I didn't know what milk thistle was used for but now that I do, I think it really fits with all these other stanzas, as though, the narrator -- and all that we know about his apparent alcoholism from his other songs -- is sort of suffering and rooting for the underdog, in a sense. I love the image of this herbal remedy sort of aiding him on, just as, in another stanza, he supports Lazarus.
Someone asked who Lazarus was in the Bible -- I think there were two, but in this one he's referring to the parabal of beggar, not the one raised from the dead. There was this beggar that this rich guy in the Bible doesn't help, as he sits at his door step asking for assistance day after day, and in the afterlife Lazarus goes to heaven and the other guy goes hell for not helping someone in great need.
So that certainly fits with the stanza about Lazarus where Conor compares her to a washed up actress in LA.
My favourite line, aside from Conor saying he'd be bored as hell in heaven, which I love, is this stanza:
All the sights and sounds
This little world's too crowded now
And there's only one way out
An elevator ride
Through the tunnel towards the light
And I'm nowhere bound
Keep going up and down
Up and down
I love how he compares death and the descent or ascent to either heaven or hell to an elevator ride. I guess it just really strikes me because I can relate to the exhaustion and there only being one way out. But the whole "nowhere bound" just going up and down from heaven to hell on an elevator is just a stunning picture.
I didn't know what milk thistle was used for but now that I do, I think it really fits with all these other stanzas, as though, the narrator -- and all that we know about his apparent alcoholism from his other songs -- is sort of suffering and rooting for the underdog, in a sense. I love the image of this herbal remedy sort of aiding him on, just as, in another stanza, he supports Lazarus.
Someone asked who Lazarus was in the Bible -- I think there were two, but in this one he's referring to the parabal of beggar, not the one raised from the dead. There was this beggar that this rich guy in the Bible doesn't help, as he sits at his door step asking for assistance day after day, and in the afterlife Lazarus goes to heaven and the other guy goes hell for not helping someone in great need.
So that certainly fits with the stanza about Lazarus where Conor compares her to a washed up actress in LA.
My favourite line, aside from Conor saying he'd be bored as hell in heaven, which I love, is this stanza:
All the sights and sounds This little world's too crowded now And there's only one way out An elevator ride Through the tunnel towards the light And I'm nowhere bound Keep going up and down Up and down
I love how he compares death and the descent or ascent to either heaven or hell to an elevator ride. I guess it just really strikes me because I can relate to the exhaustion and there only being one way out. But the whole "nowhere bound" just going up and down from heaven to hell on an elevator is just a stunning picture.