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You may tire of me as our December sun is setting 'cause I'm not who I used to be
No longer easy on the eyes but these wrinkles masterfully disguise the youthful boy below
Who turned your way and saw something he was not looking for
Both a beginning and an end
But now he lives inside someone he does not recognize when he catches his reflection on accident
On the back of a motorbike with your arms outstretched trying to take flight, leaving everything behind
But even at our swiftest speed we couldn't break from the concrete in the city where we still reside
And I have learned that even landlocked lovers yearn for the sea, like navy men,
'Cause now we say goodnight from our own separate sides like brothers on a hotel bed
No longer easy on the eyes but these wrinkles masterfully disguise the youthful boy below
Who turned your way and saw something he was not looking for
Both a beginning and an end
But now he lives inside someone he does not recognize when he catches his reflection on accident
On the back of a motorbike with your arms outstretched trying to take flight, leaving everything behind
But even at our swiftest speed we couldn't break from the concrete in the city where we still reside
And I have learned that even landlocked lovers yearn for the sea, like navy men,
'Cause now we say goodnight from our own separate sides like brothers on a hotel bed
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Then the next stanza talks about wanting things we cant have. Also known as wanting the best of both worlds, aka having your cake and eating it, too... etc.. We want to fly and be bigger than we are and escape from the plagues of our current reality, but we are stopped and grounded no matter how hard we try "even at our swiftest speed".
Thinking about it once more, youth is the person on the back of the motorbike trying to take off and fly. In the first line it talks about you, but then we "the other player in the poem" is taken into the picture "we couldn't break from the concrete", when youth presses the old to do something it doesn't want to physical manifestation of the body is grounded.
Last line... youthful soul and aging body separate annd say bye from opposite sides of the spectrum of llife
At times I'm surprised at the observations people make on this website as they so often seem to deviate from my initial contemplations. My thoughts tend to be more abstract and fragmented I feel, thus leading to alternate conclusions about meaning. Thus it was with this song. While I must admit, the common interpretations result in a greater level of overall clarity,I can't resist adhering to my original musings.
Luckily, after glancing through some of the responses I found that I wasn't quite so isolated.I resonated most with Overmyhead's response near the beginning of the thread. I felt that the song was talking about one man. The relational aspect between two people appears to me to be at the periphery of the songs general message. I like to think it's about getting older, but still fealing youthful inside. It's the dichotomy that exists between your inner soul and your outer body. As the man gets older he begins to recoginze that his body is a deceptive fascade no longer matching his soul. He looks in the mirror and the person who he sees is different than how he thinks of himself. It's like he's trapped within himself. He feels young, strong, and vibrant, but the reflection disagrees with all of it. He senses the constriction in the same way one who anticipates a removal of gravity to let them fly would. I also feel like the song is about imagination. The man's powerful imaginative being is unable to penetrate the reality of his situation, which contains absolutely no mechanism for flight. The last line seems nearly haunting to me. I imagine a man sitting on a hotel room bed looking across from himself at a mirror on the other side. He says goodnite to himself (his reflection in the mirror) which he now thinks of like a brother. Within the last line he comes to terms with the seperation between his soul and body, but takes the notion to new awkward heights of dissassociation by imagining this different entity that stares back at him as a brother who he is familiar with but sepperate from.
Love these lyrics, particularly the first verse. "wrinkles masterfully disguise the youthful boy below." This is from his persepctive, he still feels young inside but she fails to see this and i suspect vice-versa, they no longer see the exciting possibilities in one another, everything is the 'same'.
The whole relationship was unexpected in fact and grew into something much bigger before gradually petering out... "who turned you way and saw something he was not looking for both a beginning and an end" How could he possibly forsee those first innocent glimpses would turn into something long-term - "he was not (necessarily) looking for" that at the time. And he is now looking back on that occassion as the beginning, and now the end, neither of which were planned. Sad.
He no longer "recognises" himself, perhaps that hope and possibility he once held, or simply positivity, has eeked away. They once drew the best from one another but now don't compliment each other's personalities at all, it seems unfair for no one has caused it, it just happened despite their best intentions and efforts.
my girlfriend and i were together for almost three years, living together for much of that time. a few months ago, we were forced to choose between attending our dream graduate schools or making a sacrifice at 22. it sounds a bit crazy, but anyone who knows us knows that we're closer than most if not any people are at our age.
our graduate programs are, you guessed it, a sea apart. i'm in the united kingdom, in my ideal program, while she is in north carolina in her ideal program.
she posted this song on her blog after we spoke last night. i'll go out on a limb and say that it's moved me to tears.
bravo, walla.
"And I have learned
That even landlocked lovers yearn
For the sea like navy men"
is relating back to Transatlanticism because that was about lovers who are separated by the Atlantic Ocean, and this is about landlocked lovers. I also think the song is about growing up and coming to new realizations, hence why he's saying that he has now learned...
Love this song and DCfC.
but two friends......
both guys. no homo...
"like navy men"
gives it away kinda so does the title....
I don't talk to my bestfriend no more.
he was like a brother..
seems like he's having fun "on the back of a motorbike... etc"
Not caring, just putting it behind himself...
& I'm the one at home not recognizing myself.
cause I changed....
it makes sense when your going through this situation.