i believe it's-
"climbing up into the air
and crumbling down into a fountain"

and-
"when you meet me in the garden
with your horns all hung with cedar"


this song might be my new favorite by okkervil. amazing.

i believe it's-
"climbing up into the air
and crumbling down into a fountain"

and-
"when you meet me in the garden
with your horns all hung with cedar"


this song might be my new favorite by okkervil. amazing.

no kidding!

It's great. No other band could re record an old song without it being lame and seeming regurgitated.

This song is about anything and everything.
That significant lovers touch. Feeling complacent.
I love this song alot.

love it. one of the best okkervil songs!

makes me cry every time.

this is brilliant.

How can you not get addicted to the words and how they perform "there is no escaping the thing that is making its home on your radio"? And I absolutely adore the verses about the infection. It feels so real, like a cut through the palm that has gotten infected and is bothering you and your living.

This song is extremely good. So original. So Okkerwild River.

lol @ okkerwild river ^

This is about my favourite song ever. It's hard to place any kind of meaning, but it's just so awesome and lyrically amazing.

Another Radio Song is about the possibility of Redemption from a life of negligence, vain pleasure seeking, and sin. To accept my interpretation you need to consider the record as a whole. Another Radio Song is the results of the preceding tracks culminating in a single night of grief, regret, and guilt. Lets take the song on piece at a time.

"Sit back, no song is written,
it's nothing you thought of yourself.
It's just a ghost
that came unbidden
to this house."

The first passage introduces a dark night of the soul for Black Sheep Boy. The "ghost that came unbidden" is his conscience pressing its way to the surface of his mind and is clear not something he intended.

"This infection gets stronger every year.
This seed in the water of your tear.
There is no escaping it."

The "infection [that] gets stronger every year" is the guilty conscience he can no longer ignore and the "seed in the water of ...[his] tear" is the possibility of redemption.

"This seed in the water of your tear.
The way an unborn baby's ear
unfolds in your belly."

The unfolding of "an unborn baby's ear" is the awakening of new understanding and the infancy of Black Sheep Boy's awareness of the harm he has caused himself and others.

"This infection gets stronger every year,
this direction of a tear going down your cheek.
And there is no escaping it.
There is no escaping the thing that is making it's home in your radio."

The radio is Black Sheep Boy's thoughts and "the thing that is making it's home" in his mind is the new found awareness he can no longer escape.

"Bless this tiny alley"

The "tiny alley" is the trail of the tear on Black Sheep Boy's cheek which he chooses to "bless" so he can experience the feelings he has been repressing for so long.

"we have fallen from tall buildings
we have fallen through the air"

Falling is a metaphorical representation of Black Sheep Boy's life illustrating his lack of refuge, lack of solid ground to stand on, and lack of control. Surely the lines are also meant to convey a sense of terror.

"into a garden sweetly smelling
of the softest sleeping flowers"

You cannot help but notice the alliteration in these lines, especially when you see them written out. These two line represent Black Sheep Boy's sense of refuge and a coming to grips with terror he experiences when he reflects on the course of his life.

"now they sit under the sidewalk
now they're waiting for the shining
of some future sun to show us
all that is your beauty"

Of course, the Black Sheep Boy has not earned his refuge yet. The seeds of his salvation are "waiting for the shining of some future sun" that can reveal his true potential.

"oh, and all that brings you pleasure
I could sigh into your hide
and say I hope I'm here forever"

In this song it is important to notice the way the words "I", "you", and "us" are used so interchangeably. Best I can tell the various subject nouns are used to represent different forces at work within the Black Sheep Boy's mind. He'd very much like to stay with his escapist pleasure but he knows he cannot.

"but black sheep boy
with your lovers
with your list of favorite pillows
with your list of missing children"

The song is slowly but steadily building momentum effectively illustrating the increasing intensity of Black Sheep Boy's memories and experience. "Favorite pillows" is a metaphor for sources of comfort. "Missing children" is, I suspect, a metaphor for excuses, though I am not entirely certain.

