I have always been under the impression that the song isn't so much about people being horrible in the emotional sense, but it's Cave telling a story about how you can love someone, completely devote yourself to them and in the end they die and you're left without them.
So really, people ain't no good, because even if you love someone they can still die.
I think prodigal has a good point there: nowhere in the song does it sound like his love actually betrayed him. In fact, these lines:
I think prodigal has a good point there: nowhere in the song does it sound like his love actually betrayed him. In fact, these lines:
The winter slammed us like a fist
The windows rattling in the gales
To which she drew the curtains
Made out of her wedding veils
The winter slammed us like a fist
The windows rattling in the gales
To which she drew the curtains
Made out of her wedding veils
Make it sound like that when hard times hit, she helped get them threw it through the strength of her commitment.
Make it sound like that when hard times hit, she helped get them threw it through the strength of her commitment.
And the song also has a strong sense of passing time ("Seasons passing") and it sounds like the song's protagonist actually refers to his love's death (although he makes it sound impersonal or hypothetical):
They can comfort you, some even try
They nurse you when you're ill of health
They bury you when you go and die
I think this song is so sad because it's about the inevitability of love leading to real pain, not because betrayal is inevitable - but just because everything must come to an end eventually. God that's depressing. Time for bed.
I respectfully disagree. I don't think the song is about actual death in the first place, and even if it was - death is a fact of life. Sad maybe, but I don't think it should be "depressing" as such. I'm not in denial either. If nothing ever ended, nothing would have any value.
I respectfully disagree. I don't think the song is about actual death in the first place, and even if it was - death is a fact of life. Sad maybe, but I don't think it should be "depressing" as such. I'm not in denial either. If nothing ever ended, nothing would have any value.
I have always been under the impression that the song isn't so much about people being horrible in the emotional sense, but it's Cave telling a story about how you can love someone, completely devote yourself to them and in the end they die and you're left without them.
So really, people ain't no good, because even if you love someone they can still die.
I think prodigal has a good point there: nowhere in the song does it sound like his love actually betrayed him. In fact, these lines:
I think prodigal has a good point there: nowhere in the song does it sound like his love actually betrayed him. In fact, these lines:
The winter slammed us like a fist The windows rattling in the gales To which she drew the curtains Made out of her wedding veils
The winter slammed us like a fist The windows rattling in the gales To which she drew the curtains Made out of her wedding veils
Make it sound like that when hard times hit, she helped get them threw it through the strength of her commitment.
Make it sound like that when hard times hit, she helped get them threw it through the strength of her commitment.
And the song also has a strong sense of passing time ("Seasons passing") and it sounds like the song's protagonist actually refers to his love's death (although he makes it sound impersonal or hypothetical):
They can comfort you, some even try They nurse you when you're ill of health They bury you when you go and die
I think this song is so sad because it's about the inevitability of love leading to real pain, not because betrayal is inevitable - but just because everything must come to an end eventually. God that's depressing. Time for bed.
I respectfully disagree. I don't think the song is about actual death in the first place, and even if it was - death is a fact of life. Sad maybe, but I don't think it should be "depressing" as such. I'm not in denial either. If nothing ever ended, nothing would have any value.
I respectfully disagree. I don't think the song is about actual death in the first place, and even if it was - death is a fact of life. Sad maybe, but I don't think it should be "depressing" as such. I'm not in denial either. If nothing ever ended, nothing would have any value.