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Bear Lyrics
There's a bear inside your stomach.
The cub's been kicking from within. He's loud, though without vocal chords We'll put an end to him. We'll make all the right appointments. No one ever has to know. And then tommorow I'll turn 21. We'll script another show. We'll play charades up in the Chelsea. Drink champagne although you shouldn't be. We'll be blind and dumb until we fall asleep. None of our friends will come. They dodge our calls. And they have for quite awhile now. It's not a shock. You don't seem to mind and I just can't see how. We're too old. We're not old, old at all. Just too old. We're not old, old at all. There's a bear inside your stomach. The cub's been kicking you for weeks. And if this isn't all a dream. Well then we'll cut him from beneath. Well we're not scared of making caves. Or finding food for him to eat. We're terrified of one another. And terrified of what that means. But we'll make only quick decisions. And you'll just keep my in the waiting room. And all the while i'll know we're fucked. And not getting unfucked soon. When we get home we're bigger strangers than we've ever been before. You sit in front of snowy television, suitcase on the floor. We're too old. We're not old, old at all. Just too old. We're not old, old at all. Just too old. We're not old, old at all. Just too old. We're not old, old at all. Just too old. We're not old, old at all. Just too old. We're not old, old, old, old at all.
Interaction
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02-07-2009
I can't wait for Hospice.
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02-10-2009
06-10-2009
it isn't a baby inside of her
it's a tumor.
we're not old at all.
she's too young to die of cancer.
i mean, its a pretty themed album.
about cancer.
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04-07-2009
I think the chorus "Just too old. We're not old, old at all." might have to do with the paradoxical relationship between the couple's sexual and emotional maturity.
11-05-2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospice_%28album%29
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04-07-2009
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04-30-2009
Or finding food for him to eat.
We're terrified of one another.
And terrified of what that means."
I find it hard to express in words how powerful those 4 lines are.
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06-11-2009
The chorus, "We're too old, not to old," is a play on that being 21 is a responsible age to have children. That being that old they are both very capable of providing for a child if it were to be born. But on the other hand, 21 is very young.
Does anyone have the linear notes for this album, iTunes didn't give a digital book.
I believe the line is "We're getting unfucked soon." This would make sense if it were about an abortion.
10-19-2009
Meaning their problems aren't going away. Abortion or not.
11-05-2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hospice_%28album%29
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06-23-2009
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06-30-2009
This song is a hundred percent about an abortion. I believe the album theme is death, not cancer.
Everything here points to a pregnancy-
The girl can't drink.
The "cub" (baby).
If it was cancer why would they be afraid of finding food for it or a cave for it to live in.
07-01-2009
All the songs are gonna have metaphors that have to do with hospitals obviously but i think the whole thing is just a metaphor like hospital because they have hurt eachother so much they need to be in the hospital kinda like that
and the bear in the stomach has to do with her evil side and hes using bear and aobrtion theme as a metaphor to explain it.
ORRR
ive thought of another idea it is about abortion which adds to there effed up relationship which is what this album seems to be about
07-01-2009
All the songs are gonna have metaphors that have to do with hospitals obviously but i think the whole thing is just a metaphor like hospital because they have hurt eachother so much they need to be in the hospital kinda like that
and the bear in the stomach has to do with her evil side and hes using bear and aobrtion theme as a metaphor to explain it.
ORRR
ive thought of another idea it is about abortion which adds to there effed up relationship which is what this album seems to be about
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07-07-2009
"This is an album that tells a story, with Peter narrating it. The story is beyond heartbreaking. Death and sadness surround the record at every corner. Peters singing is gut-wrenching. You can feel his pain and suffering with every breath. Songs like “Kettering” and “Sylvia” are drenched in sorrow showing Peters very strong vocals."
"In the end that could be what Peter wants. If anything, the album is up to interpretation. He would be proud that people are analyzing it and reacting to it in various ways."
07-07-2009
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07-09-2009
"Hospice is essentially about myself and another person," Silberman says. "About our relationship and its dissolution. I had other people in mind, friends who have been in similar situations, or who have recently found themselves in dysfunctional environments."
-Via NPR
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07-26-2009
First Verse:
The bear is obviously a newly conceived fetus. Evidence stems from the "kicking" and "we'll put an end to him." This sort of mutual decision that the couple will be getting an abortion. This can be supported by "we'll make all the right appointments no one ever has to know."
The next deals with the sort of social ramifications of being young parents. They are "scripting another show" because they are both worried about what is going on, but at the same time they have to keep composure. "Turning 21" reveals that the narrator is a young father and "drink champagne although you shouldn't be" adds further foundation that the significant other is indeed carrying a child.
Their friends are avoiding them simply out of social context and wanting to distance themselves from people who have made poor decisions.