"with the wall where you drew windows
overlooking hidden gardens"

These lines are a metaphor for the life of drug use, infidelity, and self-indulgence he imagined would lead to something real and worthy, but ultimately did not.

"cut apart by jagged mountains
climbing up into the air
and crumbling down into a fountain
where the water waits forever
like a quiet distant treasure"

The mountains in the garden he imagines are a representation of the difficulty and sorrow he created for himself. The Fountain and the water are symbolic of his tears, the "quiet distant treasure" he is seeking to over come his pain.

"when you rise up to recover
when you leave this tiny alley"

Sooner or later Black Sheep Boy's period of reflection will come to an end and he will have to get back to his life.

"when you meet me in the garden
with your horns all hung with cedar
every spirit brushing past me
brushing past them in the ether"

Notice again the skillful exchange of subject nouns. "When you [Black Sheep Boy] meet me [your honest and redeemed self] in the garden with you horns all hung with cedar [unnecessary decoration indicating pride and vanity]"

The exchange of subject nouns in the last two lines is exceptional in its quality. "Brushing past me brushing past them." The effect created is a sense that one part of Black Sheep Boy's mind, the part that is experiencing the events in the songs, becomes another, the part narrating and leading the events in the song. The transition marks the end of a period of self-observation and is an extraordinary use of the written word.

"scream all this is window dressing
all you are is flimsy curtains"

These lines form the crux of Black Sheep Boy's realization as he sees his entire life thus far has been a meaningless waste of time. His life is nothing but a worthless decoration around an imaginary world.

"watch you flame up with a word from us
and won't know that you're burning"

The "us", I suspect, are those parts of himself that see the truth now and can have some compassion for the parts of himself that do not and continue to unknowingly burn away in a meaningless existence.

"burning
burning"

Drives the point home.

"No escaping the thing that is making its home on your radio
No escaping the thing that is making its home on your radio"

Reinforces the main theme of not only the song but the album itself: the waking up to the pointlessness of self-indulgence. Indeed, Black Sheep Boy is so self referential and replete with recurring themes and metaphors it is difficult to conduct an exposition of any one song without considering the rest of the album. I am quite certain a devoted writer could find enough relevant material to dedicate an entire chapter of a book to the content of this album.

I am very interested in reading what others think about the song, especially those who either think I am incorrect in part, on the whole, or simply take something completely different from the song than I do.

Three repeating places in the BSB saga: A garden, a tiny alley, a forest. Forest is probably where the children get lost, lose their innocence, become pray for the "Black Sheep Boy" early in their life.

P_to_the_G has pretty much nailed down most of what BSB is all about. Only part I disagree about is the deal with "the wall where you drew windows". More than a reference to drugs (which might be part of the life of BSB, but which don't have as much relevance as some think) I think it's about the imagination of a child which can still see the gardens that the man later blocks (or 'hides') from himself - and only in this song actually finds them again.

This is by far my favorite song by Okkervil River. My interpretation of it is different than what others I have spoken to have said, and I think that's because this song hits really close to home with me. A lot of the lyrics I feel can be interpreted into an event that's still unfolding right now. The entire first half the song reminds me of this girl I'm in love with. Up to the verse, "There is no escaping the thing that is making it's home in your radio." I feel that it's talking about this girl.

From the very first line, "Sit back, no song is written, it's nothing you thought of yourself." it feels like a conversation which I'll get back to later, but it's a the beginning of this man who's having a conversation with the girl. And, going up the next line speaking of the ghost, I feel like it's talking of a past relation this girl had. For my real life story, this girl who I love, two years ago dated this man who was incredibly abusive to her. I don't know why, and I don't think I'll ever learn why, but she loved this man greatly despite all the harm he did to her, and finally just last year, he blew her off. But, just a month after, he began talking with her nonstop. She still believes that they're going to get back together, and this guy just keeps toying with her with this belief. Because of this, she's obsessing over him. Thus, it comes to the infection that gets stronger every year, the seed in the water, and there being no escaping it. After that, it goes to the verses:

This seed in the water of your tear.
The way an unborn baby's ear
unfolds in your belly.

