Lyrics for Night Windows as interpreted by ConsciousPilot

Night Windows Lyrics
in the stick count for the song
with knowing you’re gone
glancing up at where you lived
when you lived here

i see you suddenly alive
and nearly smiling
i stop and hold my breath
and watch the way you used to be

the full moon makes
our faces shine
like over-ironed polyester

then disappears behind the clouds
and leaves me under empty rows
of night windows

we could walk to where these streets
get pulled together
blinking, lined with gravel
shoulder squared towards an end

where the radio resounds
from doppling traffic
where the power lines
steal esses from the hourly news

de-pluralize our casualties
drown the generals out in static
we turn and watch our city sprawl
and send us signals in the glow
of night windows
night windows

(but you’re not coming home again
and i won’t ever get to say)

remember how
i’m sorry that
i miss the way
could we

night windows

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ConsciousPilot
10-24-2006

Rated 0 
i tried my best to decipher these lyrics from a live version of the song that i have. if you see anything you think is wrong, please let me know and i'll fix it. this song is amazing, can't wait to hear more new weakerthans

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gazelle
12-15-2006

Rated 0 
I think you did a good Job on this One. I´ve only heard the Live Version from the Glen Gould Studio and it´s breathtaking. I hope they come out with a new album sometime in 2007 !

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ConsciousPilot
12-28-2006

Rated 0 
there's a great version of this song and another new weakerthans track called "Sun in an Empty room" that can be found here:
http://ashinynewmachine.wordpress.com/2006/10/25/live-versions-of-new-weakerthans-songs/

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leahleahleahleah
03-30-2007

Rated 0 
This song is really good. I like the line "remember how I'm sorry that I miss the way it could be"
I think this song is about someone moving away, and then looking back on the city where they used to live, and realizing that life is going on for most people the way it was.

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SenatorAtoms
08-02-2007

Rated 0 
Like a lot of Weakerthan songs, I think this leaves a lot open for interpretation. It could be about a former lover, maybe a friend who's moved away. But I think it's about losing a friend in war.

It's really great imagery. Our protagonist is walking down the street (a common theme with the Weakerthans) and sees his dead friends house. He thinks about "the way things used to be."

Walking that same street with the friend. He sees the powerlines and thinks about the news, and how The generals are depluralizing the casualties, words (how the government is trying to make things sound better than they really are).

And then at the end he thinks about how his friend isn't coming home, and they'll never be able to walk down the street and say, "remember how..." or "i’m sorry that..." or "i miss the way it could be..."

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avengedsurvive
09-15-2007

Rated 0 
such a great song.

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kviii
10-09-2007

Rated 0 
Like "Sun in an Empty Room" off the same album, the title "Night Windows" is actually the name of an Edward Hopper painting (remember they lyric from "Hospital Vespers" off of Reconstruction Site --- "I brought books on Hopper and the arctic"?)

I'm curious as to whether other people think possibly that the dead person recalled in this song (that he sees "suddenly alive") could possibly be whoever is references in the (Manifest)(Hospital Vespers)(Past Due) sequence from Reconstruction site -- like the dead person is a recurring "character" in the same way that Virtute the cat is?

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kviii
10-09-2007

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I think it's also worth mentioning that this song furthers the theme of "reunions" throughout the album -- this one being an impossible reunion, that exists only in the narrator's imagination, and his longing for it.

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mr-numb
10-27-2007

Rated 0 
Just on an off-note, both 'sun in an empty room' and 'night window' are Edward Hopper paintings, just to put the songs into context

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pricillacox
12-07-2007

Rated 0 
The truly beautiful thing about this song is the imagery. Even though we have an image to accompany it (the Hopper painting), the lyrics themselves paint wonderful pictures. I also believe this song is about a close friend, probably from childhood, who has died in the war.

“In the stick count for the song / of knowing you’re gone.”

I believe the narrator is taking a night walk, missing his friend, and either listening to music, or creating one (this one in his head). Therefore the song becomes the song of “knowing you’re gone.”

“I see you suddenly alive / and nearly smiling. / I stop and hold my breath / and watch the way you used to be. / The full moon makes / our faces shine / like over-ironed polyester, / then disappears behind the clouds / and leaves me under empty rows / of night windows.”

I believe the moonlight creates a shadow in the window of his old home, which is not inhabited by others. He thinks for a second that it could be his friend, he could still be there, and he watches. However, when the light changes, it all goes away and he’s simply there beneath night windows.

“We could walk to where these streets / get pulled together, / blinking, lined with gravel / shoulder squared towards an end. / Where the radio resounds / from Doppling traffic, / where the power lines /steal esses from the hourly news.”

This is where the imagery gets really lovely. It also slides perfectly into the news, assuming that’s where he heard his friend died.

“De-pluralize our casualties, / drown the generals out in static. / We turn and watch our city sprawl / and send us signals in the glow / of night windows.”

I believe this is a contrast of the war to how they live. The information about the war gets lost in people’s daily lives, lights on at night.

“(But you’re not coming home again / and I won’t ever get to say…) / remember how… / I’m sorry that… / I miss the way… / could we…?”

A very sad end, admittance that the person is dead and little daily phrases won’t be able to be used anymore in conversation, just like night windows can never exist as a simple human thing. They are so much more than that.

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mkf3
12-13-2007

Rated 0 
John Samson (the lead singer) did say when i saw him in concert that he wrote those two songs about Edward Hopper paintings.

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mkf3
12-13-2007

Rated 0 
John Samson (the lead singer) did say when i saw him in concert that he wrote those two songs about Edward Hopper paintings.

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flawedifnotfreee
01-05-2008

Rated 0 
in the npr world cafe studio session "the weakerthan's: canadian content" Samson talks about the song, and Edward Hopper's influence on him, and how he wanted to do a whole album tribute but realized it would be pretty bad so stuch with Night Windows and Sun in an Empty Room. I recommend checking out the studio session, you can find it at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16921505 -- Samson's really open and heartfelt and it's hard not to fall in love with him listening to him talk about his music and the meaning.

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andygish
04-11-2008

Rated 0 
I am completely with Kviii here. I have noticed for years that there are so many references to illness, diagnosis, hospitals, nurses and losing someone. All the way from Fallow to the current album.

"the doctors play your dosage like a card trick" "tell the nurse to turn the tv back on". There are so many.

Yes, Sampson mentions the Hopper paintings at shows.. and who is to say but I do feel like the I feel like he is using the painting as a metaphor for someone who is no longer with him.

Has anyone heard his wife's music Christine Fellows? She has many similar references to hospitals and such. Both of their 'poetry' is just amazingly sweet and so well written.

That last line of NW is so moving. I guess that is why he sings it twice.

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brenlo
05-23-2008

Rated 0 
Just thought I'd share, I saw the Weakerthans in concert a couple months ago and before this song started John Samson said "This is a song for all the dead people in your life."

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pjc1190
07-08-2008

Rated 0 
this song breaks my heart.

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feaad
08-31-2009

Rated 0 
John Samson has said in a CBC interview that this was song was about a friend of his dying in the war, I believe in Afghanistan. It's a beautiful memorial for his friend. It's the soft, slow remembering as he mourns his friend even in the small things.

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subtlephilo
01-22-2010

Rated 0 
I attended a songwriter's forum with John Samson and his wife. According to him, he was inspired to write the song after going to an Edward Hopper exhibition. The song also talks about looking up into a window at night and thinking that you see someone that has died, only to realize that you can't be seeing them. A familiar feeling, for sure.

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