in authority she is thrust into the drivers seat of life with plenty of advice but no real experience to go on. so she panics and admits in the end that she longs for the time when she had people to help her make decisions and wishes she was a child again so that the people represented by the names of alice and norah can help her figure things out again. And at the very end when the music calms down, thats when she gets a hold on things and she becomes someones driver, someones guide or teacher, and the cycle starts all over again. But thats just what i take from it.

  Flag msstuffon July 11, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:From what I know, it's about Regine's reaction to the death of her grandmother (I think), Alice. Like bfleety and others have said, it's about growing up, maturing, and taking control of your life. This can also be said about the Album in general. Clearly Regine was very close with her and this can be heard at the end. She's very passionate throughout. Alice died in a car accident during a storm I believe, which explains "The lightning bolt made enough heat, To melt the street beneath your feet". Perhaps Alice helped raise her a lot, giving her advice and what not. The mention of Norah at the end may have been Alice's husband, but I don't know for sure. A very beautiful song at the end of a brilliant first album. I hope they go far!

  Flag MusicFan101on July 05, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:I don't know if somebody else in the 115 comments has already said this, but has anyone considered this to be a song told from the perspective of a dead person in a coffin? The "backseat" being the rear cabin of the hearse they are riding in to the Funeral. One of the overarching motifs of the album is loss, and it's title came from band members' family passing away. A dead person does not have to drive or speak, they can just quietly pass on, or "sleep". The "learning to drive all my life" line means that all of our lives, we deal with the deaths of others around us while we quietly prepare for our own. Now that she's been learning to cope with, or "drive", her metaphorical loved ones (maybe Alice or Norah) she finally gets to ride instead.

  Flag mswallace27on May 20, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:The song is about her family dying off. It is about the responsibilities she now faces that she used to not have to. Before she could sit in the back seat and not have to focus on anything in particular. Now she can't reply upon her family like she once used to. Instead her family, getting older, perhaps needing medical care, relies upon her to do the "driving" now (perhaps a metaphor for making the decisions).
  It's quite beautiful, especially the ending with her high pitch humming.
  
  Though she's technically been learning to drive her whole life, that does not make it easy for her to just get behind the wheel and go. Perhaps realizing this fact, she now appreciates being the in the backseat even more. In the backseat you didn't have to think about things like death, disease, etc. But in the driver's seat you have to be ready for anything to come your way. She finds it taxing to have to think of all the realities of the world.

  Flag jbRAGEGARDENon March 31, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:for me, and this was how i viewed it from the very first time i heard this song, "Alice" wasn't necessarily a physical family member. I viewed her as referring to Alice from Alice in Wonderland. That character (Alice) represented, i think at least, the process of creating/figuring out your identity as a person and the innocence of that period in a human's life. So for me, this song was describing someone going through something where there identity/sense of self was lost while they where growing up. Also part of growing up is detaching your self from your family because your becoming more independent and a part of society as an individual. So its like describing how "being in the backseat" or not controlling your life your self is the result of losing your sense of self, and that you end up letting others' decide decisions for you. the "Crashing towards the driver's seat The lightning bolt made enough heat To melt the street beneath your feet" part i thought was referring to how much of a shock it comes when you face this part of growing up, and how there are many other factors (the lightning)or problems that will make this process even harder. When she says "I've been learning to drive my whole life" its how you basically you grow up trying to figure out your identity, spending your entire childhood practically on this one idea, and how many times people don't completely achieve it even before they die. This song completely changed my life as dramatic as that sounds. I have never been able to put any of this stuff i felt into words, and this song did it absolutely effortlessly and unknowingly.

  Flag kelstown69on March 26, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:I had never heard the entire album from beginning to end until recently when I bought "The Suburbs" Popped in the cd and wow.. why didn't "Funeral" get a nomination for Best Album of The Year?
  
  This was such a greatly written album and to close it with this song... perfect.

  Flag DavidMoonon March 11, 2011   Link

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