Lyrics for Cold Wind as interpreted by Koprolith

Cold Wind Lyrics
In the middle of the summer
I’m not sleeping, cold wind blowing
In the middle of the night
They try to find me but I’m still driving
If you’re going to San Francisco
Lay some flowers on the gravestone
There’s music on the station
And I’m just listening to cold wind whistling
And if they ever find me
Tell the papers
Cold wind, cold wind, cold, cold wind blowing
Cold wind blowing

Hey, hey, hey

Something ain’t right
Something ain’t right
And if they ever find me
Tell the papers
Cold wind, cold wind, cold, cold wind blowing
Cold wind blowing (4x)

Interaction
Mail to a friend Send Lyrics to a Friend
Share on Facebook

Stumble It
Add to Del.icio.us Add to Del.icio.us




  • 33 Comments
  • Printer Friendly Lyrics
oldest first     Expand All
Koprolith
08-18-2005

Rated 0 
This song was exclusively written for the second soundtrack of the HBO-series "Six Feet Under".

I love this song. The meaning? Diffcult.
Maybe the author talks about himself committing suicide in the near future. The place of his grave will be San Francisco.
But I don't really understand the symbolism of the cold wind and especially the line "And if they ever find me tell the papers cold wind".

Log in to reply
femmesofrussia
08-19-2005

Rated 0 
this is probably reaching, but i'm gonna say it's about sadness. and the part about "if they find me, tell the papers..." he's saying that there won't even be a body anymore, just that paralyzing breeze. in the summer, it's freezing. there's music playing, and you don't hear it. happiness has become locked out.

Log in to reply
nursejen
08-21-2005

Rated 0 
I love this song...especially the way the tempo picks up at the end right out of the blue: "Awwww, hey hey hey!" in the middle of all that sadness. It leaves the listener with the feeling that things may be okay in the end.

Log in to reply
Bluestars
08-28-2005

Rated 0 
So I have no idea if this is true but i heard somewhare that the cold wind is in reference directly to the cold wind that blows past a thermometer to make the temperature drop. This is such an amazing song and it fits the scene in SFU so perfectly. I Love It.

Log in to reply
Bluestars
08-31-2005

Rated 0 
"A Pretty Mystery hidden in a cracked-voice,sad-guitar ode to the air that makes mercury drop, sung by a narrator who's breathing it for the last time." Sorry About posting again, It is just that I was looking through The new spin with DCFC on front and finaly remembered whare I had read the explanation for this song.

Log in to reply
elliotts
09-02-2005

Rated 0 
This song is one of the fire arcade fire songs i bought. It's also my favorite. I pretty much agree with everything thats been said, if you look at the lyrics on a lighter note though, it could just be enjoying the cold wind breeze of summer nights while driving in san fransisco and that he has the radio on but isn't listening to that, just the wind?

Log in to reply
pink_love
09-02-2005

Rated 0 
he's already dead and he's pretty much writing from the grave
"And if they ever find me
Tell the papers
Cold wind cold wind cold cold wind blowing
Cold wind blowing". im probably wrong though

Log in to reply
jrchick8
12-28-2005

Rated 0 
Love this song, but the meaning is pretty tricky to figure out. for some reason it made me think of a really horrible car accident that leaves the body completely unidentifiable ("...try to find me but I'm still driving...")... and then the part where "There’s music on the station/And I’m just listening to cold wind whistling..." is like, the radio in the car is still playing or something...I don't know. Maybe that's just me.

Log in to reply
c-ko
03-12-2006

Rated 0 
This is going to sound morbid, but when I hear this song, I think that its about a guy who is locked in the trunk of a car of a serial killer. The police are looking for him. He can hear the radio playing from the trunk, but is concentrating on the sound of wind blowing around the car. If they (the police/his family) ever find his body, tell the newspapers that his last thoughts were about the beautiful sound of the cold wind whistling.

Log in to reply
1 Reply
no6655321
03-21-2006

Rated 0 
I sort of get that this song's about like, emotional detachment. "In the middle of the night they try to find me, but I"m still driving" seems to me more of a metaphorical connotation, like when you say "he found himself". It's about a guy who nobody can find, not in that way.

Or I'm wrong, I don't know.

Log in to reply
sbto
03-29-2006

Rated 0 
I like it no6655321, he's going somewhere, as a state of mind, cold wind is definitely a fear of dying, maybe he just wants to live his life to the full, try to find himself, bacause it seems the cold wind presses him onward, to... San Francisco, which could mean that he wants to attain freedom, because he wants to rest there (that's why the gravestone metaphore). (S.F was the hippie capital a while back)

And if they ever find me
Tell the papers

And if someone finds him, that is truly understands him, let them spread the word about his motivation... the fear of dying? (cold wind)

Log in to reply
illustraa
05-15-2006

Rated 0 
This is just me, and i tend to make totally off-the-wall assumptions, but... I always think of someone leaving someone. Just getting up and slipping away one night, without an explanation or a warning. I think of someone driving away.


"It's the middle of summer/im not sleeping" - They're on the road, its nighttime and they should be sleeping but they're driving away.

"In the middle of the night/they try to find me/but im still driving" - the person youve left reaches over in bed and realises youre not there... Very emotive.

"If you’re going to San Francisco/Lay some flowers on the grave stone" This reminds me of "Crown of Love", when it is sung something along the lines of "Theres flowers growing/on the grave of our old love". I think its like, 'I know you'll mourn the loss of our love, and so will I... so let this be a silent tribute to what we lost'.

