I listened to this album a lot after my father passed, so my interpretation may be related to that....
What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round the sun
What a beautiful dream
That could flash on the screen
In a blink of an eye and be gone from me
Soft and sweet
Let me hold it close and keep it here with me
And one day we will die
And our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea
But for now we are young
Let us lay in the sun
And count every beautiful thing we can see
Love to be
In the arms of all I'm keeping here with me
What a curious life we have found here tonight
There is music that sounds from the street
There are lights in the clouds
Anna's ghost all around
Hear her voice as it's rolling and ringing through me
Soft and sweet
How the notes all bend and reach above the trees
Now how I remember you
How I would push my fingers through
Your mouth to make those muscles move
That made your voice so smooth and sweet
And now we keep where we don't know
All secrets sleep in winter clothes
With one you loved so long ago
Now we don't even know his name
What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round the sun
And when we meet on a cloud
I'll be laughing out loud
I'll be laughing with everyone I see
Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all
I have found in this place
That is circling all round the sun
What a beautiful dream
That could flash on the screen
In a blink of an eye and be gone from me
Soft and sweet
Let me hold it close and keep it here with me
And one day we will die
And our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea
But for now we are young
Let us lay in the sun
And count every beautiful thing we can see
Love to be
In the arms of all I'm keeping here with me
What a curious life we have found here tonight
There is music that sounds from the street
There are lights in the clouds
Anna's ghost all around
Hear her voice as it's rolling and ringing through me
Soft and sweet
How the notes all bend and reach above the trees
Now how I remember you
How I would push my fingers through
Your mouth to make those muscles move
That made your voice so smooth and sweet
And now we keep where we don't know
All secrets sleep in winter clothes
With one you loved so long ago
Now we don't even know his name
What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round the sun
And when we meet on a cloud
I'll be laughing out loud
I'll be laughing with everyone I see
Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all
Lyrics submitted by PLANES, edited by KurmisTheFrog, Mellow_Harsher, eljavi, SteveDream, Dufflepud
Track duration: 03:22
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But it's also about how everything is very ephemeral. Nothing lasts forever, but it's not a sad realization. It's a live in the moment realization. I'd really hate to over complicate this analysis, so I'll just end it by saying that this song always makes me feel better when I'm down, even though it's really not the most "happy" song.
What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round the sun
What a beautiful dream
That could flash on the screen
In a blink of an eye and be gone from me
Soft and sweet
Let me hold it close and keep it here with me
Really talks about when you are in love, and how fragile it is. Anything could happen to take it away from you, and so it's a beautiful, amazing thing to find on this speck of mud floating in the infinite sea of our universe.
And one day we will die
And our ashes will fly from the aeroplane over the sea
But for now we are young
Let us lay in the sun
And count every beautiful thing we can see
Love to be
In the arms of all I'm keeping here with me
This verse is a sort of acknowledgement of the previous point; sure, everything will be gone from us one day, but for now let us enjoy it while we have it. It is precious, and can't be wasted.
What a curious life we have found here tonight
There is music that sounds from the street
There are lights in the clouds
Anna's ghost all around
Hear her voice as it's rolling and ringing through me
Soft and sweet
How the notes all bend and reach above the trees
This is usually referenced when talking about Anne Franke and the apparent Holocaust theme throughout the whole album. But it also sets up the bridge. It can be about some love lost, or the afterglow of love, even, when you are not with your lover but can still feel his/her warm glow in your heart.
Now how I remember you
How I would push my fingers through
Your mouth to make those muscles move
That made your voice so smooth and sweet
And now we keep where we don't know
All secrets sleep in winter clothes
With one you loved so long ago
Now he don't even know his name
Now the bridge is a statement of nostalgia. The first half is remembrance, but the second half is more interesting to me. "With the one you loved so long ago…Now he don't even know his name" seems to talk about when you reach old age, those that you loved so long ago might be dead or losing their minds. This really flows into the final verse:
What a beautiful face
I have found in this place
That is circling all round the sun
And when we meet on a cloud
I'll be laughing out loud
I'll be laughing with everyone I see
Can't believe how strange it is to be anything at all
Which is, of course, when you die. If you believe in an afterlife of sorts, this verse is looking forward to meeting those past lovers in the end, celebrating and remembering the past for what it was. Not only for what it was, but for what it can be enjoyed as now that life is over. What seemed like regrettable actions or rough patches, arguments, etc, in life now fade away into the eternal background of the afterlife and are meaningless.
It really is one of the greatest love songs ever written, I think.
Basically, I think that the song is about two things: 1. the reincarnation / chain of life, and the realization of consciousness (awakening) of an individual (perhaps a soul).
"how strange it is to be anything at all" is realizing that you exist, and are here in a plane of reality with other beings. I imagine this almost as a dance or a ball, where we are all simultaneously awakening to each other and celebrating in our moment in life.
"hold it close and keep it here with me" is that tendency at the first moment of love to cling to that other--soulmate--playfully, again as a dance of the moment, but also desperately in the need to join in something lasting, fighting against the churning ceaseless lifecycle and inevitability of loss.
"all secrets sleep in winter clothes" to me is possibly the most haunting lyric I have ever heard. I can't help going to an easy interpretation of some past abuse or trauma that is buried in years of privation. Also, it is these pains that keep us asleep to life, separate us from the spark and synergy of the moment.
"now how I remember you, how i would push my fingers through" to me is exactly about reincarnation and how the life cycle is actually a melding and reformation of past souls, one life-being "pushing through" into the body of the next, literally at an infant stage, teaching a new born to move in it's body and become aware of / interact with the world around it. i remember that not long after my father passed, my sister gave birth to her first child. Neice (my sister) and I had the simultaneous (but separate) feeling that we could see our father's spirit and mannerism in the fitful expressions of her daughter. of course this could be the genetics of musculature, but as I interpret it above, what would otherwise be a very gross, visceral lyric is actually beautiful and incredibly intimate.
I think that Mangum saw a lot. Perhaps way more than he could process or even understand. But to me his lyrics are almost like a channel...a pure / beautiful / grotesque cycle of life and rebirth.
Either way, I didn't realize that he drew SO heavily on Anne Frank's story, to the point where she's basically referenced as "Anna," and if that's not exactly her, then it's a character clearly inspired by her.
As for the "how I pushed my fingers through your mouth" line, I always took that as more...sexual. You know, the mouth is SOMETHING ELSE. ;). To make those muscles move, (spasm,) and make your voice so smooth and sweet (make you moan.) After all, this is Jeff Mangum, who has some of the grossest, sexual metaphors out there. Cue "Oh Comely"... (His father made fetuses with flesh licking ladies, etc.)
How I would push my fingers through your mouth
To make those muscles move
That made your voice so smooth and sweet
refer to the fact that Mangum is putting works in Anne's mouth through his songs. He is describing wearing a figurative handpuppet (of Anne) and working the mouth and voice from within.
To make those muscles move
That made your voice so smooth and sweet"
I dont understand this. Why would pushing his fingers into someones mouth.. and make the muscles in her throat... move..? make her voice soft and sweet?
Ana is a name fondly given by anorexic's to their eating disorder.
This song is about the relationship he/she has with the eating disorder.....
the living in the now that you guys refer to.... is that she's not looking to the future, not thinking about the fact the disorder will eventually kill her.