Wow.....love this song, beautiful.....I'm speechless...

This song seems to be about losing someone and there be nothing the narrator can do about it.


This song is great, I can tell though that since it isn't really that mainstreem kinda sound that it's going to be under appreciated.

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Oh I forgot to add in my last post that the line "The unknown distance to the gray beyond" is incorrect. It sounds more like "The unknown distance to the GREAT beyond."

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This song is so beautiful, and has an enchanting sound? I don't know if that is the right adjective, lol.
It's definitely about someone dying, and he doesn't want them to go..

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I believe in Rolling Stone, Brandon described the song as being about the death of his parents.

It's pretty obvious here. The first verse is clearly him standing above the grave, while in the rest of the song he observes the fact that life here on Earth is just flesh and bone, while the after life (that's GREAT beyond, not gray beyond) is so unknown (up above the world, so high).

The saddest part of the song, besides the dramatic "Goodnight", is the part where he says "everything I do..." etc. It's what really hurts about losing someone: the memories they leave behind and how they stay in your head.

^ No, it's not about the death of Brandon's parents. It's about Brandon's mother who has brain tumor and the death of Dave's mother.
The lyrics are so beautifully written. I'm sure it will be hard for them to play it live, especially for Brandon to sing.

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Hm well, this is pretty cool, and i think it is VERY different from anything the killers did before and i think is a good ending to an album that i found to be a very different thing from them. my first reaction to the album was that its very different from the other ones and sounded weird but i knew it would just take time to get used to, and it rocks ha

this is soooo different to the things they normally do.

this song is really explosions-in-the-sky-ish...
its really beautiful, its desperate really.

:(

it's a nice ending.

I love this song. It's very haunting with his voice and what sounds like a clock ticking in the background. The title "Goodnight, Travel Well" is just so eerie. I don't know how he could possibly perform this live when his mom is still sick. I get choked up everytime I hear him sing "Stay, don't leave me," I don't know how he could keep it together.

Also the lyric is not "Everybody's boxed in" it's "Everybody's watching"

This song reminds me of the Radiohead song "Climbing up the Walls" off their album OK Computer. Yes, for some reason it reminds me of it. Probably because they both have this forbidding sound. Go here if you want to here the Radiohead song I am referring to, then compare it to the Killers song:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgDPkqiXrjc

I'm not saying the Killers plagarized, I'm just trying to express my feelings of how profound these songs sound alike.

But then this song reminds me of something else...its a great song; I'll come back and give my interpretation of the lyrics after I've listened and actually paid close attention to the lyrics. To me, I got the impression that the speaker of this song was lamenting on the limitations of the world. --about how we must keeping going arduously through life even with these limitations (hense "travel well"). And he's tired of the limitations pushing down on him. Thats my jab at an interpretation.

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I'm pretty sure it's about Dave Keuning's mother dying.

i know its totally wrong, but when i hear this song i cant help
thinking about a person who is about to jump off a bridge, thinking
about his life.

the beauty of art is that you can interprette it any way you like.

goodnight, travell well is my favourite song of all time.
i dont know why, but i love it :p

This song really moved me. I lost My Parents when I was 21 and the words to this song sum up how I felt and still feel about it....

They have may written it for their sick/dead/dying parents but when I first heard it, I had no idea about that so this is kinda what I thought...

To me it's about someone who has been with you through a long period of your life, and they've always been there. And it's about losing them, realizing that there's nothing you can do about it and accepting it. It's about missing them terribly but wishing them well on their journey forward while you are also moving forward on your path.

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Amazing song, though it is a little out of place on Day and Age. It would have been better on Sam's Town I think; this album is a bit too airy for this song which is so dark and brooding.

I'd love to hear it live - the emotion that goes into this song must be nothing compared to on stage.

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I think the song is about an ended relationship.

I also think sams town is a trash album. Wish bones was on day and age and joy ride + this is your life was on sams town. We could have jsut called sams town a bad album and gotten on with the good stuff.

This song is interesting as it stimulates multiple human emotions. I think the CD as a whole ( Day and Age )is about questioning the entire human race as a collective group. I love this song, and I think that after listening to Day and Age "Goonight, travel well" is a beautiful selection for ending this rollcoaster called life.

I think the narrator is reflecting on their life. Maybe regretting some ( or a lot ) of things they have done. Seems to be feelings of inferiority, or maybe a pain of not being worthy. Yet sinners and saints still walk together under the sun.

The unknown distance to the "great" beyond
Stares back at my grieving frame
To cast my shadow by the holy sun
My spirit moans, with a sacred pain

Now the narrator has become swallowed by thought and it appears that time itself has stopped. At the core of their thinking, the narrator feels powerless. That no matter what happens, they can not change or effect the outcome.

It's quiet now
The universe is standing still
And there's nothing I can say
There's nothing we can do now
And there's nothing I can say
There's nothing we can do now


While still trapped in thought, the narrator states that really nothing holds the soul back except and human imprisonment. Now that the seal between soul and body are broken, we see the narrator start to reflect on memories of the deceassed. All these memories take hold of the narrator, and they are left for the narrator to sort through.