"There’s music on the station/And I’m just listening to cold wind whistling" There's music on the car radio but he doesn't really hear it. He's just listening to the cold wind blowing past the car... moving further and further away from what hes left.

"Hey hey hey, something aint right..." This bit always originally put me in mind of turning around and wondering why the hell you left anyway. Probably how the song changes and becomes more upbeat, as Arcade Fire songs are wont to do (Another parallel to Crown of Love). But now i more think of a new start, a new life, when you've dealt with the memories of the old and moved on... but something inside you says 'i didn't do the right thing, i should've said goodbye...'

Log in to reply
sbto
06-19-2006

Rated 0 
nice, I think you may be on to something :), I like it

Log in to reply
blu_razberry
08-03-2006

Rated 0 
i like illustraa's idea of separation and someone leaving another person behind, but i still think this is about suicide. a 'cold wind' reminds me of cold, bleak and isolated emotions, the ones that a suicidal person feels. when the cold wind blows, those negative emotions kind of run through a person.

"i'm not sleeping" and "something ain't right" are also kind of point to someone who can't sleep because of those negative feelings maybe?

and then i guess if the person is driving, they're driving to get away and to commit suicide, a last desperate act. actually, when i heard the part about "music on the station," i was thinking that the person in this song drove to san francisco, listening to music on the radio, and then maybe went somewhere to shut the car doors and gas himself...gas sort of symbolizing cold wind. and the papers are going to report this and discuss the bizarre suicide.

it's awesome imagery in the song though :) i'm not sure exactly how any of the song relates to the Six Feet Under show, but i'm sure it makes sense to the band :D

Log in to reply
mjr0706
08-18-2006

Rated 0 
cold wind is a reference to death. when some one dies, there is supposedly a cold wind, no matter what time of the year it is. although this song wasn't included with Funeral, it certainly would have fit.

Log in to reply
UZeroHead2
12-18-2006

Rated 0 
Arcade Fire just plain rocks, eh? It seems to me that this song is about a tragic car accident that took his life.

Log in to reply
no_quarter51
01-05-2007

Rated 0 
I think this song is about someone who has had someone very close to them die, and now feel a sort of "cold wind" everywhere they go and things probably will not ever be the same for them. It's depressing that this was written just for a t.v show, it makes the song seem a little contrived. Which the Arcade Fire honestly never are.

Log in to reply
proposals
01-28-2007

Rated 0 
no_quarter, I would tend to agree with you if it were written for any tv show other than Six Feet Under. Trust me, that's not depressing at all. SFU was never contrived, the music was a huge part of the mood of so many scenes and they were always perfect, and the show itself was beautiful beyond comprehension. I love that fact that the Arcade Fire was involved in something so wonderful.

Log in to reply
quirkster
02-02-2007

Rated 0 
Ive been listening to this song over and over. Its so beautiful and mysterious--Im absolutely puzzled about what it may be about though. For some reason, I think someone who died in the past has come back and is haunting him from the grave. Not a scary, spooky kinda thing though. This spirit is sort of leading him somewhere where he can feel free and rid his mind of anxieties and depression. I think the cold wind refers to the spirit like supposidly the air gets brisker and colder in certain areas when they're is a spirit to be felt. So the cold wind he is listening to could be the guidance of this spirit leading him driving with him down the road of renewal. I keep saying spirit, it could be someone he knew who had died, may have been buried in San Francisco so to pay his respects hes asking those looking for him to lay flowers on the grave. I have more to say but I dont know how to explain it. wow, im obsessed with analyzing the lyrics ;]

Log in to reply
blueofthesky
02-22-2007

Rated 0 
For some reason, c-ko's idea resonated fully with me. I can't shake that meaning, and I hope that's what TAF meant when writing this song--because that image, that thought, is fucking incredible.

Log in to reply
jejunegrrl
04-22-2007

Rated 0 
I'm thinking suicide...

The cold wind is something that's bothering him (maybe a depression - just these awful thoughts). He can't sleep, tries to escape by taking a drive (to San Francisco, perhaps, where he ends his life - thus if you go to San Francisco lay some flowers on the gravestone).

(The San Francisco line just reminds me of Scott McKenzie's 'if you're going to San Francisco/be sure to wear some flowers in your hair')

There's music on the station, but nothing can take his mind off of the cold wind blowing (whatever is bothering him). And if they ever find him, tell the papers this is why... the cold wind, something wasn't right.

Log in to reply
IckleRu
05-13-2007

Rated 0 
I love this song, because the music just sounds like a sad cold wind. It's perfect, the relationship between the words and music and the meaning and the feelings. I'm pretty sure its about a death, or maybe a dissapearance. Something final and self inflicted though, i think.

Log in to reply
MusicWillSetYouFree
05-29-2007

Rated 0 
This is Definetly about a person who commited suicide. he does it from a place where his family won't know. and how since hes dead all hes listening to is a cold wind

Log in to reply
ecstasiee
06-02-2007

Rated 0 
i just went to the concert today and they said that this song is about his grandfather who's burried in San Francisco. It's a sad song but i love it.

Log in to reply
suedeboots
06-02-2007

Rated 0 
Yeah, what ecstasiee said. Alvino Rey (Win and Will's granddad) is buried in San Fran. It is a sad song but I get all happy at the "hey hey hey" part. =]

Log in to reply




  • Add Your Comments
What does this song mean to you?

You must be logged in to post your comments.

Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.





Popular
Top:   Lyrics, Artists, Albums
Random:   Lyric, Artist, Album

Your Ad Here