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Here I lie, I'm staring at
Clouds and shapes of dogs and cats
I hear a woman, start to yell
"Oh dear God, I think he fell"
I'm the arrow shot straight to hell
From the bow of William Tell
My body lies kissing the ground
Like a cross turned upside down
A priest is rushing to my side
Begins to read me, my last rites
Father, you're too late, my faith is weak
So won't you save your half-hearted speech
I'm the arrow shot straight to hell
From the bow of William Tell
My body lies kissing the ground
Like a cross turned upside down
A man bends down and says
"Son, we're going to get through this one
Take my hand and let us pray"
I scream, "Please get the fuck away"
I'm the arrow shot straight to hell
From the bow of William Tell
My body lies kissing the ground
Like a cross turned upside down
The ambulance is singing
As cops push back the crowd
I start to take my last breath
As blood pours out my mouth
The medics walk in my way
I think this could be it
I hear 'em start to state
The time of death is half past six
I'm the arrow shot straight to hell
I'm the arrow shot straight to hell
Clouds and shapes of dogs and cats
I hear a woman, start to yell
"Oh dear God, I think he fell"
I'm the arrow shot straight to hell
From the bow of William Tell
My body lies kissing the ground
Like a cross turned upside down
A priest is rushing to my side
Begins to read me, my last rites
Father, you're too late, my faith is weak
So won't you save your half-hearted speech
I'm the arrow shot straight to hell
From the bow of William Tell
My body lies kissing the ground
Like a cross turned upside down
A man bends down and says
"Son, we're going to get through this one
Take my hand and let us pray"
I scream, "Please get the fuck away"
I'm the arrow shot straight to hell
From the bow of William Tell
My body lies kissing the ground
Like a cross turned upside down
The ambulance is singing
As cops push back the crowd
I start to take my last breath
As blood pours out my mouth
The medics walk in my way
I think this could be it
I hear 'em start to state
The time of death is half past six
I'm the arrow shot straight to hell
I'm the arrow shot straight to hell
Lyrics submitted by bloodstrike
Track duration: 04:22
"The Priest and the Matador" as written by Heath Matthew Saraceno Garrett Michael Zablocki
Lyrics © CHRYSALIS MUSIC GROUP
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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How does one die yet still have the faculties to hear and process the thought of someone else stating their time of death?
-That was literally the second thing I thought after hearing this song for the first time years ago when the record was released first being "damn what a great song"
Personally, I think this song and practically the whole record is about inner conflict. Shit happens and sometimes it happens at once, life is filled with hard times, regrets, and that inner conflict. People take solace in different ways, often times destructible, often times they turn to religion; those people go straight to prayer or other religious practices, when bad things happen, chaos ensues, or when feeling lost, scared, confused, empty..etc Everything is crumbling around you, drinking and other behaviors made it worse by making you feel worse and not solving anything yet you have no faith, what do you turn to?
You're falling, you're alone, you're empty with nothing to turn to, no one to turn to, no God to turn to. You are dead inside.
I see a lot of people bringing up the William Tell reference, might have been based on William Tell; killing what you love or killing yourself (not physically..just a metaphor by William Tell killing his son, he killed part of himself.) Anyway, my take on this isn't being sent to hell for eternity, but living a hell, the hell that surrounds one with everything going on around you, mentally going on, and emotionally; basically forced into it, shot into all the with no way to change it, but having to live through it and with the outcome of all of it.
My take on the time of death part is just basically, he has lived through, made it through.. Thus being able to hear his own time of death, but that part of him that was stuck in that living hell was dead, it was over.
Feel free to disagree, it's just my take on the song. My favorite song off the record, gives me chills but I find it beautiful till this day. Speaks volumes to me, as I was once born a catholic but disagreed with so much of it, feeling I was forced to believe in it, had to struggle through so much shit on my own, which eventually led me to find my own faith, while feeling empty and dead inside, with no one to turn to because of my lack of faith.
Everyone's idea the half-past-six lyric infers two downward-pointing arrows, hellbound, intrigues me. For a protagonist, if not a band based on other works, to reject a priest's last rites and a praying layman yet be so convinced hell awaits is ... a strange dichotomy, a conundrum I cannot figure out. Usually people simply reject religion as unbelievable, not believable-but-rejected.
And please, enough of this rejecting-christianity == Satanism. An atheist or anti-Christian band doth not infer Satanist. (Unless you mean it in the Bob Dylan "Gotta serve somebody"-kinda way.) But it's an offensive pejorative that Christians should not so easily use. There is a Satan and he laughs at your assertions.
I'm intrigued by the reference to William Tell. (And isn't the lyric "I'M the arrow"? Is it really just "And.."? And seeing as they seem to get the "I hear them start to state" lyric wrong...) I'd not heard the story in a long while, and I don't think I was ever told (as a kid, mind) the intent and inferences of the second arrow. I'm not sure I "get" the same inferences of that lyrics everyone else does. To me it just meant (and mind I am still working on the lyric being "I'm..") he was shot straight to hell by an expert marksman, with no chance he was EVER going to go anywhere else. Which, read my second paragraph, is so dichotomous, so perplexing. How can you be simultaneously so convinced there is a hell and you're going there yet so scornful of anything that might deviate you from that path.
Still, all in all, really like this song. **Great** underlying "Negative Space" tune.
About William Tell he is a man who had to shoot an apple of his sons head with a bow and arrow
"The time of death is half past six" this represents both hands of the clock pointing down to hell which is where he will go for killing himself.
"My body lies kissing the ground, like a cross turned upside down" im not sure but i think this could represent a contrast to Jesus saving all humanity by dying on the cross while the main character kills himself while only thinking of himself and being very selfish which is why the cross is upside down (opposite)