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Well, the future spills its intangibles
An unknown set of variables
A path that split infinitely up ahead
So tell me what's the use to pick and choose
From what you should or shouldn't do?
That's time spent better sleeping in your bed
Or wide awake in a shopping mall
Trying clothes on from off of the wall
Yeah, anything to entertain yourself
Because a costume can be comfortable
It can make you feel more beautiful
It can even make you look like someone else
But it's still you, so there's nothing you can do
Like a bad habit, the one you couldn't kick, there it always is
And it's nothing that no doctor's going to fix
They pat your back bruised with their accolades
And all four walls are a trophy case
But that doesn't make it any less of a cage
But you can make it all less difficult
By embracing the ephemeral
Then you'd never have to worry or explain
Because if it's really all just physical
Then my memory's immaterial
So why then do I remember you at all?
But I do, I do, my friend, I've seen your face
We shared a cup, I know the taste
Its sweetness is relentless on my lips
So help me drink in everything that is
Like a freed convict, drunk on redemption
From the way I've been
But I swear this time that things will be different
Well, right and wrong, they have never been that far apart
For those who'd write that sentence where you hang
We will be lifted up from all of this
Yeah, we will transcend the insignificance of our existence
Yeah, your body's gone, but angel, you will live
Yeah your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone, but angel, you will live
An unknown set of variables
A path that split infinitely up ahead
So tell me what's the use to pick and choose
From what you should or shouldn't do?
That's time spent better sleeping in your bed
Or wide awake in a shopping mall
Trying clothes on from off of the wall
Yeah, anything to entertain yourself
Because a costume can be comfortable
It can make you feel more beautiful
It can even make you look like someone else
But it's still you, so there's nothing you can do
Like a bad habit, the one you couldn't kick, there it always is
And it's nothing that no doctor's going to fix
They pat your back bruised with their accolades
And all four walls are a trophy case
But that doesn't make it any less of a cage
But you can make it all less difficult
By embracing the ephemeral
Then you'd never have to worry or explain
Because if it's really all just physical
Then my memory's immaterial
So why then do I remember you at all?
But I do, I do, my friend, I've seen your face
We shared a cup, I know the taste
Its sweetness is relentless on my lips
So help me drink in everything that is
Like a freed convict, drunk on redemption
From the way I've been
But I swear this time that things will be different
Well, right and wrong, they have never been that far apart
For those who'd write that sentence where you hang
We will be lifted up from all of this
Yeah, we will transcend the insignificance of our existence
Yeah, your body's gone, but angel, you will live
Yeah your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone
Now your body’s gone, but angel, you will live
Lyrics submitted by iddonuk
Track duration: 04:35
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The second verse is weird to me, but the last line : Your body's gone, but angel you will live...
I think that this is not a life after death situation, but he's just saying that he will remember this person. Although this person no longer walks the earth, he or she will "live" in his memory.
"Well, right and wrong, they have never been that far apart
For those who'd write that sentence where you hang"
Any ideas of what that means?
His lack of belief is shining through in this song, much in the same way it is in We Are Free Men, and so many other songs of his where the points he makes are rooted so smoothly behind the lyrics.
knowing conor his symbolism isnt always necessarily narrowed to one meaning
and i don't think when the president talks to god is so much a stand on his religious beliefs but more political
i don't think it has anything to do with god
but more with what a dumbshit our president is and how he justifies the things he does because he claims to be such a devout Christian
The song begins with an analysis of choice. I think the comment about remaining in one’s bed out of cowardice is meant to be ironic, though it’s a comment that we’ve all related to at one point or another. Oberst then talks about the personas and styles we assume in order to hide ourselves from the mirror, though that again, always snaps back in our face, as all lies do. At the end of the night, we’re picking our scabs and have to realize that we’d lied not only to others but ourselves, stifled ourselves in order to appear more beautiful or charming to others, as a result of dissatisfaction with ourselves. And the more we assume this pattern of behavior, the worse it will get. We’re hiding from our problems rather than discovering who we are and allowing others to love us for who we are, which of course, I will not lie and say is always a matter of course.
