It was bothering me that this song, one of my all time favorite AC songs, was not on the lyrics list.

I understand there are a bunch of holes and a lot of the lyrics are just what I'm hearing from repeated listens on high volume (and perhaps an active imagination).

If anyone has more insight into the lyrical content, let me know and I'll correct.

Thanks!

As for interpretation:

There's too much lyrical content to reference here, so I'll give you a general idea. I believe it is about a man who has visions of his baby being born. The baby is Alvin Row. He imagines the baby growing up and eventually dying (fading). He wonders if the visions are real.

Now here's the tricky part.. is the baby real? He talks about "baby bleeding" (bloody from birth) followed by the screaming that would definitely relate to birth... or is it mourning? Reaching for the lampshade could signify the father is kept up by visions of his baby dying (bleeding). I can't say which one is correct... but if the baby really is born then the ending is the father finally saying goodbye to his Alvin. Eventually he will "sing Row, dear Alvin" or in other words, he will sing the song "Alvin Row" about it.

Now the section starting with "I remember the day..." is a very hard section to digests because a) the lyrics are very strange and hard to decipher and b) it doesn't seem to fit with the story. Perhaps the father is remembering his own childhood (chocolate shakes, ice cream man's bell). The rest is too cryptic for me, not to mention I could have the lyrics all wrong. Either way I think I should at least give my impression. Maybe a better understanding will be presented later.

yesss i've been working on these lyrics on my other computer. i'll post when i get back home.

ok here is what i transcribed so far:


baby love me now that you are born
"oh, a baby!"

baby in your cradle look at me
baby speaking rhythms now you're free
ride your german shepard till you're five
baby think the tv is alive
baby spend the night out you're thirteen
bending for a wish your candles leave
baby bang erasers and wash the board
think just yesterday you wore a sword
watch your new years evening wash away
you're on the floor
can you hear me troubadour?

alvin row
tangled in your broken kite
it's hard to be ben franklin but
(?)
accustomed to the rest you're still the child

i'll never recollect to see
that you can't fake it
white (?) in every size
but you can't take the gifts
but your wardrobe suits you fine
alvin all these visions of mine
let them do your make up, i know

alvin row
half of them are on your side
they are the figments of
(?)
my mind is not unkind it's just not open

i remember i watched a man crying his weird chant
run back there, we'll let you be
until you're famous

tired of reaching for the lampshade
baby reading
baby love me
ahh!

i told the baker's daughter
that i didn't want their water
she only likes it when i pray
so i expect she's waiting
i told the baker's daughter
that i didn't want their water
she only likes it when i beg
so i expect she's waiting on
alvin row
alvin row
alvin row
oh alvin...

i remember the day that i walked away from the city's edge
cars are demons and radio runs when there's nothing on
words slip by when i'm silent i have to let so many people down
but the bell from the ice cream man comes to save the day
winter comes, we do no wrong, and i dream of
the chocolate shakes, the sun awakes, the painting of
the autumn clouds distort and cry to (?)
up pull the glass, a trip too fast for (?)

so slip past through the maze as we hop up on the stage of the (?)
i remember the shining, the spotlight, the day she played
though i never knew (?) except nobody knows this part's like mine
take a drive to the jackson performance to see and pretend
well a new apartment and a heart don't make me old
despite a rage i am a page and i've been torn
well i'm walking on a rail with eight other eyes
so be sure and pick the best of you eight other sides

when i stay shy, you stay shy, dear alvin
when i say bye, you say bye, dear alvin
when i say go, you say go, dear alvin
when i say no, you say no, dear alvin

well that's funny, my voice didn't come back to me
i'll try it again
hello? hello?
oh my goodness, now my singing voice is gone!

based on the lyrics i posted (which are only partially correct):

the beginning is about alvin row growing up, trying to become successful but failing. someone is trying to tell him not to give up and waste away, he still has a chance.

This song is absolutely amazing. Where did Animal Collective drift off and stop doing tribal songs? (I admit, some of them are very good, and all of them are creative, just not as satisfying.)

When the storming piano comes in after "Love me!" I get chills... this is an extremely epic song. The synth is done perfectly to add to this unusual poppy treatment from Animal Collective.

i think this song is about growing up

"Watch your New Years evening wash away
You're on the floor
Can you hear me troubadour?"

possibley a youing girls experimentation with drugs.. or at least thats how i relate to it

then i think the song slowly morphs into something else, i do that sometimes when im writing, i start on one topic or emotion and end up somewhere totoally different but it shows thought process so i like it

the end gets cloudy for me in reason

well i've always related this song to a relationship i had, how i got her to come out of her shell, and we were happy for awhile, and she just took all the good bits away, and plodded away off to college in boston. and now she won't even talk to me. fuck.

I absolutely love this song, it's just so epic...

but my interpretation was that it was about an aging father that is close to death (tired of reaching for the lampshade), and is remembering his son/daughter's (Alvin Row's) life, and how they've grown up, starting from birth, and what role he's played in that. He also relates it to his childhood, bridging (or trying to, in his failing health) the gap between a relationship that I think had faded. Or something like that...

heyheyhey111
what are you talking about?
this is from thier first album
well
their first relase realse
its way way way before here comes the indian or anything else
2nd ac has always had tons of pop in every album even duirng the time they toured with black diece and were noise influenced.

dongdong - I never said it wasn't from their first album. What are YOU talking about?

