Lyrics for Summersong as interpreted by coldengrey

Summersong Lyrics
Rambling, where to begin
I tasted summer on your peppery skin
Been saved, the warm of the waves
I felt a slip into a watery grave

My girl, linen and curls
Lips parting like a flag all unfurled
She's grand, the bend of her hand
Digging deep into the sweep of the sand

Summer arrives with a length of lights
Summer blows away
And quietly gets swallowed by a wave
It gets swallowed by a wave

Waylaid, the din of the day
Boats bobbing in the blue of the bay
In deep, far beneath
All the dead sailors slowly slipping to sleep

My girl, linen and curls
Lips parting like a flag all unfurled
She's grand, the bend of her hand
Digging deep into the sweep of the sand

Summer arrives with a length of lights
Summer blows away
And quietly gets swallowed by a wave
It gets swallowed by a wave

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amandapants
08-17-2006

Rated 0 
Best song on the album? I'm glad the accordian made its appearance.

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haruki
08-18-2006

Rated 0 
I think Yankee Bayonet is my favorite, but this one is also very very good. I can't decide if the girl in this song is dead or not. I want to say not, though... I'd hate to think of Colin as getting formulaic. I just love the images he chooses in this song, so evocative.

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Kreyopresny
09-04-2006

Rated 0 
I think it's more like a Grease thing almost, hes got the girl she's "grand" but then summer ends and away she goes, swallowed by a wave.

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lindsayms14
09-09-2006

Rated 0 
Maybe the girl is digging a grave for all the dead sailors... this could be the outcome of a war, and how the women have to dig their men graves and put them to sleep... or the men... enjoying summer have died and gotten swallowed by a wave. On the beach a few wash ashore and his love digs them graves.

Too much if she dies, trying to hard to symbolize summer as love and it being swallowed by a wave...

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negatyve
09-22-2006

Rated 0 
Excellent song.

PS Lindsay, you don't bury people in sand.

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sharkswithknives
10-05-2006

Rated 0 
ehh. not crazy about the new album, not crazy about this song. i guess i'm just being nitpicky really but i expected more lyrically from colin than "gets swallowed by a wave." something about that line bugs me so much. also i really love the accordion in mariner's revenge, legionnaire's lament, etc. where it gets a chance to shine, but here... donno, not so much.

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caitsith01
10-07-2006

Rated +1 
Must say that I'm not all that enamoured with the new album either, but these lines:

"My girl, linen and curls
Lips parting like a flag all unfurled"

are vintage Deceberists, wonderful.

I really like this song, it reminds me a little of 'The Bachelor and the Bride' for some reason.

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HoboInABox
10-09-2006

Rated 0 
I think "Summersong" is beautiful, actually. One of my favorites, if not my favorite off the new album.

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n00t
10-12-2006

Rated +1 
I think the character singing (not the girl) is dead, possibly one of the sailors "slipping to sleep". I imagine that he gets excited by summer because that's when his girl comes to the beach and lounges, "the bend of her hand" (or her wrist) digging into the sand evokes an image of her seated on the beach, leaning back and resting her weight on her hands. This seems the right mix of whimsy and tragedy for the Decemberists.

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n00t
10-12-2006

Rated 0 
Sorry, finishing up. If he's a dead sailor beneath the waves, then the girl coming to the beach would be like her visiting him.

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kyle171
10-13-2006

Rated 0 
Isn't it "I tasted summer on your peppery skin?"

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Skeezix775
10-19-2006

Rated 0 
Clearly someone in this song is dead. I wonder who other listeners think it is. I suspect the male character (the singer) drowned his girlfriend, ot that they both were in a shipwreck and she drowned. Your comments?

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crimmson777
10-27-2006

Rated 0 
My friend mentioned this and at first I dismissed it, but upon further speculation I began to think about it, and while I don't neccesairly agree with it, its definately interesting.

What if the girl is a ship?

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Bryia_026
10-30-2006

Rated 0 
While a little disappointed by the HIGHLY anticipated ( by myself, at least) album, I think this one is gold. I love the higher notes mr meloy sings (on "the landlord's daughter" as well) and this song is so whimsical. If not for the dead soldiers bit I would think this was just about a summer love, very sweet. As it is, I have no idea what the song is about!

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PirateQueen
11-19-2006

Rated +1 
I don't think anyone died in this song. In french, orgasms are called "la petite mort” which mean "little deaths". That whole first verse is clearly about sex. Of course, as I think someone mentioned before, it's just a summer thing.

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lindsayms14
11-27-2006

Rated 0 
It really is about death because it says it on the Decemberist's website under "Biography" : "sometimes the waterlogged mingling of love and death in “Summersong." I don't think it's a "little death" such as Pirate Queen mentioned but an actual death. Someone before said something about the woman is waiting for her love to come home. He is a sailor and he probably drowned. I think that's what this is about, she is waiting and as she waits she is on the beach, looking over the water awaiting her lover's ship.

