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(This... Fire... Grows... High...)
(This... Fire... Grows... High...)
(This... Fire... Grows... High...)
(This... Fire... Grows... High...)
When there's a burning in your heart
An endless fury in your heart
Build it bigger than the sun
Let it grow
Let it grow
And there's a burning in your heart
Don't be alarmed
(This... Fire... Grows... High...)
When there's a doubt in your mind
'Cause you think it all the time
Framin' rights into wrongs
Move along
Move along
When there's a doubt within your mind
When there's a burning in your heart
And you think it'll burst apart
Oh, there's nothing to fear
Save the tears
Save the tears
When there's a burning in your heart
And if you feel just like a tourist in the city you were born
Then, it's time to go
And you find your destination with so many different places to call home
'Cause when you find yourself a villain,
In the story you have written
It's plain to see
That sometimes the best intentions
Are in need of redemption
Would you agree
If so, please show me
(This... Fire... Grows... High...)
(This... Fire... Grows... High...)
When there's a burning in your heart,
When there's a burning in your heart, (This... Fire... Grows... High...)
When there's a burning in your heart, (This... Fire... Grows... High...)
(This... Fire... Grows... High...)
When there's a burning in your heart, (This... Fire... Grows... High...)
(This... Fire... Grows... High...)
When there's a burning in your heart.
(This... Fire... Grows... High...)
(This... Fire... Grows... High...)
(This... Fire... Grows... High...)
When there's a burning in your heart
An endless fury in your heart
Build it bigger than the sun
Let it grow
Let it grow
And there's a burning in your heart
Don't be alarmed
(This... Fire... Grows... High...)
When there's a doubt in your mind
'Cause you think it all the time
Framin' rights into wrongs
Move along
Move along
When there's a doubt within your mind
When there's a burning in your heart
And you think it'll burst apart
Oh, there's nothing to fear
Save the tears
Save the tears
When there's a burning in your heart
And if you feel just like a tourist in the city you were born
Then, it's time to go
And you find your destination with so many different places to call home
'Cause when you find yourself a villain,
In the story you have written
It's plain to see
That sometimes the best intentions
Are in need of redemption
Would you agree
If so, please show me
(This... Fire... Grows... High...)
(This... Fire... Grows... High...)
When there's a burning in your heart,
When there's a burning in your heart, (This... Fire... Grows... High...)
When there's a burning in your heart, (This... Fire... Grows... High...)
(This... Fire... Grows... High...)
When there's a burning in your heart, (This... Fire... Grows... High...)
(This... Fire... Grows... High...)
When there's a burning in your heart.
Lyrics submitted by spectracide
Track duration: 04:47
"You Are a Tourist" as written by Benjamin Gibbard
Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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In my opinion, and clearly in others too, the song represents a change that we feel is necessary to break free and move on from something that happened. We feel like a tourist, when things that are happening around us feel as if they're moving faster than we are. The feeling of not belonging anymore, and being angry about it won't help, so we should "save our tears" and learn to move on by leaving. And that's okay, because we all need a break sometime. "The fire grows high" and we should leave to relieve that burning pain.
In the story you have written
It's plain to see
That sometimes the best intentions
Are in need of redemption
Would you agree
If so, please show me."
I think that this is about thinking that the decisions you made in a relationship were what was best for you and your partner. You had the best intentions, but sometimes you find that those things you said and did turn against you in the long run and you become the villain. You have to fix the mess you've created. Now, this song doesn't have to be about a relationship of course. This is just one way of interpreting it. Overall, it's about any situation in life that might cause you grief. But the message is to follow that burning in your heart and find what is best for you. Build it bigger than the sun and let it grow. Afterall, we all write the story of our own lives. It's up to us to decide what to write about.
Then it's time to go
And define your destination
There's so many different places to call home
Because when you find yourself the villain in the story you have written
It's plain to see
That sometimes the best intentions are in need of redemptions"
re·demp·tion [ri-demp-shuhn] Show IPA
noun
3.
