When I was listening to this in the car, I noticed that on the side of the road, a house had been razed to the ground, leaving only charred wood and broken bits of roofing.
I took this in right as the singer exclaimed, "Who are we/To promise we'll be leaving shortly?"
This actually changed the meaning of the song completely for me--imagining a family standing in front of their destroyed home, burned down in an electrical fire ("what was that light", etc.) by accident ("what have you done"), and, as they stare, they feel that their life is over, and try to remember the past ("smile, go inside")--but they still have to make it somehow. "Who are we to promise we'll be leaving shortly?"
When I was listening to this in the car, I noticed that on the side of the road, a house had been razed to the ground, leaving only charred wood and broken bits of roofing. I took this in right as the singer exclaimed, "Who are we/To promise we'll be leaving shortly?" This actually changed the meaning of the song completely for me--imagining a family standing in front of their destroyed home, burned down in an electrical fire ("what was that light", etc.) by accident ("what have you done"), and, as they stare, they feel that their life is over, and try to remember the past ("smile, go inside")--but they still have to make it somehow. "Who are we to promise we'll be leaving shortly?"