This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Grandma, my sleep is narrow
Bid you bring me some... strong... drink
Strain out the pulps and set them close outside
For when my belly
For when my little belly speaks
Grandma, there’s air beneath my bed
And it whispers, and it whispers when I rest
Bid hem the skirts in salt and vinegar, vinegar
And hover closely
Oh hover closely under head
Grandma, the water is rising
My boundless hair has gotten green
I’ll be your swimming forest island
Bid you walk safely, safely over me
Grandma, my hands have wandered
And my legs, my little legs are getting weak
Bid lend me your wispy frame
And guard my powers
Guard my precious powers in its cage
Grandma, I’ve been unruly
In my dreams and with my speech
Drill little holes into my eyelids
That I might see you
That I might see you when I...
Sleep
Grandma, the water is rising
My boundless hair has gotten green
I’ll be your swimming forest island
Bid you walk safely safely over me
I’ll be your swimming forest island...
Bid you bring me some... strong... drink
Strain out the pulps and set them close outside
For when my belly
For when my little belly speaks
Grandma, there’s air beneath my bed
And it whispers, and it whispers when I rest
Bid hem the skirts in salt and vinegar, vinegar
And hover closely
Oh hover closely under head
Grandma, the water is rising
My boundless hair has gotten green
I’ll be your swimming forest island
Bid you walk safely, safely over me
Grandma, my hands have wandered
And my legs, my little legs are getting weak
Bid lend me your wispy frame
And guard my powers
Guard my precious powers in its cage
Grandma, I’ve been unruly
In my dreams and with my speech
Drill little holes into my eyelids
That I might see you
That I might see you when I...
Sleep
Grandma, the water is rising
My boundless hair has gotten green
I’ll be your swimming forest island
Bid you walk safely safely over me
I’ll be your swimming forest island...
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Lyrics as they appear on the sleeve of the LP:
grandma my sleep is narrow bid you bring me some strong drink strain out the pulps and set them close outside for when my little belly speaks
grandma there's air beneath my bed and it whispers when I rest bid hem the skirts in salt and vinegar and hover closely under head
grandma my hands have wandered my little legs are getting weak bid lend me your wispy frame guard my precious powers in its cage
grandma the water is rising my boundless hair has gotten green I'll be your swimming forest island bid you walk safely over me
oops, left out a verse......... here's the actual correct lyrics, sorry.....<br /> <br /> grandma my sleep is narrow<br /> bid you bring me some strong drink<br /> strain out the pulps and set them close outside<br /> for when my little belly speaks<br /> <br /> grandma there's air beneath my bed<br /> and it whispers when I rest<br /> bid hem the skirts in salt and vinegar<br /> and hover closely under head<br /> <br /> grandma my hands have wandered<br /> my little legs are getting weak<br /> bid lend me your wispy frame<br /> guard my precious powers in its cage<br /> <br /> grandma I've been unruly<br /> in my dreams and with my sleep<br /> drill little holes into my eyelids<br /> that I might see you when I sleep<br /> <br /> grandma the water is rising<br /> my boundless hair has gotten green<br /> I'll be your swimming forest island<br /> bid you walk safely over me
Just throwing it out there, the lyrics on the jacket may differ from what was actually recorded. I only say this because the line you posted as "In my dreams and when I sleep" is clearly "In my dreams and with my speech."
fuck lol it is indeed "with my speech" im just an idiot and copied it wrong. wish i could delete the post?
I have the vinyl and I can confirm it says "with my sleep" when she obviously says "speech"<br /> I'm submitting the lyrics from the jacket for most of the songs just because it's what Purity Ring themselves put out as the lyrics<br /> There are a good amount of discrepancies between the recorded lyrics and the jacket lyrics
This is a song about intuition. Jung defined intuition as "perception via the unconscious". Essentially it means knowing something in your gut, hence the title belispeak.
Her is an archetype for Grandma intuitive wisdom, accessible through the (collective) unconscious. ‘My sleep is narrow’ refers to her ability to pinpoint meaning or knowledge in her dreams, or more broadly in the (collective) unconscious. ‘Strain out the pulps’ refers to setting reality aside while she intuitively finds meaning, ‘close outside’ so she can apply this knowledge to the outside world; after her ‘belly speaks’.