And all that stands between the soul's release
This temporary flesh and bone
And know that it's over now
I feel my fading mind begin to roam
Every time you fall, and every time you try
Every foolish dream, and every compromise
Every word you spoke, and everything you said
Everything you left me, rambles in my head

Again, the narrator is powerless to do anything to effect the outcome. And the following message repeats in his head.

And there's nothing I can say
There's nothing I can do now
And there's nothing I can say
There's nothing I can do now

Now the following line could mean one of two things. 1) Heaven is above and beyond us, so far for our body but close to our souls. 2) The memory of the song/poem "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" goes through the head of the narrator.

Up above the world, so high

Again the narrator, falls back in and out of memories. The person is being observed by others as these lines reveal, people watching and crying. Now the person could either be dead, and being honored at a funeral, or could be dying and people are surrounding this person. Finally, the narrator tore up, begs the person to stay with them, and not to leave them.

Everything you loved, and every time you try
Everybody's "watchin", everybody cry
Stay, don't leave me, the stars can wait for your sign, don't signal now

Again, the narrator is powerless to say or do anything.

There's nothing I can say
There's nothing I can do now
And there's nothing I can say
There's nothing "we" can do now

The narrator realizes that all they can say is goodnight, and just let them go. Wish them the best and hope they find their way in the "great beyond."

Goodnight, travel well

Repeats themselves, not to the person passing on, but so theyh can realize the reality themselves.

Goodnight, travel well

There is nothing left to say or do.

There's nothing I can say
Nothing I can do now

The only thing left to say is:

Goodnight, travel well



I feel that this is really the first song of Day and Age. After listening to this, Human makes a lot more sense. A wonderful beautiful song to something hard to understand and grasp.

Wow, this song is the best of Day & Age.

It's amazing how well it describes the loss of someone. Not only the lyrics, just the slowness of the vocals, the drunk instruments, his voice trembling. It's beautiful. I love the lines:
It's quiet now
The universe is standing still
And there's nothing I can say
There's nothing we can do now

Because that's just the way you feel when someone leaves, be it physical (as in death) or someone leaving you behind for a trip or journey. Suddenly everything is quiet! The universe stops! That's just what happens! After a while is when you realize that the world doesn't really stop for your grief, and that you MUST keep going. But before that you really feel as if everything suddenly stopped, and there's nothing you can really do or say...

I love the "Everything you left me rambles in my head"

This song saves Day & Age I must say... It's beautiful.

I love its slowness in the begining, it shows as if he's really trying to figure out things



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did anyone also consider this song to be about brandons fear of flying? like on sams towns 'why do i keep counting'? i mean

The unknown distance to the gray beyond
To cast my shadow by the holy sun

And know that it's over now
I feel my fading mind begin to roam
Up above the world, so high

Goodnight, travel well

the first time i heard that song the idea of the narrator fearing the sudden death in a plane crash came to my mind,reflecting what he is going to lose, being completely lost, out of control over this situation. i know my interpreatation seems to be a bit strange but eventually it's also about losing someone.
i think there are a whole lot of ways of interpreting it, what do you thing?
well, thats the opinion of a non native speaker :) maybe i just don't get it right

This song has amazing lyrics and relates so well to something going on in my life right now. My boyfriend past away over a month ago and I just started listening to this song recently and the minute I heard it, I connected to it so well.

"The unknown distance to the gray beyond
Stares back at my grieving frame
To cast my shadow by the holy sun
My spirit moans, with a sacred pain"

That verse completely sums up how I felt after his death. And the part "And there's nothing I can say
There's nothing I can do now" is something that I keep trying to tell myself over and over again. My boyfriend took his own life and there have been so many things that I wish I could have seen coming, done, or said something differently, would he still be here? But this song has really made me think about the whole situation, there really is nothing I or anyone can do now, what was done has been done.

I read an interview with each band member in the UK 'Q Magazine. Brandon said that this song was written about Daves mum who recently passed away and Brandons own mum who has a brain tumor.
He said: 'It goes from being the darkest thing we've ever done before shooting up to the clouds at the end. Oh, it's a heartbreaker. It just rips your guts out.'
I haven't spent enough time listening to it properly yet as I'm worried I will find it a bit too emotional - in a good way, if you know what I mean...

i don't think the song specifies in the death of brandon's parents..i think it's generally about death,that when we're gone we can't go back''nothing i can say...''and that everything we acchieved while alive lives on as a memory''everything you left me rambles in my head''..............amazing song...!p.s.it's the great beyond

If you are looking for an emotional overload, then listen to this song and then listen to "10,000 Days (Wings Part 2)" by Tool.

This is one of those songs that I feel is very climactic, similar to how I feel with the song "Politik" by Coldplay and "Transatlanticism" by DCFC. Beautiful song...

I love this song! It really gets to me, like "The Little Things Give You Away" by Linkin Park.