Comment: I Had to create an account to make this comment. That was overdue though. I first heard this song around 2007. It was used for a commercial for the A&E show, Intervention. I loved it ever since.
Interpretation: When we are born people have all these expectations for us. These expectations may be to go to school, to be straight, good, what ever. You are not asked what you want but the expectations exist independently. For example, My parents raised me protestant so my sisters and I are expected to be protestant-Christian.
When you grow up, you start going through the motions of what is expected. As you get older, you will start questioning why and what you are doing. When I was about 16, I started to doubt my faith. So, it was a struggle to be who I was verses what was expected of me.
I think the chains are the expectations. The protagonists is struggling with what to do. He is 'wakes about scared' strange' because of this struggle and identity crises of sort. (I am not too sure after this but..) The girl is in the same struggle. She does not have the preexisting expectations for him to be good, strong, smart. He is looking to her to affirm him, that he can be who he is becoming. He affirms her that she is 'a pretty girl' (the last lines of the song).
A hair shirt is meant to irritate the skin. It is often wore as a penitence. The cross is a burden one must carry. So, maybe something with her did not work out. It is a constant irritation to him. It is a burden he is carrying. Only she can lift it. He wants to be with her but he knows 'it isn't right'. He is looking to her to save him.
Overall, It is about putting faith in expectations. Expectations that are not yours but you try to meet.
Some things are clear. The narrator feel crushed beneath the expectations of others. He's written this song for a woman he's known for a long time, hoping that she'll comfort him in his his loneliness.
My interpretation hinges on the bit about the hair shirt and the cross:
His name is the hair shirt? Woven from her brown hair? The song is his cross? She should bare it with him? Interesting... The analogies could just as easily been reversed; and the implication would be clear. The song could be the hair shirt - his name the cross. In that...
Some things are clear. The narrator feel crushed beneath the expectations of others. He's written this song for a woman he's known for a long time, hoping that she'll comfort him in his his loneliness.
My interpretation hinges on the bit about the hair shirt and the cross:
His name is the hair shirt? Woven from her brown hair? The song is his cross? She should bare it with him? Interesting... The analogies could just as easily been reversed; and the implication would be clear. The song could be the hair shirt - his name the cross. In that case the song would amount to a proposal. This is not the case. He wants her to be with him tonight (only) not from now on.
Comment: I Had to create an account to make this comment. That was overdue though. I first heard this song around 2007. It was used for a commercial for the A&E show, Intervention. I loved it ever since.
Interpretation: When we are born people have all these expectations for us. These expectations may be to go to school, to be straight, good, what ever. You are not asked what you want but the expectations exist independently. For example, My parents raised me protestant so my sisters and I are expected to be protestant-Christian.
When you grow up, you start going through the motions of what is expected. As you get older, you will start questioning why and what you are doing. When I was about 16, I started to doubt my faith. So, it was a struggle to be who I was verses what was expected of me.
I think the chains are the expectations. The protagonists is struggling with what to do. He is 'wakes about scared' strange' because of this struggle and identity crises of sort. (I am not too sure after this but..) The girl is in the same struggle. She does not have the preexisting expectations for him to be good, strong, smart. He is looking to her to affirm him, that he can be who he is becoming. He affirms her that she is 'a pretty girl' (the last lines of the song).
A hair shirt is meant to irritate the skin. It is often wore as a penitence. The cross is a burden one must carry. So, maybe something with her did not work out. It is a constant irritation to him. It is a burden he is carrying. Only she can lift it. He wants to be with her but he knows 'it isn't right'. He is looking to her to save him.
Overall, It is about putting faith in expectations. Expectations that are not yours but you try to meet.
Some things are clear. The narrator feel crushed beneath the expectations of others. He's written this song for a woman he's known for a long time, hoping that she'll comfort him in his his loneliness. My interpretation hinges on the bit about the hair shirt and the cross: His name is the hair shirt? Woven from her brown hair? The song is his cross? She should bare it with him? Interesting... The analogies could just as easily been reversed; and the implication would be clear. The song could be the hair shirt - his name the cross. In that...
Some things are clear. The narrator feel crushed beneath the expectations of others. He's written this song for a woman he's known for a long time, hoping that she'll comfort him in his his loneliness. My interpretation hinges on the bit about the hair shirt and the cross:
His name is the hair shirt? Woven from her brown hair? The song is his cross? She should bare it with him? Interesting... The analogies could just as easily been reversed; and the implication would be clear. The song could be the hair shirt - his name the cross. In that case the song would amount to a proposal. This is not the case. He wants her to be with him tonight (only) not from now on.