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Under my love
Wake up to your window
The day calls in billows
It's echoing moonlight on to the blue nightmare of your heart
In cosy red rainbow
It's shaking off halos
And the memory of our sacred so and so's
Oh take my hand sweet
Complete your release and bury your feet
And married we'll be
Alone in receiving ours is a feeling not that they would see
They don't know that we could be
That way your cradle escaped the sea
?
Were laying in the shadow of your family tree
Your haunted heart and me
Brought down by an old idea whose time has come
And in the shadow of the gallows of your family tree
There's a hundred hearts soar free
Pumping blood to the roots of evil to keep it young
I'll be your mind
Is it safe to say that we've waited patiently
Call me on time
And well go over to nanas place disgracefully
Fall into line
There's the garden grave and a place they've saved for you
I'll fall by your side
?
Were laying in the shadow of your family tree
Your haunted heart and me
Brought down by an old idea whose time has come
And in the shadow of the gallows of your family tree
There's a hundred hearts soar free
Pumping blood to the roots of evil to keep it young
And now we'll gather in the shadow of your family tree
In haunted harmony
Brought down by an old idea whose time has come
And in the shadow of the valley of your family tree
There's a hundred hearts soar free
Pumping blood to the roots of evil to keep us young
Wake up to your window
The day calls in billows
It's echoing moonlight on to the blue nightmare of your heart
In cosy red rainbow
It's shaking off halos
And the memory of our sacred so and so's
Oh take my hand sweet
Complete your release and bury your feet
And married we'll be
Alone in receiving ours is a feeling not that they would see
They don't know that we could be
That way your cradle escaped the sea
?
Were laying in the shadow of your family tree
Your haunted heart and me
Brought down by an old idea whose time has come
And in the shadow of the gallows of your family tree
There's a hundred hearts soar free
Pumping blood to the roots of evil to keep it young
I'll be your mind
Is it safe to say that we've waited patiently
Call me on time
And well go over to nanas place disgracefully
Fall into line
There's the garden grave and a place they've saved for you
I'll fall by your side
?
Were laying in the shadow of your family tree
Your haunted heart and me
Brought down by an old idea whose time has come
And in the shadow of the gallows of your family tree
There's a hundred hearts soar free
Pumping blood to the roots of evil to keep it young
And now we'll gather in the shadow of your family tree
In haunted harmony
Brought down by an old idea whose time has come
And in the shadow of the valley of your family tree
There's a hundred hearts soar free
Pumping blood to the roots of evil to keep us young
Lyrics submitted by Crab Botherer
Track duration: 05:34
"Family Tree" as written by Kyp Malone David Sitek
Lyrics © CHRYSALIS MUSIC GROUP
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Picture the family tree as not a literal family tree but the history of relationships that a person carries around with them. The Silver-haired mama is actually an inner-voice that nay says your present relationship because it is too familiar with the pain your past ones cause. Our sacred "so-and-so's" are the lovers in the past that we can't get over.
This interpretation changes the "Take my hand, complete your release, unbury your feet, married we'll be" line to mean a release/unburying from your doubts about marrying the other person even though you know your doubting self to be simply pessimism.
Your haunted heart is one tortured with having to overturn years of your own, personal experience in failed relationships to decide to marry another.
The protagonist in this believes that the idea that all relationships eventually end in pain is an old, out-dated idea considering their present love, yet the memories of the past hearts, be them 100 or 3, is "pumping blood to the roots of evil to keep them young."
I'm not doubting the song isn't written to mean the other interpretation, but it's just a thought.
Here are the lyrics as printed on the record's gatefold cover
Anda, My love
Wake up to your window.
The day calls in billows.
It's echoing moonlight onto the blue night.
Mare of your heart.
In cozy red rainbows
It's sharking off hallows
And the memory of our sacred so and so.
Oh take my hand sweet.
Complete your release.
Unbury your feet.
And married we'll be.
Alone in receiving. Ours is a feeling.
Not that they would see.
They don't know that we could be.
Down where your cradle escaped the sea
And your raven haired mama. Caught told you-so's.
We're hanging in the shadow of your family tree.
Your haunted heart and me.
Brought down by an old idea whose time has come.
And in the shadow of the gallows of your family tree.
There's a hundred hearts or three.
Pumping blood to the roots of evil to keep them young.
Ah me all mine.
Is it safe to say that we've waited patiently?
Call me on time.
And recall the tune that has placed us gracefully
all into line.
There's a garden grave and a place there saved for me.
I fall by your side
though your silver haired mama throws told you-so's.
We're hanging in the shadow of your family tree.
Your haunted heart and me.
Brought down by an old idea whose time has come.
And in the shadow of the valley of your family tree.
There's a hundred hearts or three.
Pumping blood to the roots of Eden to keep us young.
The perfect words for this theme were written by Alfonsina Storni: "peso ancestral" (literal translation: ancestral weight). It seems that these two lovers are being bogged down by the weight of their families' (or society's) ways, customs, or taboos. Although we cannot precisely identify the correct context for the song, we can imagine the various scenarios where such beautiful love can be stifled by tradition.
the civil war happens and ends
the woman dies in child birth
the man returns her body to her family to be buried in their family grave
the family kills the man and the child
Romeo + Juliet
AVC: "Family Tree" seems particularly poignant. What inspired that song?
TA: I've been in situations, and known people in situations, where someone's pure affection was unfortunately affected by outside sources. The terrain of a person's heart really isn't under the jurisdiction of anybody but that person, and in that song, it's an older generation condemning a relationship between two people for reasons that they probably had to deal with when they were younger. Like, "Well, when I was your age, I fell in love with so-and-so, and that was nothing but hell for me…" The "old idea" in the lyrics is bigotry, which could relate to race, to gender, to sexuality… People have their reasons for doing that, but it makes for such a waste of what could be a really short life.