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Sleep don't visit, so I choke on sun
And the days blur into one
And the backs of my eyes hum with things I've never done
Sheets are swaying from an old clothesline
Like a row of captured ghosts over old dead grass
Was never much but we made the most
Welcome home
Ships are launching from my chest
Some have names but most do not
If you find one, please let me know what piece I've lost
Peel the scars from off my back
I don't need them anymore
You can throw them out or keep them in your mason jars
I've come home
All my nightmares escaped my head
Bar the door, please don't let them in
You were never supposed to leave
Now my head's splitting at the seams
And I don't know if I can
Here, beneath my lungs, I feel your thumbs press into my skin again
And the days blur into one
And the backs of my eyes hum with things I've never done
Sheets are swaying from an old clothesline
Like a row of captured ghosts over old dead grass
Was never much but we made the most
Welcome home
Ships are launching from my chest
Some have names but most do not
If you find one, please let me know what piece I've lost
Peel the scars from off my back
I don't need them anymore
You can throw them out or keep them in your mason jars
I've come home
All my nightmares escaped my head
Bar the door, please don't let them in
You were never supposed to leave
Now my head's splitting at the seams
And I don't know if I can
Here, beneath my lungs, I feel your thumbs press into my skin again
Lyrics submitted by Mechanical Bird
Track duration: 04:45
"Welcome Home" as written by Benjamin P Cooper
Lyrics © THE BICYCLE MUSIC COMPANY
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Did anyone else get that impression?
The next verse makes it even more direct, with the recognition of loss and a lament that so much has disappeared that he can't even remember or identify all of the missing elements from this "home" he's trapped himself in. Then follows a verse showing that he's also not dwelling in bitterness, although he acknowledges his regrets ("I don't need them any more/You can throw them out or keep them"). This section closes with "I've come home," an echo of the earlier idea, but this time it's aspirational, as the singer's now openly longing for a return to earlier circumstances ("home").
The last verse ("All my nightmares") summarizes the conflict felt by the singer: his life has totally fallen apart around him; "home" has been corrupted, aged and split into pieces; he's wracked with regret. The song ends with him naming the linchpin of his loss ("you were never supposed to leave") and recognizes his agency in his own fate while reiterating that this where he's stuck ("I don't know if I can [leave]").
Essentially the song is from the perspective of someone who stayed behind when he should have gone on to something else, his regrets about what might have been now that it's too late to claim that other fate, and the pain of trying to hold onto another life after the things that made it work have gone. It makes a lot of sense if you know that it's performed by a guy who was a semi-professional skateboarder who suffered a back injury so bad he can't lift heavy objects without hospitalizing himself and has spent most of his musical career living in his parents' home; even those it's not an accusatory song, it's all about abandonment and regret, even down to the images evoked (ghosts, abandoned laundry, nameless ships, scars).
I love you Leigh.
X
I feel his mind is at peace and ironically he is finally realizing the beauty and meaningfulness his life once was. He is apathetic he has no more worries just memories of a life that once was.
I only recently discovered this song and I immediately thought of this interpretation, maybe because it relates to my own life as I am currently working really hard to heal myself after living for years with severe depression and a huge inferiortiy complex. I think the lines which really make this song meaningful for me are:
Peel the scars from off my back
I dont need them anymore
You can throw them out or keep them in your mason jars
I've come home
When I heard those lines I couldn't stop the tears because they meant so much to me - for me that line is expressing the feelings of freedom you can get when you realise that all the old wounds that were hurting you and causing you negativity can be shaken off, and it is no concern of yours what is done with them because they have no bearing on your current state of mind. I guess in a nutshell that is the feeling you get when you realise that you are able to move on from something that has been such a negative force in your life for so long.
I also really related to the line "And the backs of my eyes hum with things I've never done" - for me positivity is about how you see the world, and as the back of your eyes contain the retina, which gives you vision, this line made me think of your retina "humming" with activity as you are able to see the world in a new way.
In short I don't think any interpretation of this song is any more valid than the other, I think lyrics are meant to speak to people in different ways...you take what you can from them I suppose. I think any songwriter would be happy if their lyrics were able to help someone in any way - regardless of what the listener took from them. This is such a gorgeous song - I'm SO glad I found it when I did!
