In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
When you fell on the rocks
At a bend in the river
With the blood from your nose
Running hard on your fingers
And through the rest of your life
The electric charge
Of a change in the weather
You were touching my arm:
You were holding a feather
And then I opened my eyes
And the world goes racing,
Suddenly changed,
As the shock of the exit leaves you trembling,
Like a bursting shell
In the small of your back,
Or a jaw bites hard
On a cast of your little line-
And an animal life pulls, surging, away
And you were back on the road
Through the worst of the winter
Through the valley of light
Passing through like an arrow
With your vision collapsed
And a stone from the river
Like a golden medallion
Clutching tight in your fingers
But on the slope, at the edge
Will you recover your life
You could stand on the back of a shuddering beam,
With a pistol, firing shots into the air
You could run in the blood of the sun's hard rays,
You could drive the mountains down into the bay
Or go back to the east,
(Where it's all so civilized)
Where I was born to the life
But I am leaving the life
I am leaving the life
I am leaving the life
I am leaving the life
I am leaving the life
I am leaving
At a bend in the river
With the blood from your nose
Running hard on your fingers
And through the rest of your life
The electric charge
Of a change in the weather
You were touching my arm:
You were holding a feather
And then I opened my eyes
And the world goes racing,
Suddenly changed,
As the shock of the exit leaves you trembling,
Like a bursting shell
In the small of your back,
Or a jaw bites hard
On a cast of your little line-
And an animal life pulls, surging, away
And you were back on the road
Through the worst of the winter
Through the valley of light
Passing through like an arrow
With your vision collapsed
And a stone from the river
Like a golden medallion
Clutching tight in your fingers
But on the slope, at the edge
Will you recover your life
You could stand on the back of a shuddering beam,
With a pistol, firing shots into the air
You could run in the blood of the sun's hard rays,
You could drive the mountains down into the bay
Or go back to the east,
(Where it's all so civilized)
Where I was born to the life
But I am leaving the life
I am leaving the life
I am leaving the life
I am leaving the life
I am leaving the life
I am leaving
Lyrics submitted by inverarity, edited by npchong, Unraveler
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Something about that lyric,
Or go back to the east, (Where it's all so civilized)
Gets me every time. Love this band.