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Through the rain and all the clatter
Under the Fremont bridge I saw a pigeon fly
Fly in fear from the raptor come to take its life
And as it closed in for the capture
I funneled the fear through my ancient eyes
To see in flight, what I know are the bitter mechanics of life
Under my hat it reads "the lines are all imagined"
A fact of life I know to hide from my little girls
I know my place amongst the bugs and all the animals
And it's from these ordinary people you are longing to be free
My hotel and on the TV
A preacher on a stage like a buzzard cries
Out a warning of phony sorrow, he's trying to get a rise
The cyanide of an almond
Let him look at your hands, get the angles right
Ace of spades, port of morrow, life is death is life
I saw a photograph: Cologne in '27
And then a postcard after the bombs in '45
Must've been a world of evil clowns that let it happen
But now I recognize, dear listeners
That you were there and so was I
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
Under my hat I know the lines are all imagined
A fact of life I must impress on my little girls
I know my place amongst the creatures in the pageant
And there are flowers in the garbage, and a skull under your curls
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah...
Under the Fremont bridge I saw a pigeon fly
Fly in fear from the raptor come to take its life
And as it closed in for the capture
I funneled the fear through my ancient eyes
To see in flight, what I know are the bitter mechanics of life
Under my hat it reads "the lines are all imagined"
A fact of life I know to hide from my little girls
I know my place amongst the bugs and all the animals
And it's from these ordinary people you are longing to be free
My hotel and on the TV
A preacher on a stage like a buzzard cries
Out a warning of phony sorrow, he's trying to get a rise
The cyanide of an almond
Let him look at your hands, get the angles right
Ace of spades, port of morrow, life is death is life
I saw a photograph: Cologne in '27
And then a postcard after the bombs in '45
Must've been a world of evil clowns that let it happen
But now I recognize, dear listeners
That you were there and so was I
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah
Under my hat I know the lines are all imagined
A fact of life I must impress on my little girls
I know my place amongst the creatures in the pageant
And there are flowers in the garbage, and a skull under your curls
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah...
Lyrics submitted by llscience
Track duration: 04:15
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As an atheist, I find death to be a terrifying thought. The oblivion that follows is sort of comforting, but not really.
But this song speaks to that. "Life is death is life." It's as though he's saying that when we are alive we are just this collection of stardust, and we are no different in death. The delineation between life and death is imaginary. As are all the lines that society draws, right/wrong, good/evil, particularly the line which separates humanity from any other brutal animal (the buzzard for example).
I love his songs when they take these journeys. He starts out in fear for the pigeon, the victim of the brutal cycle of life. He wants to shield his daughters from this harsh reality. But over the course of the song he comes to terms with death, and it's necessity, it being essentially a part of life. Even the atrocities of war he considers as part of... existence. He accepts the cycle of life and death, and realizes he should impress it on his daughters.
The lines are all imagined.
magnetmagazine.com/2012/03/26/magnet-web-exclusive-the-shins-james-mercer-on-the-new-port-of-morrow/
And then a postcard after the bombs in '45
Must've been a world of evil clowns that let it happen
But now I recognize, dear listeners
That you were there and so was I"
I guess he's trying to say we're responsile for the acts of mankind. It doesn't matter if these are different times. We are as much humans as everyone else.
The preacher, cyanide, and the postcards which evoke the damage WWII took area all how parts of the same coin can be so misleading and even downright disastrous, and James took very careful care in how he expresses his feelings, and his profound thought makes the song all the more powerful.
I love the first verse, when he sees the pigeon about to be killed and he fears for it, but he knows what's going to happen; those are just the mechanics of life.
I love how at first he wants to hide the fact that "the lines are all imagined" from his little girl, but then at the end, wants to impress it upon her. There is so much that is just imagined in our world today that we take for granted to be real. To realize that it doesn't exist, that it doesn't matter, is incredibly important (or is it?).
"Ace of spades, port of morrow, life is death is life"...
Then he makes a statement of human history: "Must've been a world of evil clowns who let it happen... But now I recognize, dear listeners, that you were there and so was I." The first time I heard this song, and I heard him sing "dear listeners," it felt so surreal.
The last line, that there is "a skull under your curls" is incredibly powerful to end the song. No matter how full of life a young girl might seem, she's just a skeleton on the inside. Just like everyone else who is alive, and everyone who is dead.
When it all comes together, it seems like an incredibly complex and simultaneously simple statement on life. Whatever it is, this song feels incredibly important to me.
I know he's said that this song is about being an atheist or whatever, so you could also look at "the lines are all imagined" as being the lines in the bible, literally the words said by god and others were all imagined.