This part is just a small substory for me. The girl is an incredibly motherly figure, and one of her greatest dreams is to have children. I see this as her belief that this man can be a great father figure and her belief that they could get married and have a child. This she's told me herself and it tears me apart. But, then it goes back to summarize everything with:

This infection gets stronger every year,
this direction of a tear going down your cheek.
And there is no escaping it.
There is no escaping the thing that is making it's home in your radio.

It summarizes everything of where she stands. Then, the second part of the song begins where I feel that my part of the story really begins:

Bless this tiny alley, we have fallen from tall buildings, we have fallen through the air into a garden sweetly smelling of the softest sleeping flowers, now they sit under the sidewalk, now they're waiting for the shining of some future sun to show us all that is your beauty oh, and all that brings you pleasure, I could sigh into your hide and say I hope I'm here forever

This part started when I was going to dinner with the girl. On the way, the lovely man who I have dubbed the Black Sheep Boy called her up. It was a fifteen minute conversation and by the end she was in tears, and it wasn't the happy kind either. She was sobbing very hard, and as soon as the car stopped, I pulled her out and we went for a walk. This walk ended up being two hours, the whole time which there was almost complete silence. Finally, we found a bench and sat down and she began to talk. It was the most open she had ever been with me, and as we sat there and talked, she began feeling better, and, as I was happy to learn, stronger. Going back to the song, I feel that this is when we had fallen as far as we could and landed in the garden where I was simply happy to listen to her talk and feel better. And when I heard this song later that night, I felt that I could completely connect with the line "I could sigh into your hide and say I hope I'm here forever." But of course, the next part of the song came, just as it did in my life:

But black sheep boy with your lovers with, your list of favorite pillows, with your list of missing children, with the wall where you drew windows overlooking hidden gardens cut apart by jagged mountains climbing up into the air and crumbling down into a fountain

Of course, after talking for awhile, he called back with all of his "troubles" and all of his different life's problems and of course he knew that I was there and it felt as though he was creating his window to break into our garden. But I was incredibly happy to learn that our talk had helped, and the next part of the song rushes by for me in a sort of triumph as it says:

where the water waits forever like a quiet distant treasure when you rise up to recover

I feel that the singer has changed point of views and is now talking to the woman who is now trying to fight back. The girl in real life finally got sick of the abuse and she was ready to fight back. After this one quick line, it goes back to the singer talking to the Black Sheep Boy:

when you leave this tiny alley when you meet me in the garden with your horns all hung with cedar every spirit brushing past me brushing past them in the ether scream all this is window dressing all you are is flimsy curtains watch you flame up with a word from us and won't know that you're burning.

At this point in my real life story, the Black Sheep Boy demanded that I be put on the phone. She obliged, and it felt like a true showdown, quite possibly even one from the movies. Of course, that was just the adrenaline of the moment. All the hate I had for this man who had mentally destroyed a woman I loved and all of my rage at knowing that she still loved him came out, and though I spoke calmly, the girl knew that I was angry. He spoke, insulting of course, and he threw curse after curse at me, screaming and yelling, and they were powerful words. It truly felt like spirits brushing past me, but, his words betrayed him also. Like it says, the spirits scream "all this is window dressing all you are is flimsy curtains" and it felt true. The man was yelling and threatening, and yet his words were hollow. There was nothing behind them to support him. I had the girl on my side, and there was no fear in my. From the beginning to the end, I knew I could beat him, and all I did was listen, speak, and then laugh. And that was all I needed. It felt as though he flamed up and began burning. He hung up and didn't call back for the rest of the night. After that, the girl became stronger against him and even without me around, she could take him on. She still talks to him often, but it feels different now. Perhaps it's only wishful thinking, but I think she can stand on her own two feet now.

Another Radio Song is a song of redemption, of a final battle between the protagonist and the antagonist for the girl, and like in the movies, the good guy wins. It's the song where everything finally comes out and where everyone learns the true colors of everyone else, and in the end, there is hope and everything feels that it can become better.