Someday my pain, someday my pain
Will mark you
Harness your blame, harness your blame
And walk through

With the wild wolves around you
In the morning, I'll call you
Send it farther on

Solace my game, solace my game
It stars you
Swing wide your crane, swing wide your crane
And run me through

And the story's all over you
In the morning i'll call you
Can't you find a clue when your eyes are all painted Sinatra blue

What might have been lost -
Don't bother me



Lyrics submitted by J.Diddy

Track duration: 05:22


The Wolves (Act I and II) song meanings
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48 Comments

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  • 0
    Link(s):I don't know if that link has been posted yet, but this is probably the best live performance of all time:

    youtube.com/…
    Flag WayToBlueon April 26, 2013   Link
  • +2
    General Comment:the falsetto "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAh aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh" during the climax is the single most glorious moment of the entire album.
    Flag Crane42on February 12, 2012   Link
  • +2
    General Comment:Justin Vernon stated in an interview that the end percussions are meant to sound like fireworks.

    This is a very healing song, allowing for a sort of celebration of acceptance of the pain and love lost that he sings about earlier.
    Flag persephonesgrinon January 31, 2012   Link
  • +3
    General Comment:My interpretation goes like this: “Someday, what you did to me will happen to you. Go ahead and blame me for everything if that works for you, if that clears your conscience. When your day comes I’ll be there to see it happen and I take comfort in that fact. So go ahead and finish tearing me down. I know you, I know your deal. And I will be there when you fall. You can’t see the fact that nobody else can take care of you like I can. And when you finally do realize it, when you start to wonder about what we could’ve had, don’t come around. I won’t have anything to do with you.”
    Flagged jjjax3on September 30, 2011   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation:To me this is definitely about a relationship gone sour. I think the song, as its title suggests, is broken into two parts. Difficult to tell, but the more I look at it, the more I think every verse goes back and forth. It seems like the woman was pretty terrible to the man. At first, the man says, Someday my pain, will mark you. I think it means that the woman may think she's fine now after the relationship, but someday in the future she'll realize how much she hurt someone who loved her and she'll have to carry that with her forever. I think the next part is possibly a response by the woman, telling him to stop blaming her and to just get over it.

    The next part says, "with the wild wolves around you." I think it describes a person who has unexpectedly gotten in over their head. Probably describing the man who entered into a relationship with the best of intentions and expectations, but was suddenly surrounded by this woman who devoured him with no regard to him as a person. So I think the man responds, that after the relationship ends, he, in a serious sarcastic way, says he'll call her and tell her that she can just go ahead and do the same thing to someone else.

    When he sings, "solace my game" I think it is the woman admitting that this sort of game she plays where she destroys mens' hearts brings her comfort, and at the moment, he's in the center of it. Then, this lyric is my favorite because of its power and terror, he sings, "swing wide your crane, swing wide your crane, and run me through." To me, the man is saying that if she's really going to destroy him, his heart, his soul, that she'd better just destroy it all. She should break him as hard as she possibly can (maybe so that she'll also destroy any love he ever had for her).

    The next part I am not sure of. But it seems like the woman is saying that he is now enveloped in this situation and this relationship even though it has ended. And she's saying that she'll still try to call him in the morning and reconcile and repair the relationship, most likely so she can destroy it again soon. And the man responds with, "Can't you find a clue when your eyes are all painted Sinatra blue." Several people have said that Sinatra could refer to her naive view of love, but I think others are right when they say that the color of Frank Sinatra's eyes closely resemble the color eyes turn when they go blind. And I think he's telling the woman that he's not an idiot, and that she must be blind if she thinks he's not hurt enough to never return to her.

    And I think the last words are spoken by the man. He believes that while he did love her, maybe even still, and wanted desperately to be with her, that none of it is worth it anymore. He realizes that a future with her is hell. So while he's hurt and maybe regrets parts of the relationship, he says whatever future life I might have just lost, it doesn't bother me.

    Then the wonderful, emotional, angry bliss of music at the end I think well interprets the whole relationship. It's just an overwhelming of emotion and noise and you can't even think straight, you're just in the moment, listening to your soul scream.


    Well, anyway that's just how I would interpret it.
    Flag EatenbyWolveson September 02, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think the use of the word Sinatra has to do with his innocent music. Her eyes are "painted" blue because the emotions she's feeling may look happy on the surface but she's really feeling extreme pain
    Flag minimaughan112on May 06, 2011   Link
  • 0
    Song Meaning:Oh, and whilst I'm here bashing my gums of what this song (or those final lyrics) mean to me, I feel I should really add, the song can mean whatever it does to you. I think Justin writes with that intention to be fair. I have seen some brilliant interpretations of this song on this website in just 5 minutes and it's blatently obvious when people write what they think the song means when Justin wrote it, actually means more about what it means to them and how they hear it :) Beautiful. Not alot of songs can do that. Alot of songs have clear, obvious lyrics. All of Justin's songs allow interpretation and for it to mean something different to each inidividual that hears it. That is rare.
    Flag Balloonaticon February 04, 2011   Link
  • 0
    Song Meaning:The final lyrics "What might have been lost" and "Don't bother me" seem to me as meaning "What might have been lost, don't bother me anymore" what his true meaning of that actually is; loss of relationship, his future, is unknown. However I really believe it's about it not bothering him now. Infact I think the whole song leading up to the end is about whatever it was in the past not bothering him now, as you can't dwell on the past forever. Especially when he says at the beggining that he hopes that his pain marks whoever caused it in the future, indicative that he is moving on, and it don't bother him now. I really love these two lyrics, they are the most poweful lyrics I've ever heared. I intend to get a tattoo of them, because quite frankly - What might have been lost to me, don't bother me now.

    Flag Balloonaticon February 04, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:The CD includes a booklet of all the lyrics and it is in fact "Sinatra", not "so natural".
    Flag mbv802on November 12, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I personally think that it is
    so natural blue
    rather than
    Sinatra blue

    it would just make more sense that way.
    why on earth would he mention Frank Sinatra, there is no other reference to him in the song except for there. I don't think he would just randomly mention him like that.
    Flagged shrimpykingon November 04, 2010   Link

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