I think it is about life in general and rebirth, over and over and over; reincarnation. Or at least the afterlife. Amnesiac has this undercurrent of ancient history and afterlife mythology running through it: ideas from Ancient Egypt, Classical mythology, Gnostic Christianity, Buddhism/Hinduism too.. for instance the concept of "samsara" makes a lot of sense in this context. "Samsara is derived from "to flow together," to go or pass through states, to wander.. a great revolving door between life and death and an endless cycle of reincarnation." (a surprisingly poetic description from wikipedia :p)
the 'waterfall' is the river of life, maybe the very same river that appears in Pyramid Song. in Classical Mythology this river was called Lethe, the River of Forgetfulness ('amnesiac', anyone?) and Lethe appears in Dante's Divine Comedy as well, whose work his lyrics have referenced so often. the image of the famished road in Street Spirit is the same sort of thing, only more pessimistic (everything fading out and being devoured, rather than the potential of eventually escaping that this song alludes to)
"What would I do.. if I did not have you?" I think is meant to be taken literally. what would this person do if they had no one, and if love itself did not exist? It would be much easier to think of the world as meaningless if we did not feel love.
'nothing at all' to me personally sounds like denial.. rather than feeling and 'looking back' you lapse back into a kind of self-preserving amnesia, never looking back or reflecting but enjoying the moment only. you protect yourself from ever being hurt by telling yourself that it's 'nothing at all', yet if you write off and shut out the world around you you have no hope of understanding it. so I feel that 'nothing at all' is very sarcastic.
I think it is about life in general and rebirth, over and over and over; reincarnation. Or at least the afterlife. Amnesiac has this undercurrent of ancient history and afterlife mythology running through it: ideas from Ancient Egypt, Classical mythology, Gnostic Christianity, Buddhism/Hinduism too.. for instance the concept of "samsara" makes a lot of sense in this context. "Samsara is derived from "to flow together," to go or pass through states, to wander.. a great revolving door between life and death and an endless cycle of reincarnation." (a surprisingly poetic description from wikipedia :p)
the 'waterfall' is the river of life, maybe the very same river that appears in Pyramid Song. in Classical Mythology this river was called Lethe, the River of Forgetfulness ('amnesiac', anyone?) and Lethe appears in Dante's Divine Comedy as well, whose work his lyrics have referenced so often. the image of the famished road in Street Spirit is the same sort of thing, only more pessimistic (everything fading out and being devoured, rather than the potential of eventually escaping that this song alludes to)
"What would I do.. if I did not have you?" I think is meant to be taken literally. what would this person do if they had no one, and if love itself did not exist? It would be much easier to think of the world as meaningless if we did not feel love.
'nothing at all' to me personally sounds like denial.. rather than feeling and 'looking back' you lapse back into a kind of self-preserving amnesia, never looking back or reflecting but enjoying the moment only. you protect yourself from ever being hurt by telling yourself that it's 'nothing at all', yet if you write off and shut out the world around you you have no hope of understanding it. so I feel that 'nothing at all' is very sarcastic.
but who knows. am I reading too much into it?