This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Solemn faced
The village settles down
Undetected by the stars
And the hangman plays the mandolin before he goes to sleep
And the last thing on his mind
Is the Wild Eyed Boy imprisoned
'Neath the covered wooden shaft
Folds the rope
Into its bag
Blows his pipe of smolders
Blankets smoke into the room
And the day will end for some
As the night begins for one
Staring through the message in his eyes
Lies a solitary son
From the mountain called Freecloud
Where the eagle dare not fly
And the patience in his sigh
Gives no indication
For the townsmen to decide
So the village Dreadful yawns
Pronouncing gross diversion
As the label for the dog
Oh "It's the madness in his eyes"
As he breaks the night to cry:
"It's really Me
Really You
And really Me
It's so hard for us to really be
Really You
And really Me
You'll lose me though I'm always
Really free"
And the mountain moved its eyes
To the world of realize
Where the snow had saved a place
For the Wild Eyed Boy
From Freecloud
And the village dreadful cried
As the rope began to rise
For the smile stayed on the face
Of the Wild Eyed Boy
From Freecloud
And the women once proud
Clutched the heart of the crowd
As the boulders smashed down from the mountain's hand
And the magic in the stare
Of the Wild Eyed Boy said
"Stop, Freecloud
They won't think to cut me down"
But the cottages fell
Like a playing card hell
And the tears on the face
Of the Wise Boy
Came trembling down
To the rumbling ground
And the missionary mystic of peace/love
Stumbled to cry among the clouds
Kicking back the pebbles
From the freecloud mountain track
The village settles down
Undetected by the stars
And the hangman plays the mandolin before he goes to sleep
And the last thing on his mind
Is the Wild Eyed Boy imprisoned
'Neath the covered wooden shaft
Folds the rope
Into its bag
Blows his pipe of smolders
Blankets smoke into the room
And the day will end for some
As the night begins for one
Staring through the message in his eyes
Lies a solitary son
From the mountain called Freecloud
Where the eagle dare not fly
And the patience in his sigh
Gives no indication
For the townsmen to decide
So the village Dreadful yawns
Pronouncing gross diversion
As the label for the dog
Oh "It's the madness in his eyes"
As he breaks the night to cry:
"It's really Me
Really You
And really Me
It's so hard for us to really be
Really You
And really Me
You'll lose me though I'm always
Really free"
And the mountain moved its eyes
To the world of realize
Where the snow had saved a place
For the Wild Eyed Boy
From Freecloud
And the village dreadful cried
As the rope began to rise
For the smile stayed on the face
Of the Wild Eyed Boy
From Freecloud
And the women once proud
Clutched the heart of the crowd
As the boulders smashed down from the mountain's hand
And the magic in the stare
Of the Wild Eyed Boy said
"Stop, Freecloud
They won't think to cut me down"
But the cottages fell
Like a playing card hell
And the tears on the face
Of the Wise Boy
Came trembling down
To the rumbling ground
And the missionary mystic of peace/love
Stumbled to cry among the clouds
Kicking back the pebbles
From the freecloud mountain track
Lyrics submitted by softasfire, edited by ocrow
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
This song is folk tale in mid-telling, magical and mystical, the scenes of the story folded one on top of another.
The villagers have imprisoned a wild-eyed boy from the mountain. He appears to them as other, outsider, stranger. And he is strange, though not crazy. He brings a message of peace with nature, which the villagers, being wrapped up in their own lives, cannot understand. He cannot explain to them, what they will not understand, and so he patiently waits. They write him off, thinking him insane, a dog, a distraction, and a nuisance.
The villagers go to sleep, solemn, having passed judgement. They turn him over to the hangman, usher of passage between life and death, who filling his room with smoke, shows as he falls asleep that a transformation is coming. The boy lies awake, his ordeal upon him.
The boy now breaks the night, waking the village from slumber, with his call, a desperate plea to get them to understand: We have touched one another. You must accept me as I am, wild and free, for this is the real me. It's really me! It's really you and really me! If you cannot accept me as I am, you will lose me! (friend, lover, family)
And with that cry the spirit of the mountain, Freecloud, wakes up and turns upon the village. The rope, symbol of binding people together as well as of separating body from spirit, rises up proclaiming the unjust sentence against the boy. The mountain moved by this injustice brings catastrophe down on the villagers. An avalanche of boulders crushes and destroys the village. The boy begs the mountain to stop the onslaught. The villagers wouldn't kill me, he says. But, it is too late.
The message in the boy's eyes was of peace and love, not a love of accommodation and compromise, but one of fierce independence. He was misunderstood by the villagers, who couldn't accept that he could be completely free, and also by the mountain, which couldn't accept injustice against one of it's own. And at that the beautiful prophet can only weep.
@ocrow This is pretty much what I understood of the song back in about 1974 when I explored back from Ziggy Stardust which I had just heard.
Definitely my favorite Bowie song. When he sings "really you and really me" it's just amazing.
Why has no one comented on this song? Its amazing!! It tells a great story to a great tune. Its sad, but amazing!
I like this song, even if the production is kinda crappy.
This is an amazing song. The music itself nearly allows you to understand the song more than the lyrics themselves. This is what I can figure out about this song:
First Verse: This sets up the basis of the song. There is a small village, and there is a "wild eyed boy" imprissoned awaiting hanging.
Second verse: The boy had come with a message. The villagers, however, do not understand and fear the boy as he is from freecloud, a mysterious mountain.
Central section: I have a feeling that the key to understanding the song lies here, however I can't quite understand what the meaning in this section is.
In the next section, we see now the powerfull people of freecloud now notice the peril that the boy is in.
Meanwhile, as the boy is about to be hung, the town becomes paniced as he does not seem to be afraid and appears to have a plan.
Next, the people of freecloud save the boy, but, despite his cries, they destroy the village in the process.
The boy returns home saddened that he could not save the people of the village
Your interpretation was perfect until the end. I believe the boy tried to warn the people about an imminent landslide or avalanche. They did not believe him and as result, they and their village were destroyed.
I love this song. In a way it says how people can't take something they don't understand , like the wild eyed boy, so they kill it?
I agree with BijouHitman.
AWESOME SONG
It symbolizes mankind's relationship with Nature.
Yeah why not so many comments... It's at least as good as the Laughing Gnome. :P
I really think this song is Bowie's response to "The Fool on the Hill" by the Beatles. The musical compositions are really similar & they express the same kind of idea.