Regardless of all the successes assumed from our personas, we are still not free to be who we truly are. We even feel hurt (backs bruised by accolades) that others would praise something we are not. But there is a spiritual solution--accepting the impermanence of the universe, a Buddhist induction, though all energy can only be converted or transferred, which brings us to consciousness and my favorite line in the song.
“If it’s really all just physical, then my memory’s immaterial, so why do I remember you at all?”
If there is only the flesh, physical gratification, then his memories shouldn’t affect him and he shouldn’t be in such a state of spiritual thirst. However, he’s also pointing out the duality of the body and consciousness. Consciousness is either a byproduct of the body, or choices are a byproduct of consciousness. Does it really matter so long as we can establish that they are correlated? Furthermore, conscious thoughts are immaterial, intangible, yet they are exactly what instill life with meaning and are, in my opinion, though not a biologist’s, a key property of life. Consciousness and free will are what make us animals, and set us above our animal nature. A cell is just a deterministic configuration of chemical reactions within a plasma membrane, but as animals and spiritual creatures we transcend the limitations of determinism. He is also, of course, referring to his lover.
He’s seen her face, yet there is an honesty to who she is. He shared a cup of life, which is a direct allusion to the Holy Bible, and spiritual redemption. God, I feel like such a hypocrite capitalizing those words. I am far from perfect, but that’s irrelevant to dissecting this song that has nonetheless touched me. He shared in God’s love with her, and still remembers the sweetness of her kiss. She has saved him and helped him rise above this life; he is intoxicated by the perfection of their arrangement. They are ready to begin again, which is also an allusion to rebirth, a pervasive theme in the Bible. Perhaps they reached spiritual redemption together.
Men who feel that they can take the lives of others simply because others too, have succumbed to the same degree of imperfection. It is also an accusation against God--saying that God is responsible for hell. The devil was created for hell. Why would God create hell at all? Paraphrasing knowledge received from someone during a near-death experience (whether a byproduct of a dying brain, or true enlightenment), that Jesus told him, as the subject was a painter, to attempt to create a painting from one color. Yet, to my understanding, heaven is essentially of one color--perhaps it’s imperfect creatures in spiritual form working for perfection, striving toward it, drinking it in, yet unable to reach it, just as it would be impossible to reach absolute imperfection. These are absolute archetypes, yet we are limited creatures; we are double. I do not yet know how to explain this.
And then--and I want everyone to ponder this deeply--he speaks of consciousness surviving the decay of the human body. In light of near-death experiences, this seems wholly possible. All matter is energy. Is the soul, or consciousness, energy? If so, is it impossible to destroy, except in hell? Do we live on? What is the point if we don’t live on? Why do we love if consciousness is just a byproduct of the nervous system, can’t influence behavior, and thus has no evolutionary value? Why do we feel our chests aflame, or the gentle breath of the stars? Why this miracle, and why this transcendence that one need only momentarily introspect to discover? If there is no reason, I will not say life is meaningless, but… I just want to believe in something higher. Something that will awaken us all.
How do we fix all this? How do we ever find the absolute confidence to fix ourselves? It reminds me of “We Were Meant to Live for So Much More” by Switchfoot. It also reminds me of “Reflection” by Tool. There’s a deep darkness to that one, but there is something beyond it reaching for redemption, quaking with desire and thirst.
But that doesn't make it any less of a cage
But you can make it all less difficult
By embracing the ephemeral
Then you'd never have to worry or explain
Because if it's really all just physical"
i see this as just an overall philosophical kindof dharma way where as everything is just physical and although you have all these rewards and pleasures you are still trapped up untill the point you come to realize that everything is nothing,and nothing is everything.
Really though, I didn't mean to turn this into a debate about the singer's theism [or lack thereof]. Regardless, this is a great song.
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