Theology . deliverance from sin; salvation.
I think this is about growing up in a place that you feel disconnected from. When you're a tourist in a new city, you are unfamiliar, you don't feel at home.
I think he talks about what can happen to a person when he or she grows up in an environment that they haven't felt comfortable with. As a result, there can be a sense of anger in your heart.
When you continue to surround yourself with these people, you will always feel like the bad one, or the outcast (the villain in the story you have written.)
Sometimes when people do wrong by you, even when you're a good peson (best of intentions) you can do bad things because you feel so badly inside. These wrongs can be redeemed! Define your destination, find a new place to call home. When you surround yourself with others like you, you will realize that you are a good person with good intentions to start. Let the fire within your heart burn strongly enough for you to make a change!
This song is about being born again in Christ. It's hard to accept the need to be saved, to acknowledge that you are worthless and a sinner - damned. You have become the villain in your life when you realize that your sin will destroy you; that without Christ you can not be saved, and that you truly are wretched and alone, it is time to go. The doubt in your mind is the reluctance to accept Him, because it's not cool in the world. You tell yourself you're becoming a religious freak - you're framing a right into a wrong by trying to resist. Verses 1 and 2 are linked musically without break because this is the tension presented by your resistance to change, your reluctance, and the growing fire of Christ's love which will consume you in the end.
But to get a glimpse of salvation and to begin to embrace it is like a burning in your heart, that does grow and grow. The riffs, meter, and repetition of this lyric are beautifully synchronized with this meaning. Being reborn is not an event, it's a process that unfolds and builds on itself. It is just like a fire growing and growing until it is bigger than the sun, the pure hot love of Christ consuming you. Think about it, "bigger than the sun". What is bigger than the sun? The universe, God? Yes.
When you realize the world you live in is ugly and cruel, but in your heart you feel love - those best intentions are in need of redemption, and you do feel like a tourist in that world, a literal tourist in the mundane world, for you are becoming a spritual person not destined for this world... It is time for your departure.
Everyone else's ideas are far more acceptable and reasonable as interpretations. I agree with everyone else in summary and not you Christ boy.
what else is bigger than the sun? a countless number of other tangible, visible, physical objects.
also, it doesn't have a sense of being reborn at all just moving on from a situation.
Because you're thinking all the time
Framing rights into wrongs
Move along, move along
When there's a doubt within your mind
i would continually blame others for my own problems to make me feel sane about the way i acted to people and suddenly i realized i was the villan in my own story searching for success but realized i was actually the reason i was making no progress not my family not my friends not my alcohol the true problem was me but in realizing this i have found the ability to move forward in my life and no longer feel like a tourist in my own life like nothing was permanant and please if for any reason you dealt with the same problems i had make your self a destination and focus on that it will bring it all to focus personal success is the key to happiness dont run from your problems and realize your true situation
The line, "When you feel just like a tourist in the city you were born in, it's time to go," struck me immediately as pointing to his own move. Having lived a few blocks down from his old apartment, I'm sad to see him go! But on a serious note, it seems to me this may be a farewell song to Seattle and the life he lived there -- and a hello to the new, more upbeat life he's started on.
Some people who are not fortunate enough to be loved might have this constant pain in the heart to belong to someone. Worse still, if the girl/guy who you so deeply love turns you down and holds you for some mistake you did and you will always be thinking in your mind where you went wrong. You would see your good things as bad.
So when your friends or people you love alienate you (tourist in your own town), Ben says just move on because there are so many others who might want you (other places you can call home).
Overall just let the yearning for love grow and find someone who will love you.
I'd also like to hear anyone's ideas on it having a Christian meaning. Being born again. The refrains remind me of religious fervor and the love of Christ.
This song is my life. Yes, I am definitely buying the album. Death Cab for Cutie rocks!
The riff is insanely catchy, and the song is so well produced.
He's just saying follow your heart and enjoy life.