Although, I guess the tribal sound really influenced their best album -- Feels -- so that path they took wasn't really bad in the end, eh?

this song makes me want to cry

it's so pure

I may be wrong but to me it sounds like this song is in the dad's point of view and his son/daughter has died due to a drug accident on New Years
"Watch your New Years evening wash away
youre on the floor
can you hear me troubadour"

I belive the music in the backround represents the dad's state of mind because in the begining it is staticy and hard to listen too almost.

Then he starts talking about Alvin and the music becomes more calm and stable

Until after Alvin dies at New Years Eve? after that the music becomes sparatic again

Then at the end i think he can't take all these thoughts of his lost son/daughter so he commits suicide
"Would slip by when I'm silent but i have to let so many people down"

i know it all may be wrong but thats what the song means to me and reminds me of

I may be wrong but to me it sounds like this song is in the dad's point of view and his son/daughter has died due to a drug accident on New Years
"Watch your New Years evening wash away
youre on the floor
can you hear me troubadour"

I belive the music in the backround represents the dad's state of mind because in the begining it is staticy and hard to listen too almost.

Then he starts talking about Alvin and the music becomes more calm and stable

Until after Alvin dies at New Years Eve? after that the music becomes sparatic again

Then at the end i think he can't take all these thoughts of his lost son/daughter so he commits suicide
"Would slip by when I'm silent but i have to let so many people down"

i know it all may be wrong but thats what the song means to me and reminds me of

This song is truly epic. I showed this to my friend from the navy in our last moments together before he left for Afghanistan. He noted that was perfect "Goodbye Arizona" music. I love AC, all of their music is so pure and alive.

"She only likes it when I beg, so I expect she's waiting."

A great, underrated lyric.

Forever this song

So good I named my band after it!

As for the lyrics, I think maybe some of you are trying to take these lyrics a little too literally? Avey's early lyrics were always very metaphorical and it takes a lot before they even come together to one meaning. Hell, his lyrics up until quite recently have been very abstract- look at his songs on Sung Tongs and a lot of them are even stranger than this.

I mean, we don't have Avey on here so none of us really know what it's about, but here's some ideas I've come up with about the song:

-for one, I really don't think Alvin Row is literally about a baby. It makes a lot of the lyrics about being old and dying a little difficult. I think if Alvin even is a character- which might be a stretch itself- then Avey is maybe trying to describe a person's entire life through the medium of them being a baby.

-secondly, the song doesn't even cover one lifetime. The references are often ancient or historical (just yesterday you wore a sword, it's hard to be Ben Franklin). Considering a lot of these are in the past, then we could consider that he's using the past in a very exaggerated way. If that's true, then Alvin isn't even a person- he could be a nation or empire, which would make the personal references like "new year's evening" interesting- in that case he's either describing a nation in terms of personal landmarks or a person in terms of national ones.

-thirdly, I don't think Alvin is even the same character throughout the story. Sometimes he seems like the narrater's son (baby in your cradle, look at me), next the narrater's lover (baby love me), next a friend, next a lost one (I remember the day that I walked away). I think these ambiguities really emphasise that fact that Alvin represents something rather than actually exists as any person in the song.

So overall, the song doesn't really adhere to any strict plot or timeline: Alvin isn't one age, he doesn't exist in any one lifetime, and he doesn't even exist as one person. Which I suppose means that Alvin represents some kind of influence, or factor, in Avey's life- or anyone's, really.

I couldn't possibly guess what that is, but although it seems a cop-out to say "it's drugs!", this song was written right at the time Avey was on a cocktail of different drugs and some of the lyrics seem to fit that interpretation (Watch your new years evening wash away/alvin all these visions are mine/they are figments of your mind/I remember I watched a man crying his weird chant/she only likes it when i beg so i expect she's waiting/words slip by when i'm silent i have to let so many people down) which imply a combination of hallucinogenics, addiction and guilt.

But at the same time, all the ancient references seem to point towards Alvin being something far more ancient and long-standing, which complicates things a bit. Maybe Alvin represents the Muses, which were both known to create hallucinations and inspire, and were certainly ancient. Well, it's an idea, at least.

What do you guys think?

I think that this song is the perfect culmination of everything that Spirit is about. The whole album deals with the themes that are found in this song, such as childhood and growing up, and both have a dark undercurrent. It seems to be about the expectations that parents have on their children "Baby love me now that you are born" and how the relationship changes as time goes by and aging happens. Eventually the child needs to escape the shadow of it's parents like any adolescent in order to mature and learn to stand on it's own two feet. It seems like the lyrics "ruuuuuuuuuuunnnnnn!" and "Row, Alvin Row, Alvin Row, Alvin Row, Row Alvin" (it sounds like Alvin's last name has now become a verb) are almost shouts of advice from the Avey to Alvin. And the end seems to be reflection on and nostalgia for the much simpler life that childhood provided. At least that's my take.