Bon Iver – Blood Bank

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Well I met you at the blood bank
We were looking at the bags
Wondering if any of the colors
Matched any of the names we knew on the tags

You said "see look that's yours!
Stacked on top with your brother's
See how they resemble one another
Even in their plastic little covers"

And I said I know it well

That secret that you knew
But don't know how to tell
It fucks with your honor
And it teases your head
But you know that its good girl
'Cos its running you with red

Then the snow started falling
We were stuck out in your car
You were rubbing both of my hands
Chewing on a candy bar

You said "Ain't this just like the present
To be showing up like this"
AS a moon waned to crescent
We started to kiss

And I said I know it well

That secret that we know
That we don't know how to tell
I'm in love with your honor
I'm in love with your cheeks
What's that noise up the stairs babe?
Is that Christmas morning creaks?

And I said I know it well
I know it well
And I said I know it well
I know it well
And I said I know it well
I know it well

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Lyrics submitted by sidelinedseason

Track duration: 04:45

"Blood Bank" as written by Justin Deyarmond Edison Vernon

Lyrics © CHRYSALIS MUSIC OBO APRIL BASE PUBLISHING

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Blood Bank song meanings
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  • 0
    My Interpretation:all but the part about the blood didn't make sense to me, but the pregnancy thing or car crash or whatever, they all sorta fit. but as for the actual blood bank part, i think in a way, he's trying to say that right down to the very core of our being, we're all, i dont wanna say the same, but we're similar in how we act and think, even if we desperately try to portray ourselves as being different and soley, unique individuals. like we use all of this fake stuff to mask what we really are. cuz he was writing about how the blood all resembles each other even if it's all dressed up in these plastic bags. and that was my favorite part if you think about it we're like all born the same tree. but our mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters and friends and just other people prune out branches until we're old enough to prune our own, but by that point we've really only learned how to prune the way they do so we just blindly follow them but we play it off as we're doing something different for ourselves. but in the end we're all still the same tree. if that made any sense
    Flag dazedbellaon April 09, 2013   Link
  • +5
    General Comment:I love the phrase "I know it well" in this song. I was in a long relationship that was really unhealthy and my girlfriend was constantly taking advantage of me and hurting me and every time she'd hurt me she'd have some excuse and if ever I'd bring something up she'd turn it around on me saying something like "why don't you trust me" or something very similar. I caught her cheating on me more than once but for some dumb reason I couldn't let her go and for some even dumber reason she couldn't let me go. Either way, every time I'd learn she did something else to me I'd always get really quiet and speak very softly and in the same tone as Bon Iver sings that phrase of the song. And the words "I know it well" were words that I told her every time she'd give her excuses. She'd say something trying to exonerate herself and my thought "I know it well" would keep me from getting mad at her and keep her from thinking I was mad. It made her think I understood even though I meant it as I know how you feel about me. I felt like the phrase summed up everything and left it closed enough that she didn't have to bring it up again but open enough that she could let me go and be honest with me. Ultimately that's why I think I stayed with her...I just wanted her to admit that she didn't love me like she used to. Sadly that never happened. The phrase in the song brings back that same feeling for me though and I don't know why but I soothes me unimaginably.
    Flag starkiller7on November 07, 2012   Link
    • 1 Reply
  • +1
    My Interpretation:I think this song is beautiful because of it's simplicity. Blood as the theme could just represent the ties we all have to each other, the most obvious being to that of family, hence the reference to his brother's blood at the beginning. Then, there is the more secret, surprising connections we find in love that run just as deep but are harder to express, yet seem so simple in places like a cozy car on a snowy day. Love this song, such a beautiful snapshot of life. And the metaphor "I'm in love with your cheeks" is just so lovely...it means to me that he loves the girl enough to notice the beauty in the mundane, usually unremarkable features of her.
    Flag stredferon June 22, 2012   Link
    • 1 Reply
  • +1
    General Comment:I think this song is a lot deeper than it seems. I personally believe it is about him meeting someone at a blood bank whom he falls in love with after getting into a crash but they don't know how to explain it to each other. Especially her because I feel like she might be taken by someone else but she knows what she has found is good, as suggested by the line, "but you know that it's good girl."
    Eventually they show to each other this new found fondness of each other but he loves that she's honorable to previous engagements with another person. The christmas morning I believe would be them being pulled out of the car and he's delerious. That's the only part that truly throws me for a loop. Mastful lyrics here in this song, and it's truly beautiful.
    Flag Jailbreak66on April 28, 2012   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:I think I am going to make you all very sad but this is what i think this song means -

    They were in a car accident in a winter snow storm and she was seriously injured in the accident. When they get to the hospital they give her a blood transfusion where they find out she is/was pregnant and she had not told him yet. She miscarries but she is under morphine and thinks she hears the child up stairs on Christmas morning but it's the child in heaven ie The moon is waning to crescent ie the womb is not full anymore. He comforts/distracts her by making light of the blood containers and encouraging her that the child is just upstairs and they are all going to have a happy Christmas together.

    Really sad...
    Flag Mosbyon April 24, 2012   Link
    • 1 Reply
  • 0
    General Comment:I personally think people read too far into this song. The whole love triangle/ affair thing just doesn't sound right to me. I think it's just what Vernon says it is; two lovers stuck out in the snow.
    Flag suburbansonon March 24, 2012   Link
    • 1 Reply
  • +3
    General Comment:Does anyone think that it could be about too people that used to be in love that just randomly ran into each other? and that secret that they both do not know how to tell is that they still do love eachother? I do not buy into this whole pregnancy theory.
    Flagged Musicman062592on March 20, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:every time i listen to this song i get so sad. it just seems like one big recurring dream. like a story with no faults, a tale of coincidentally occurring, perfectly placed people and their love that all circumstances in life would never allow. a dream. the narrator knows it well because its the one dream that they cannot have a night's sleep without.

    i realize how depressing that sounds but i have nowhere else to write my personal interpretation so its going here. though i'm glad there is a literal meaning to the words that is beautiful on it own (and a little more hopeful), i just can't shake these feelings whenever i hear this song. justin vernon and bon iver do great things.
    Flag subtractingon March 06, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I know he said that it was about being stuck in the snow with someone new. But the more I listen to it I highly doubt that. I feel like he is resurrecting a buried moment of falling in love with someone he already knew over simple,quiet moments and being completely surprised by it. And from that, that person has become 'new' in his eyes.
    Flag Alyric27on February 24, 2012   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:I know he said that it was about being stuck in the snow with someone new. But the more I listen to it I highly doubt that. I feel like he is resurrecting a buried moment of falling in love with someone he already knew over simple,quiet moments and being completely surprised by it. And from that, that person has become 'new' in his eyes.
    Flagged Alyric27on February 24, 2012   Link

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