|
Two Lyrics
In the middle of the night I was sleeping sitting up,
when a doctor came to tell me, "Enough is enough." He brought me out into the hall (I could have sworn it was haunted), and told me something that I didn't know that I wanted to hear: That there was nothing that I could do to save you, the choir's gonna sing, and this thing is gonna kill you. Something in my throat made my next words shake, and something in the wires made the lightbulbs break. There was glass inside my feet and raining down from the ceiling, it opened up the scars that had just finished healing. It tore apart the canyon running down your femur, (I thougth that it was beautiful, it made me a believer.) And as it opened I could hear you howling from your room, but I hid out in the hall until the hurricane blew. When I reappered and tried to give you something for the pain, you came to hating me again and just sang your refreain: You had a new dream, it was more like a nightmare. You were just a little kid, and they cut your hair, then they stuck you in machines, you came so close to dying. They should have listened, they thought that you were lying. Daddy was an asshole, he fucked you up, built the gears in your head, now he greases them up. And no one paid attention when you just stopped eating. "Eighty-seven pounds!" and this all bears repeating. Tell me when you think that we became so unhappy, wearing silver rings with nobody clapping. When we moved here togehter we were so dissappointed, sleeping out of tune with our dreams disjointed. It killed me to see you getting always rejected, but I didn't mind the things you threw, the phones I deflected. I didn't mind you blaming me for your mistakes, I just held you in the doorframe through all of the earthquakes. But you packed up your clothes in that bag every night, and I would try to grab your ankles (what a pitiful sight.) But after over a year, I stopped trying to stop you from stomping out that door, coming back like you always do. Well no one's gonna fix it for us, no one can. You say that, 'No one's gonna listen, and no one understands.' So there's no open doors and there's no way to get through, there's no other witnesses, just us two. There's two people living in one small room, from your two half-families tearing at you, two ways to tell the story (no one worries), two silver rings on our fingers in a hurry, two people talking inside your brain, two people believing that I'm the one to blame, two different voices coming out of your mouth, while I'm too cold to care and too sick to shout. You had a new dream, it was more like a nightmare. You were just a little kid, and they cut your hair, then they stuck you in machines, you came so close to dying. They should have listened, they thought that you were lying. Daddy was an asshole, he fucked you up, built the gears in your head, now he greases them up. And no one paid attention when you just stopped eating. "Eighty-seven pounds!" and this all bears repeating.
Interaction
|
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
04-12-2009
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
05-01-2009
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
06-16-2009
Two being the two personalities.
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
06-20-2009
09-03-2009
that would be 'dissociative identity disorder'
just to clear that common misconception up
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
07-11-2009
07-11-2009
it opened up the scars that had just finished healing.
It tore apart the canyon running down your femur,
(I thought that it was beautiful, it made me a believer.)
i don't understand this section at all. someone please help?
RLHJones is right, technically, but i have to say that the symptoms presented could arguably point towards all three disorders. i favor bi-polar, as it seems to fit most of the lines in the second to last stanza better than the other two. i'll expound if you ask me to.
aside from that, i think the subject is suffering from more than just mental instability, since she (forgive me for feminizing muses) seems to be dying and last time i checked none of the above were fatal. perhaps we are to believe that she's grown so nihilistic that she is suicidal, and hurts herself in an effort to prevent herself from hurting the narrator. otherwise i think we are meant to find some other infirmity. now that i've "thought out loud" a bit, i wonder if the mention of the femur i quoted above is a reference to leukemia?
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
07-13-2009
when a doctor came to tell me, "Enough is enough.")
-This distinguishes that the author isn't the patient. If you are sleeping sitting up in the hospital than you are in the waiting room or in a chair in a patients room.
It could be noted that there could be some anorexia ties here and there. Maybe depression in general.
08-25-2009
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
07-15-2009
It's also not multiple personality disorder, it's Dissociative Identity Disorder. And Bipolar disorder does have two 'polarized' personalities; one manic, and one depressive. Also, schizophrenia is often a predecessor to DID. If you feel you must correct someone, at least know your facts. Wyliekyle made an interesting point. The song is obviously about loving someone with frequent mood-swings, and the very name "Two" I think is in reference to 'BI'polar.
e.g.
It killed me to see you getting always rejected,
but I didn't mind the things you threw, the phones I deflected.
I didn't mind you blaming me for your mistakes,
I just held you in the doorframe through all of the earthquakes.
But you packed up your clothes in that bag every night,
and I would try to grab your ankles (what a pitiful sight.)
But after over a year, I stopped trying to stop you from stomping out that door,
coming back like you always do.
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
08-03-2009
As per the ICD-10.