Reading the earlier interpretations tells me that this is the key sentence. For me the meaning of the song is much more general, than leaving a house and going back, or thinking of it. Leaving means leaving everything, and it still not happened: before leaving everything, we look for our memories. People are really not thinking of being at the end of their way. They never suppose to leave. And I think this is good. You can not always be thinking of death, but it is neither bad to remind you to it sometimes. That makes this song so powerful.
Welcome home - means that you arrived, at the end of your way, you have no target to reach.
Sleep don’t visit, so I choke on sun
And the days blur into one
And the backs of my eyes hum with things I’ve never done
First part of the first sentence refers to the final sleep I think, second part tells that it is nothing but uncomfortable to BE. If you think it is bullshit what I am writing, go on reading. Second line tells that every day is the same, there is nothing that made them different, you have nothing to do. Like those minutes after arriving home at the end of a day: having nothing to do, you look back to the things you have done that day [instead of watching TV or surfing net until you fall asleep, looking back is more useful]. The time blurs, you are thinking of your day. At the end of your life you look back to your life, current days blur into one - not those days are the important ones. Back of your eyes: your head, your mind. It hums with things you never done: I am 30, but I am sure that the things, I have never done (but I ought to do) in my life would be those, that I would be thinking of the most, when I am going to be at the end of my life. Therefore it is the first kind of memory, that the song mentions. Then come the other things that you experienced in your life. Just go on reading.
Sheets are swaying from an old clothesline
Like a row of captured ghosts over old dead grass
Was never much but we made the most
Clothesline is the time axis of your life. Sheets are your memories, "swaying" expresses very well how they appear in your mind. Calling the sheets ghosts only tells that they are really only memories in your head, nothing more. Old dead grass is the surrounding, those things that still physically exist and can be connected to your memories. These things exist, but they do not have the meaning, that they had in the past. Therefore they are dead from your point of view. This emphasizes that the only thing you have and you find important are your memories. In the last sentence I think there is nothing to explain - you do the most in your life. It is very nice that "most" is practically used as a noun
Welcome home
[my first time to cry when listening to the song]
Ships are launching from my chest
Some have names but most do not
If you find one, please let me know what piece I've lost
Ships represent your memories as well, they are leaving you. Nice to use chest, makes the picture powerful. Some memories can be connected to objects, places, persons, whatever. They have names. Others are general things, things that if you know, other people call you wise. They are all leaving you. Of course, you do not want to loose your memories, the only hope is that other people remind you.
Peel the scars from off my back
I don't need them anymore
You can throw them out or keep them in your mason jars
You have wounds, you collect them in your life. Other people hurt you, or you just loose things and it hurts you. But when you are the end of your life, you have nothing in front of you, you feel peace. The scars are not important any more: you can peel them off: they cause no pain, peeling them off causes no pain. The last line makes this complete: what you throw out is what you are over. What you keep in a mason jar is also peeled off, you set these apart from you, they do not hurt you any more. But they are so deep, that you will never forget them until you actually die.
I've come home
Notice: not welcome home, I come home. You arrived at the end of the way - wow, it is tough. It is also important, that this was the last point where he mentioned "home". Until this point I feel accepting the situation. The last part of the song has different approach a bit! In the other hand, the reason for leaving out "home" is not that the song does not contain the refrain any more: the melody is repeated in the last part of the song, with different text!
All my nightmares escaped my head
things that you have been afraid of. You are not afraid of them any more.
Bar the door, please don't let them in
maybe there are some that you are still afraid, and they may come back... They are so strong, that it is not enough to just simply lock the door and they keep out, you have to bar the door. (indirect proof: lock would also work instead of bar) I think this fear is dying. The next sentence is in line with this idea.
You were never supposed to leave
Leaving means dying. Normally you never think of it, you only fear it, but you set it aside. When you feel that your life is close to it’s end, death is the only fear that you have. Notice, that until this point he was talking about himself (I, my), he was turning inside. This here is a general "you". When he is using "you" in the song, he tells something that he considers generally true, just look for the above you-s.
Now my head's splitting at the seams
again, he is talking about loosing what he has in his head. I find this very beautiful: seams on your head are not artificial! These are the natural seams / by God made seams (depending from what you think) that are now splitting by nature / God. Of course, still it is a metaphor of forgetting!
And I don't know if I can
this sentence is obviously not complete. Can do what? I think this verifies my understanding: he does not feel to be strong enough to what comes: death. Every normal person is afraid of one’s own death, and prefers not saying a word about it, not even thinking about it. Until first time he feels it so close.
