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When I disappear, do you think all of this will have stood
When I disappear it is clear I am up to no good
Only after you realize that you need what you've already lost
Touch me or don't
(I just wanna know)
Where've you been?
Well drop me a line with a hook and some raw bleeding bait
Well I am uncaught and still swimming alone in the lake
Shimmering under the moon made of anger and hate
Shimmering like a penny out of reach in the subway grate
Touch me or don't
Where've you been?
Leave it alone
I'm sure there's someone who knows where you've been
You never worked well with our group, no one can fault you now.
We'll fix you with cement galloshes, no one can save you now.
Unless you have friends among fish,
There'll still be no air to breathe.
You can drink up the entire ocean
And still find someone
To be everything we know that you'll never be
Touch me or don't
Where've you been?
Leave it alone
I'm sure there's someone who knows where you've been
Where've you been?
Where've you been?
Whoa
Whoa
Whoa
Whoa, ah!
When I disappear it is clear I am up to no good
Only after you realize that you need what you've already lost
Touch me or don't
(I just wanna know)
Where've you been?
Well drop me a line with a hook and some raw bleeding bait
Well I am uncaught and still swimming alone in the lake
Shimmering under the moon made of anger and hate
Shimmering like a penny out of reach in the subway grate
Touch me or don't
Where've you been?
Leave it alone
I'm sure there's someone who knows where you've been
You never worked well with our group, no one can fault you now.
We'll fix you with cement galloshes, no one can save you now.
Unless you have friends among fish,
There'll still be no air to breathe.
You can drink up the entire ocean
And still find someone
To be everything we know that you'll never be
Touch me or don't
Where've you been?
Leave it alone
I'm sure there's someone who knows where you've been
Where've you been?
Where've you been?
Whoa
Whoa
Whoa
Whoa, ah!
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[When I disappear, do you fear for the sister I took?
When I disappear, it is clear I am up to no good
I am drearily blunt, letting this bed wetting cosmonaut
"Son, the last thing you'll realize
you need is what you've already got"]
I this verse, Jesse is speaking to God. He is thinking of all the frivolous, meaningless sex he has had with women and how it must disappoint God. Then God responds that all this pointless sex will never fill the desire that is in his heart... probably suggesting only the love of God or a woman can fill that. (Of course, "sister" is not used in the familial sense, but the religious... as we are all brothers and sisters in God's eyes)
["So touch me or don't
Just let me know
Where you've been"]
Here God is asking Jesse where he has been after having sex. This mirrors the questions he asks Adam and Eve after their original Sin of eating the fruit of knowledge before they were banished from Eden. Jesse refuses to "touch" Him because he feels ashamed in His presence (the same way Adam feels ashamed of his nakedness in God's eyes).
["So drop me a line with a hook and some raw bleeding bait
(one, two, three, four)
For I am uncaught and still swimming alone in the lake
(five, six, seven, eight)
Shimmering under a moon made in anger and angst
Shimmering like a penny out of reach in the subway grate
(Shimmering like a coin kept safe away,
you'll never listen to anything)"]
Jesse views himself as a hopeless case, living out of touch with God ("swimming alone in a lake"). He pleads with God to help him to return to the righteous path, though Jesse sees little hope in his redemption, because he "never listens to anything."
["We could leave it alone,
I'm sure there's someone who knows
Where you've been"]
Obviously, in God's omnipotence knows the truth of every sin we all commit. He is someone who always knows "where you've been."
["You never worked well with our group
Not with the faults we found
So we fixed you with cement galoshes
No one can save you now
Unless you have friends among fish
There'll still be no air to breathe
You could drink up the entire ocean
I'll still find someone to be everything we know that you'll never be"]
In this line Jesse imagines his judgement at the gates of Heaven. His life of Sin is dissected and he is found unworthy. He is cast out of heaven down into the hopelessness of Hell. He uses the metaphor of Luca Brasi in the Godfather. In the book he is found to be a spy of sorts working for the Corleone family, and when Sollozzo finds out, Sollozzo murders Luca. Luca's body is dropped into the ocean with a pair of cement boots so he will sink. Then a dead fish is sent to the Corleone's as a message that he "sleeps with the fishes." This connection can also be drawn that perhaps Jesse views himself a monster of sorts. Luca is most certainly one: in the book, it is explained that Luca once impregnated an Irish whore and he killed the woman and had their newborn child thrown into a furnace. He is also the only man that Don Vito Corleone truly feared. He was believed by some to be a demon.
which explains
"you could never work well with our group
not with the faults we found
so we fixed you with cement galoshes
and no one can save you now...
we'll still find somebody to be everything that you'll never be.."
anywho, this is a great song, really grew on me. it's obviously partially about the Taking Back Sunday/YFW/Deja days, with its references to "the sister," "cosmonaut," "you could never work well with our group," etc. and obviously about luca brasi from the godfather...i think of it more as an analogy than what the song is really about. i think jesse felt like luca brasi with the TBS rivalry and all that.
also: scared the hell out of me when the end part came on. i remember thinking "this is brand new, they're gonna start screaming," but i was still terrified when it happened.
excuse me
But does anyone else agree with me about the chorus?
"So touch me or not
Just let me know
Where you been"
Sounds to me like it has something to do with sleeping with someone that you don't know very well.
??????????
"You could never work well with our group
Not with flaws we found
So we've fixed you with cement galoshes
And no one can save you now
Even if you have friends among fish
There will still be no air to breath
You could drink up the entire ocean
But we'll still find someone to be everything we know that you will never be."
It's a solid verse and all makes sense.
i think some people are looking into it too much, people who say the cement is about luca brasi, they're wrong. luca brasi was strangled and never seen again. then we hear the line 'luca brasi sleeps with the fishes' and thats it. he's not dropped in any ocean or anything like that.
this song is basically about a girl like a lot of brand new songs.
although the godfather theme seems to work it's only because people are making it work for them.
never the less all the interpretations i have read on here have entertained and made me see the song in a better way for myself.
good song