The National – Conversation 16

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  General Comment:I wonder if the fountain line could be a reference to the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald?

  Flag zummy56on March 10, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:I wonder if the fountain line could be a reference to the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald?

  Flag zummy56on March 10, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:I think this song is about the guilt adults feel when their marriage changes.

  Flag Trolletteon February 03, 2013   Link

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  My Interpretation:Some parts of this song lead me to believe that it could be about heroin addiction.
  
  First of all, using drugs could be considered "ice for their fevers", or at least that's what they believe - that it's helping with their problems. And, "you're the only thing I ever want any more" could definitely be about addiction.
  
  Heroin comes from poppies (flowers) and when you're using heroin, you lose your appetite. A lot of heroin addicts will only drink soda or coffee ("live on coffee and flowers").
  
  "I was afraid I'd eat your brains" always seemed like a reference to zombies in my opinion, but now that I'm thinking of it in this light I'm realizing something - being an extreme drug addict turns you into a zombie. So now it makes sense that there'd be a zombie reference.
  
  "Fall asleep in your branches" could also be about being held by the drug, falling asleep while high.
  
  I'm not too sure about the other lines. It's just something that came to mind.

  Flag TheCuriousGirlUnderGlasson June 29, 2012   Link

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    Why don't we just admit that every song ever written is about drugs and shut this site down.

    Flag JCider9on January 05, 2013  
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  Song Meaning:silver city - Hollywood, silver girls - starlets & co. (from "silver screen")
  
  "I was afraid I'd eat your brains" - turning so mindlessly hungry for feelings/real interaction that he becomes aggressive searching for them
  
  "Had my head in the oven so you'd know where I'll be
  I'll try to be more romantic
  I want to believe in everything you believe" - "head in the oven" can be a reference to Sylvia Plath's suicide; as a confident liar, he'll go to extremes to appear unchanged, pretending to still have the same emotional depth as he did before the "black dreams" in order to keep his interlocutor happy and unconcerned, for instance by trying to enjoy the same sort of poetry as he did before he changed.
  
  On the topic of the interlocutor, presumably the narrator's significant other: they "never believe the shitty thoughts" he thinks, but he now equates romance with swimming in a fountain (reference to the scene in the Trevi Fountain in La Dolce Vita?) and they barely keep the charade going until their friends are gone. He tries to get lost in them ("fall asleep in your branches"/arms) because they're "the only thing [he] ever want[s] anymore", the connection he has to reality.
  
  In my interpretation, Conversation 16 is a song about admitting to your lover that you've (been) changed for the worst and asking to leave the bad influences behind together. The narrator struggles, first to keep up appearances and later to mitigate the damage they're doing to the relationship, but after the admission, the only course of action left is to leave it to their significant other to decide if it's worth salvaging. It's a plea, I think: This is what I've come to be, you're all I want; let's run away from here.
  
  (On a side note, the title makes me think, for some reason, that the first 15 conversations were aborted attempts, as their partner wasn't ready to accept the truth. This one in particular matters because he finally gets the point across. Of course, it could all be in his head. He could be looking at someone and wishing he was coming clean before he's left alone in the silver city.)

  Flag floodlineon May 18, 2012   Link

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  My Interpretation:I think this is about the tension between the fairytale movie life, and reality. Everyone thinks they have this perfect life, and he doesn't want to disappoint anyone, but he is having this breakdown, and thinks that he doesn't belong and that he is evil because of that. He is on the outside looking in at this perfect life with the silver screen and silver girls.

  Flag trisana13on December 17, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:so here's what I think it means. I actually think that Scott Locke did an excellent job. So I'll just re-emphasize and add to it.
  
  The silver cities and silver girls are references to a luxurious world. A silver city is a coveted lifestyle. A silver girl is a woman who is taken care of. This is the world that he tried to create for her. But the silver cities required a lot of work. And making her a silver girl, left her disillusioned.He works hard but he can't seem to make her happy. His expression of living on coffee and flowers is needing the coffee to just get through the day but needing flowers to apologize for not doing enough. He tries to not think about the "whether" means that he can't predict the next day. He just needs to keep moving. He doesn't understand what all the troubles are for.
  
  He sees that he's not giving her what she needs but it's because he's trying to give her the life she wanted in the silver city.
  
  They aren't happy but they put a facade on for the rest of the world. There's obligation in their relationship. They need to keep appearances and meet expectations. And while they are unhappy at the moment, he still spares her the hell it's costing him by telling her all the shitty thoughts when she's not really listening.
  
  He doesn't want to drain her. He doesn't want to her to know what he's going though. He doesn't want her to know what he thinks because it might break her.
  
  Ultimately, it's relationship with hardships.
  
  It's a juxtaposition of expectation and reality. Not ever quite meeting.

  Flag moratorium82on November 19, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:Am I getting old, I'm only 29, but no one has mentioned the film Hannibal, perhaps the most famous brain eating scene in all of movie history.
  
  Hannibal, now there is an evil guy.
  
  Many movie references in this song:
  Silver city, silver girls (Silver screen) ...
  

  Flag Steve0hon October 29, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:New to this band, but I'll give it a try. Someone desires someone but s/he doubts his worth. He lies and he worries about disappearing (not literally, of course)...behaps becoming someone he is not sure he can handle. He puts on a show for others (ie. his friends) for he is the only one who knows the truth of his existance. It's a lifestyle that leaves him comfortable. This is a song about fear and self-loathing. S/he believes he would cause the one he loves more harm by being in her life. It's really a song about him, not her (or vice-vesa, depending upon who relates to it). Good band; I need to hear more from it.

  Flag FatBottomedGurlon September 13, 2011   Link

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  Song Meaning:We should swim in a fountain
  Do not want to disappoint anyone
  
  in my opinion this refers to the La dolce vita movie. In this movie there is a famous scene when two main characters "swim: in Trevi Fountain
  

  Flag potworron July 08, 2011   Link

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