I can't see many references which would point to mania or depression as a separate issue, only those which would comply with our DID/MPD theory.
There's two people living in one small room,
...
two people talking inside your brain,
two people believing that I'm the one to blame,
two different voices coming out of your mouth..
Beautiful song whatever the meaning.
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
08-17-2009
Her past clearly affect her life now. With BPD, most of the emotional wounds from childhood appear in adult years.
There is love, but everything is such a mess.
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
08-26-2009
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
08-27-2009
the weight loss, the 'childhood dreams', even the psychological breaking down are all.... well, you get the point.
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
09-07-2009
it's strange because i used to be an anorexic (i've recovered now, but there is no such thing as a full recovery with me....) and 87 pounds was my goal weight....
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
09-09-2009
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
09-09-2009
What I love about this song (and the whole album, for that matter) is how it differs from traditional cancer stories. I've heard so many cancer stories that drip of sadness but in the end they all arrive at something positive: "I found the meaning of life," "I discovered what's really important," "My wife died but she was the love of my life and I was blessed to have the time with her I did," "I'm at peace about what happened," etc. But in this story the overwhelming emotion isn't sadness, it's anger. The cancer patient throws phones at her husband, blames him for her mistakes, and daily threatens to leave him. And the narrator doesn't romanticize his relationship with his wife; he actually lets us in on its dysfunction and admits that they were married hastily and at the disapproval of their friends. There's no redemption in this story at all, and that's what makes it so powerful. I love it!
09-09-2009
09-09-2009
09-09-2009
"Because you'd been abused by the bone that refused you, and you hired me to make up for that...When I was checking vitals I suggested a smile...Something kept me standing by that hospital bed; I should have quit but instead I took care of you."
And from the song "Epilogue:"
"You've been gone for quite awhile now, and I don't work there in the hospital (they had to let me go)."
It's possible that the woman's parents had something to do with her rash behavior, but I think the cancer is a more major theme in the album.
Death can be used as a metaphor for a lot of things, but I think it's important first to understand the literal death in the album before applying it to something else. Also, I think the woman actually dies in the next song, "Shiva," and not in this song.
11-08-2009
The story is literally about a Hospice worker dealing with a young male cancer patient. Weaved throughout are the references to the relationship; overall the death of a cancer patient and the anger and sadness associated is an allegory related to the failure of a relationship. What makes it such a well told story is the fact that throughout, the patient becomes the worker becomes the man, the story of these feelings is told from all sides, often in the same song. The first verse (the hospice workers perspective), the second and third verses (the man's), and the mixing of the two perspectives in the refrain are examples of this here.
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
09-09-2009
Before diving into this, I think some background would be useful. When she was younger, she had nightmares. She had scissor-pain and phantom limbs, and things that kept her nervous through that twelve-year interim. When she fell crossing that street (south of Houston, old Manhattan-land), those nightmares fell from building tops and took her by the hand.
She was brought into those rooms with sliding curtains and shining children's heads. One of the, that boy, was not as lucky as she then. (Years later, he would return to her at night, just when she thought she might have fallen asleep. As she would later describe to me, his face would be up against hers, and she'd be too terrified to speak.)
Now, I won't pretend I understand, because I can't, and now I never will. But something makes her sting, and something makes her want to kill. It made her crawl under that house, and stick her head under the stove...well, my point in all of this is that it's all connected in these complicated nightmares that we wove.
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
09-15-2009
"In the middle of the night I was sleeping sitting up,
when a doctor came to tell me, "Enough is enough."
there are definitetly two defined characters in the song making me inclined to think that schizophrenia isn't involved, the characters are obviously very closely linked though, perhaps married:
"tell me when you think that we became so unhappy, wearing silver rings with nobody clapping."
i think that the husband finally realises that his clinging to hope that his wife might survive is actually causing her pain and to be most kind he's got to let her go
"a doctor came to tell me, enough is enough"
all the references to two voices etc i think are there last moments together
anyway what do i know, its an amazing, beautiful song
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
09-20-2009
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
09-27-2009
10-15-2009
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
10-06-2009
10-10-2009
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
10-11-2009
Anyway, really beautiful song and a great album.
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.
10-12-2009
10-15-2009
From the lyrics of this song, I'm guessing that they never entirely believed she was really sick when she was younger [they thought you were lying] and obviously she had a very poor relationship with her parents. They didn't notice her eating disorders.
I don't get any feeling of split personalities or schizophrenia or whatever from this song though. I mean, Sylvia has mood swings, but I'd say they were more based off of fear and frustration. Her life is slipping away and she needs a scapegoat. And his love is unconditional enough that he lets her treat him poorly.
I dunno, that's just how I see it.
10-15-2009
You must be logged in to post your comments.
Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.