The air beneath her bed that whispers when she rests refers again to the knowledge she derives from intuition, seemingly out of thin air. ‘Bid hem the skirts in salt and vinegar’ means that she feels this intuition with her at all times, ‘closely under head’ or in her gut, specifically.
‘The water is rising’ means that she’s drowning in conscious ‘reality’ a reality that distorts true meaning. The appearances of the real world do not represent truth. “I'll be your swimming fodder starlet when you walk safely, safely over me,” means that she can navigate, or find true meaning in, such a reality when her grandma walks on the water above her, or when intuition guides her.
“Hands wandered” and “legs weak” means she’s swimming, or living in this distorted reality, but is getting tired. She wants to transcend it (“lend me your wispy frame”). Her psyche slips out of consciousness into the collective unconscious (a dream), leaving only her grandma, blind intuition, as a guide for her physical body (‘guard my precious body’).
Here she sees actual truth, rather than the veil of reality. She’s been liberated, in a sense (‘been unruly in my dreams’) and drills holes into her eyelids so she does not have to wake up (and cease knowing truth) when she returns to consciousness.
god everything purity ring creates is magic~
In my opinion, this song sounds like it's about a young girl from a poor family. She lives with her grandmother who can no longer afford to take care of her and so, in order to prevent her suffering a painful death of starvation she gives her alcohol ("Grandma, my sleepless know that you bring me some strong drink") so that she will fall asleep/pass out and then she drowns her ("Grandma, the water is rising, by now this hair has gotten green"). Perhaps this child blames herself for what her grandmother did, as children often do and that's why she says "Grandma, I've been unruly in my dreams and with my speech". Any other opinions?
Kind of sounds like... She is confessing to her Grandma who is no longer with her physically but in spirit. Of all the things she says she's done like being "unruly" she may feel like corpse. Not alive..good enough for her grandma to view her. As if her actions were "unruly enough" that she had might as well be dead or dying. Her conscious seems to be getting to her. Her "sleepless know"
She wants to see her Grandma, "Drill little holes into my eyelids that I might see you, that I might see you when I sleep" Whether it be as she walks over her in heaven or in her dreams.
OR this could be just another great song. :)
She's pregnant, her baby is growing inside of her, she's worried, her grandma is trying to help, she's dying.
i don't know the meaning of this song but it totally relates to me in some weird twisted way. My grandma died when I was like 10, and I stopped swimming competitively cuz, well, I felt really depressed. But in high school, that's when I restarted and my view of my grandma changed when my mom told me what kind of woman she really was, which was a judgmental woman, with all due respect. So everything changed and I really tried so hard to get back on track to swimming and restarting myself, but her memory still haunted me. I finally get a sense that she's in heaven watching me do a buncha these inappropriate things she would have disapproved of. So I still continue training for numerous hours a day in the pool with my hair getting all dry and ugly but thankfully not green! My legs get tired and I get weak and stronger at the same time. Finally on Prelims day, before my event, I pray and when I competed. I felt her kinda walking over me like how Jesus walked over water. really weird i know :3
Amazing
I think it's about a girl who lives with and is abused by her grandmother, who ultimately drowns her in a pool. Despite this abuse, she has been brainwashed to be loyal and see her grandma as a role model and she feels guilty when she has thoughts of suicide, running away or harming her grandma.
The girl is malnourished and gets fed only with kitchen scraps(pulps) when she is very hungry or when her stomach grumbles ("belly speaks"). The grandmother gives her alcohol to put her to sleep when she is kept awake by hunger.
"bid you bring me some strong drink strain out the pulps and set them close outside for when my little belly speaks"
She has contemplated suicide and has had dreams of running away, but feels guilty for it and things she has said to her grandmother in the past. Despite being abused, she is loyal to her grandmother and wants to spend every moment seeing her.
"Grandma, my hands have wondered"--implying her hands have a mind that has thought about killing her.
"Grandma, I've been unruly in my dreams and with my speech Drill little holes into my eyelids that I might see you that I might see you when I sleep"
Unable to care for her, the grandma eventually drowns her in the pool by luring her out there by saying something encouraging that grandmother's commonly say: "You'll be my swimming starlet." The reference to hair turning green is what commonly happens to blond hair in chlorinated water. "The water is rising"-- the grandma is pushing her deeper and then walks safely along the edge of the pool as the girl starts dying,
Purity Ring's explanation of the song: pitchfork.com/news/43641-rising-purity-ring/