Yes, I suppose people aren't buried in sand, that was just a sad pathetic attempt to make the song into something I wanted it to be... war. The whole album seems to have a theme though--well actually nevermind, all Decemberists albums have the themes of love, death, murder and rape. This song seems to parallel Yankee Bayonet in my mind. Both songs have women awaiting the return of their lovers, but in the end their lovers die, never to return. Instead they are haunting. "He tastes the summer on her peppery skin." He could be remembering the days long gone, or maybe he's a ghost haunting her, he's in the wind.

I also like how the word "Summer" really stands for the life and love that the two lovers had together. It was "swallowed by a wave" when he perished in a shipwreck.

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lindsayms14
11-27-2006

Rated 0 
It really is about death because it says it on the Decemberist's website under "Biography" : "sometimes the waterlogged mingling of love and death in “Summersong." I don't think it's a "little death" such as Pirate Queen mentioned but an actual death. Someone before said something about the woman is waiting for her love to come home. He is a sailor and he probably drowned. I think that's what this is about, she is waiting and as she waits she is on the beach, looking over the water awaiting her lover's ship.

Yes, I suppose people aren't buried in sand, that was just a sad pathetic attempt to make the song into something I wanted it to be... war. The whole album seems to have a theme though--well actually nevermind, all Decemberists albums have the themes of love, death, murder and rape. This song seems to parallel Yankee Bayonet in my mind. Both songs have women awaiting the return of their lovers, but in the end their lovers die, never to return. Instead they are haunting. "He tastes the summer on her peppery skin." He could be remembering the days long gone, or maybe he's a ghost haunting her, he's in the wind.

I also like how the word "Summer" really stands for the life and love that the two lovers had together. It was "swallowed by a wave" when he perished in a shipwreck.

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turnejam
12-18-2006

Rated +1 
I never thought the death imagery was quite literal. death like, eh, quickly killing off the days of summer, summer's own death, things (like the romance) coming to an end in general. Slipping into a grave, slipping to sleep, all of that indicates a kind of peacefulness and sense of eternity, which will strike anyone who has laid in the embrace of a romantic interest (or maybe just me) as pretty familiar. I agree with an earlier comment: the song is like "Summer Nights" in Grease, with that sweet, sad rememberance of a summer romance.

I must disagree with anyone who thinks that the decemberists are losing their lyrical edge. There was a great deal of complex, intellectual word choice in songs like "coccoon" on previous albums that now seems to be disappearing. Such words screamed, "hello, look at me! I am deep!" And they were deep, of course. But this. The contrasting imagery of vitality, radiance, drowning, and death explored in this song, the close correlation of love and destruction that only successfully gets explored by the best of poets. There is ALOT at work here.

Decemberists lyrics aren't becoming weaker. They're becoming more subtle.

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1 Reply
chaigirl44
01-15-2007

Rated 0 
I think this song definitely has to do with death or at least its just using death as a metaphor for the end of summer/a relationship. I think that the girl drowned or maybe died in a shipwreck. Or maybe it's about a sailor who was in love with a girl but then he went away and he's dying ("a watery grave") and remembering the "taste of summer on your peppery skin" but then again maybe the whole song is just a metaphor and we are all taking too much of a literal approach

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pjane
01-20-2007

Rated 0 
I really do think that this song is about a ship, given the thematics of the rest of the album. Not all songs are about heterosexual love, especially Decemberists songs!! The image of summer being swallowed by a wave not only speaks ot the passing of time, but also evokes a beautiful image of the reflection of the "length of lights" (stars? a cityscape?) being disturbed.

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yo mamma!
01-22-2007

Rated 0 
I hate this song. I love the decemberists, and for the first time I hate a song of theirs. I hate myself when I say that... why did I say it?... I LOVE THIS SONG!

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Delta 27
02-04-2007

Rated 0 
its definetly about the sea, and definetley about death. I'd say summer symbolizes happeyness and love, and it "quietley gets swallowed by a wave" meaning he goes back to school, or one of them dies. Love this song

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Delta 27
02-04-2007

Rated 0 
oh, and i think the girl as a ship makes a lot of sense too. maybe a ship which sunk? drowning all the sailors?

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**music*lover**
02-10-2007

Rated 0 
i love this song. my favorite line is
"My girl, linen and curls
Lips parting like a flag all unfurled
She's grand, the bend of her hand
Digging deep into the sweep of the sand"
the way he sings it is great.

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Delta 27
02-18-2007

Rated 0 
i totally agree music lover, that line and the verse "way late, end of the day, boats bobbing in the blue of the bay, way deep far beneath, all the dead sailors slowly sinking to sleep"

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