For the love, I'd fallen on
In the swampy August dawn
What a mischief you would bring young darling!
When the onus is not all your own
When you're up for it before you've grown

From the faun forever gone
In the towers of your honeycomb
I'd a tore your hair out just to climb back darling
When you're filling out your only form
Can you tell that it?s just ceremon'
Now you've added up to what you're from

Build your tether rain-out from your fragments'
Break the sailor's table on your sacrum'
Fuck the fiercest fables, I'm with Hagen

For the love, comes the burning young
From the liver, sweating through your tongue
Well, you're standing on my sternum don't you climb down darling
Oh the sermons are the first to rest
Smoke on Sundays when you?re drunk and dressed
Out the hollows where the swallow nests



Lyrics submitted by doomgazer

Track duration: 03:08

"Towers" as written by Justin Deyarmond Edison Vernon

Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

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Towers song meanings
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18 Comments

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  • +1
    General Comment:To echo earlier comments, he said in Tampa last night that this is "about having 3/4 a bottle of wine in college and well...you know what happens..."

    Makes the meaning pretty obvious given the previous comments...
    Flagged P55cw55on June 08, 2012   Link
  • +3
    General Comment:Justin Vernon's words right before he played this song last night.... "this next song... well you're 19, things happen, fuck it"
    Flag kj19on March 16, 2012   Link
  • +7
    General Comment:Source: thealchemyindex.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/child-of-winter-child-of-sun-justin-vernon-bon-iver-interview/

    Interviewer: The place name’s on the album, do they relate to the content of the songs at all?

    Justin Vernon: Yeah, they all do, take ‘Towers’ for example: ‘Towers’ is the name of the dormitory that I lived in in college; it’s made up of these two towers – North and South – my girlfriend lived in one and I lived in the other. It’s about falling in love, but also about what happens when you’ve long fallen out of love and those reminders are still there. You drive by them, these two buildings, and you look, and you realise that we really built that up. That we really built that love into these things, and for a long time afterward looking at them really made me feel sad; to see these empty buildings that I don’t go in to anymore. But then, as time goes on, they start to become kind of joyous in their own way: you can look at them and think ‘that love was great and these buildings still stand tall’. But there’s also an element of the fact that they’re just buildings – they’re gonna fall down one day, and they’re not that important because there’s new love in your life and you’ve got to break things down that get built up.
    Flag mikecon February 27, 2012   Link
  • +2
    General Comment:i saw him play a hometown (Eau Claire) show last night and he said it was about the dorms at UW-Eau Claire which are called "the towers."
    Flag lizzygon December 14, 2011   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:Well, I am not being terribly insightful, but he said at his homecoming concert at UW Eau Claire the other day, that the song was about the two buildings up the hill. These would be the two dorms, Towers North and Towers South.
    Flag bettaspldon December 14, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I really like Hopetoken's interpretation as I've found myself in a similar situation.
    I especially like;

    "for the love, comes the burning young
    from the liver, sweating through your tongue"

    An emotional filter is such a big part of a relationship and is often taken for granted especially when you're young.

    Flag listenlearnon December 11, 2011   Link
  • +2
    General Comment:okay, i'm sorry but SACRAL CHAKRA??? its not such an innocent song you guys!!!
    "break the sailors table on your sacrum?"
    THAT PART IS ABOUT DOING IT. you know where your sacrum is right? low back. and where would that be in relationship to a table and breaking it? on the table. so where does that leave the girl? with sacrum on the table. how would she break it? it would be pretty hard to break by just laying there. i think you get it. also sailors pretty much always reference some type of sleaze, and are college boys any better than sleazy sailors? i think no.

    actually the song is ridiculously brilliant, and its about losing your innocence, and finding out who you are as an adult sexually and personally.
    "the sermons are the first to rest"
    oh aren't they in college?
    "filling out your only form"
    your BODY! you only get one.
    not a survey.........sheesh.

    and I'm pretty sure "fuck the fiersiest fables" is pretty literal. because isn't that what college is? living out some grand idea, PARTICULARLY sexually? like you are supposed to live out some dream of sleeping around and being free? but it hurts. hence the hagan part i'm thinking (who stabs someone in the back). because you're doing it, but your not really an adult yet, but you think you are supposed to, and it hurts, but you don't want to stop it either.

    hence:

    "your standing on my sternum don't climb down darling" pretty sure thats about weight on his chest. not that he's going to support someone. its about pressure, from a person, you get it.

    "smoke on sundays when you're drunk and dressed" what else would you do on sunday, freshman year?

    when it clicked, it was crazy. this man is FUCKING BRILLIANT. this song is, beyond words. so amazing

    Flag gemmalove13on November 28, 2011   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:to clear up the whole "dorms" thing, Towers is a residence hall at university of wisconsin Eau-Claire, where JV must have stayed when he went to college there
    Flag SeegerWWXCon November 02, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:hello
    I googled the tune cos, the riff and the subject matter is really similar to this tune wot i wrote.
    I think I optimistically thought there maybe a connection, evidently there isnt!!
    but finding this great site, thought id share with u cos u might like it.
    "This Island Is Manmade"
    ukstates.com/flash/…

    Flag Christianoon October 26, 2011   Link
  • +1
    My Opinion:totally seeing some andrew bird influence in this one
    Flag x0blongon October 20, 2011   Link

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