Here, beneath my lungs, I feel your thumbs press into my skin again
To my understanding beneath the lungs you find the heart...
I think it is a masterpiece
Check the video on youtube. Look the many things around, in the garden, on the shelves, in the rooms of the house: how old and for several years untouched they are. They also represent the memories. The side, sometimes the center of the picture is blurred, representing the "launching ships".
I do not think that those who understand the songlike this should be sad. "Splitting at the seams" comes sooner or later. Therefore I think the best is to consider this song as a warning: collect as many memories, as possible, and shrink the number of "things you’ve never done" as much, as possible.
"Sleep don't visit, so I choke on sun
And the days blur into one
And the backs of my eyes hum with things I've never done"
This is quite honestly the only verse in the song that I have a problem with making sense of, but as far as I can see, he is talking about just arriving at his old home, where he grew up. He can't manage to get to sleep because he's spending all his visit thinking about the memories he has of this place. "And the days blur into one" is quite obviously about his memories, all blurring into one. Never to return to again. "And the backs of my eyes" is probably referencing his brain, remembering things that he did or did not experience.
"Sheets are swaying from an old clothesline
Like a row of captured ghosts over old dead grass
Was never much but we made the most
Welcome home"
Of course signifying specific memories he had of his old home. Clarifying his family's old struggles not with disdain, but optimism. They didn't have much, but they did what they could.
"Ships are launching from my chest
Some have names but most do not
If you find one, please let me know what piece I've lost"
This is about relationSHIPS, with "launching from my chest" meaning his heart. Some of them were lasting, some of them he loved, but most of them were just passing flings. The last line of the stanza I believe is him saying he wants to know how these relationships all failed. It's not that he wants them back, he just doesn't fully understand how/what happens to people to make them sever ties. I don't fully believe this is about people he dated, but moreso relationships in general, including friendships.
"Heal the scars from off my back
I don't need them anymore
You can throw them out or keep them in your mason jars
I've come home"
Him telling of his past harmful experiences, those behind him. He's done fretting about them, they're not important anymore. He's in a place comfortable to him, where he is protected from his "mental" scars, or they are at LEAST kept at bay while he is here, Home.
"All my nightmares escaped my head
Bar the door, please don't let them in
You were never supposed to leave
Now my head's splitting at the seams
And I don't know if I can"
This stanza I believe both emphasizes the last one, and clarifies why exactly he came back. Clearly, he lost someone dear to him, most likely a parent, as the "you" he is referencing in this song is most definitely either his mother or father. He is struggling dealing with his loss.
"Here, beneath my lungs, I feel your thumbs press into my skin again"
This seems to be the line that everyone has the most trouble with, but as soon as I heard it the first time, I immediately knew what he was talking about. When a parent picks up their child, where do they grab them? From beneath the lungs. Their thumbs press into them.
He is obviously looking back with fondness to his former life. Being home, secure, at peace. He's never surprised when someone lets him down, but he has a place to fall back on when it's too much for him to handle.
The first bit is looking back on the forced leaving, the reuniting and the healing.
"All my nightmares escaped my head
Bar the door, please don't let them in
You were never supposed to leave
Now my head's splitting at the seams
And I don't know if I "
This verse is the pain and beauty of reuniting.
And the last line "Here, beneath my lungs, I feel your thumbs press into my skin again" is having that child inside again.
The forced leaving and the frightened coming home. The last line
What this song means to me is that you shouldn't focus on negative things. You shouldn't live in the past. I mean, sure, something might have left a few "scars", but they fall off eventually! Instead of being all negative, you should remember the better things, and find the good in what happened. To me, I think he used to be very stand-off-ish because of something that happened to him in his past. In the song, though, it's basically saying how he decided to finally let go of them and move on. And the thing about "scars" is, you basically chose whether to have them or not. If you never let them go, and always dwell on them in a way, they won't heal; they'll only leave and ugly scar on you. But if you treat it before it becomes worse, and if you don't make a big deal out of it, it will soon heal correctly and fall off.
So the guy is saying, do what you will with what once was, I don;t care; It's over. Done. And when they say "Welcome Home", they mean, the old you has returned, so I guess they mean it figuratively, but he describes his home so it seems like they mean it in a literal sense. But it just means, you weren't the same after what had happened, but you let it go and only remember the good things that happened to you. The cheerful, happy memories. So the person you really, truly are is finally back. After some soul searching, you've returned.
Welcome home.