Chorus:
The narrator becomes very duplicitous at this point. You can look at the idea of that being 21 is a responsible age to have a child, that the couple is coping out for strictly social reasons.
Second Verse:
Without being mundane, "cutting a bear from underneath" can only mean one thing. My explanation of the chorus can further be supported by the line, "we're not scared of making caves or finding food for him to eat, we're terrified of one another and terrified of what that means."
I have had a bit of a revelation that in the end the procedure never happens. The line "I'll know we're fucked and not getting unfucked soon" can be taken that to be "fucked" means to be pregnant and if they aren't getting "unfucked soon" maybe it was her quick decision that changed the plan.l
09-15-2009
Sounds like he kept the kid to me!
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07-29-2009
Yes, this song is using images of pregnancy and abortion. To me, this is a metaphor for what happens in a dangerously co-dependent relationship, where something dangerous and odd is created between two people that only they two are allowed to know and understand. This dark secret (a bear, a baby, an abortion, whatever) binds the two people together, even while their relationship is past recovery.
As for the album as a whole, the same holds true. boniver (7/9/09 comment) said "Silberman conceived and wrote Hospice over the course of two years in his Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment, as a way to cope with the illness and death of someone who was close to him, but abusive." I have never heard that and I don't think it's true. Its true he wrote it over the course of two years in his apartment in Brooklyn as a way to cope with trauma, but I don't THINK that trauma was literally someone dying of cancer as in the album. The cancer is just one more example of how in life, sometimes love is not enough to save someone. Also, giving the abuser cancer is a way for Silberman to illustrate that this person doesn't act abusively because they are evil, they act that way because they are sick and terrified and physically and mentally messed up.
Trying to make the song and album tell literal stories that can be "translated" insults and cheapens the Antlers' work, which is far more about feelings of helplessness, guilt and loss than about any particular plot and cast of characters.
08-08-2009
10-16-2009
The reason I'm replying is simply to point out that most of the quibbles from these comments can be resolved here: http://pitchfork.com/news/35845-rising-the-antlers/ or here: http://www.antlersmusic.com/linernotes.pdf
Peter Silberman says very clearly in the Pitchfork interview that he was involved in a painful relationship with someone who had cancer, but doesn't say if she actually died in the end or if just the relationship "figuratively" died--or both, I suppose. His unwillingness to provide more detail makes me think someone actually died. And for those who doubt that an over-arching subject of the album is cancer (yes, *literal* cancer), you should read the liner notes in the second link, or simply take another look at the album cover. I think ehat correctly points out that although literal cancer is being discussed, the issues surrounding can be (and were probably intended to be) applied to issues unrelated to physical health or even relationships altogether. The ambiguities present throughout the entire album are what I find most haunting about it.
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08-05-2009
I haven't seen anything more close to the truth in the interpretations of this song.
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08-31-2009
The story of the song, as far as I can see, is that a young couple conceive a child but decide to have an abortion, not because they're worried about how they're going to take care of it, but because despite all of the love they thought they had for each other, they know that neither of them is prepared to spend the rest of their lives together at this point. The abortion has occurred, but nothing will ever be the same because they both understand now that their love wasn't as deep as they thought it was.
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09-02-2009
"The Antlers' work... is far more about feelings of helplessness, guilt and loss than about any particular plot and cast of characters."
I would agree with this, but I see no reason why that doesn't fit in with the album portraying a complex relationship between a cancer patient and her caregiver.
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09-12-2009
off the coast and I'm headed nowhere
10-06-2009
off the coast and ur still a dick
10-09-2009
11-18-2009
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09-29-2009
So case solved.
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10-06-2009
it's probably more of a REFERENCE to abortion. like a simile, with this illness being closely related to how you would feel in an instance of abortion, especially since nowhere in this song does it specifically state that she's pregnant.
also, i really don't like it being about abortion. i like how the album follows a psedo-storyline and when one of the songs digress into another story it bothers me and takes the whole meaning of the album out.
however, i respect that people think it's about abortion since the references are pretty clear. but i think it can also be easily taken into a more universal context, which is just how i like to look at it. neither way is right.
10-06-2009
10-19-2009
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10-07-2009
Since the album is entirely about two people in a relationship, her suffering in the hospital and him taking care of her the best he can, I expect the bear is a metaphor for the newly instilled and all-consuming commitment they feel towards one another. The ominous ties of commitment, like a baby--but wild and untame as a bear cub, overwhelm them both as they return home for the first time in what sounds like forever (as "Bear" is halfway through the album). This is also implied by them being around age 20 and feeling old, but not really being old at all--the quick decisions of engagement (a ring being mentioned earlier in the album) and wearying sickness has aged them both. They come to their senses, and realize that they're "terrified of one another, terrified of what that means." In the end, they realize that they will "cut [the bear] from beneath" and end the commitment.
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