I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Look on down from the bridge
There's still fountains down there
Look on down from the bridge
It's still raining, up here
Everybody seems so far away from me
Everybody just wants to be free
Look away from the sky
It's no different when you're leaving home
I can't be the same thing to you now
I'm just gone, just gone
How could I say goodbye
How could I say goodbye
Goodbye
Maybe I'll just place my hands over you
And close my eyes real tight
There's a light in your eyes
And you know, yeah, you know
Look on down from the bridge
I'm still waiting for you
There's still fountains down there
Look on down from the bridge
It's still raining, up here
Everybody seems so far away from me
Everybody just wants to be free
Look away from the sky
It's no different when you're leaving home
I can't be the same thing to you now
I'm just gone, just gone
How could I say goodbye
How could I say goodbye
Goodbye
Maybe I'll just place my hands over you
And close my eyes real tight
There's a light in your eyes
And you know, yeah, you know
Look on down from the bridge
I'm still waiting for you
Lyrics submitted by numb, edited by Mellow_Harsher, smallwonderrobot
Look on Down from the Bridge Lyrics as written by Hope Sandoval David Roback
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Midnight
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Midnight” is a song about finding a love that is so true that it provides a calming feeling through every storm. Ed Sheeran reflects on his good fortunes in landing someone with such peace and support and speaks of not fearing the dark days because he knows they’ll all end in the safety nets of her arms.
“Well, good morning there / What a way to start the day / With everything laid bare,” Ed Sheeran sings in the first verse, enthusiastic to be waking up beside his woman. He apologizes for missing her calls in the second verse and promises to return them because for him, speaking to her is the most important thing. “Well, I get lost inside my head / In this chaos, you’re my calm / And I will find my feet again / ‘Cause еven the worst days of my life will always еnd / At midnight in your arms,” sings Ed Sheeran in the chorus, revelling in his good luck.
To me, this song is told from the perspective of someone who has recently died and is traveling the "bridge" from Earth to Heaven (or your choice of skyward afterlife).
She's looking down on those that she's leaving behind. The "fountains" are the tears wept by her loved ones, the rain could be literal or her own tears. Everyone wants to be free from the pain, which she compares to when someone leaves home (thus abandoning their loved ones in a way). She wants them to move on ("look away from the sky"), but acknowledges that it is indeed different, especially since she can't literally say goodbye to them. So she says it anyway, knowing that they won't hear her.
She tries to cover their pain from herself by blocking them out with her hands and closing her eyes. The "light in your eyes" is the life that they still have and she's reminding them that they must go on living it, then acknowledges that they indeed know this, even if it's not a reassuring thought to them. She looks at them one more time and says that she's waiting for them, the ultimate reassurance to herself, that they will one day join her in the great beyond.
@muzaklubber What a beautiful and, at the same time, tearful, interpretation. Only heard this song a few hours ago and I am hooked. Got to agree with you. Waaaaaaah!
@muzaklubber <br /> <br /> Very powerful and poignant interpretation. Definitely resonates with me.
Very interesting interpretation!
I understand why many people connect this track to death, or even suicide (the bridge imagery doesn't help I guess), but in my interpretation it's much simpler than that.
As at least one person has suggested, for me, the song sums up and expresses the pain of knowing when you must move on from a failed relationship, for your own good, or even your own survival.
"The bridge" isn't a literal bridge in my take, it's the connection between the life you must leave behind (and all the possibility and hope contained in that), and the choice you know you have to take for your own sanity, safety and survival.
The fountains still down there? Those are the fantasies where the relationship could actually work out, the heady dreams you know you must abandon.
The rain up here? That's the impending reality that you have to face, because you know it's the truth, you know it can't be saved, you know it will consume you and drag you down if you keep trying. It's time.
Everybody seems so far away from me because in these circumstances you're cut off from everything. The old life you now know was a dream isn't real anymore, but you're still on the bridge that separates that from a future life you're moving towards.
Everybody just wants to be free. Free from lies, free from constraints, free from things that harm us and hold us back. Free from this relationship that has become an unhealthy bond and a source of pain.
Maybe I just place my hands over you? Close my eyes real tight? And hope. And wish. And try to return to the dream, but even the other person knows by now. It can't happen. There's a light in your eyes. And you know. Yeah you know.
Look on down from the bridge. I'm still waiting. For you. Forever. For the dream that died. For the love you know now can never work. The part of you that you leave behind forever when you know you must.
It's sad alright, I'm literally crying my eyes out writing this, but it's also hope. The knowledge that it's hopeless enables growth and a move forward, across the bridge, to something new. Something better. Look on down from the bridge, but don't get stuck there. Keep on moving. Cross the bridge.
@discordian314 this interpretation resonates with me the most. Thank you for sharing
When I hear it, I always think to the suicide bit. That ending line "Look on down from the bridge, I'm still waiting for you" makes me think of someone who's too miserable to remain here, and they're waiting for their lover to join them in eternity. Though, I can definitely sense just the failed relationship interpretation.
I guess you can take it literally or figuratively. Whichever way it resonates more with you.
It's so gloomy and beautiful. I think this is the song I want played at my funeral.
@Psychedelia I was just thinking the same thing, that I would love it to be played at my funeral - but then I guess I won't be the one grieving, and everyone would need something differerent. If you like this, look up the poem, "I depart as air" by Walt Whitman. He talks in the present tense, as if he is experiencing his own death. Its so beautiful - sad, yet victorious.<br />
@Psychedelia I was just thinking the same thing, that I would love it to be played at my funeral - but then I guess I won't be the one grieving, and everyone would need something differerent. If you like this, look up the poem, "I depart as air" by Walt Whitman. He talks in the present tense, as if he is experiencing his own death. Its so beautiful - sad, yet victorious.<br />
@Psychedelia I was just thinking the same thing, that I would love it to be played at my funeral - but then I guess I won't be the one grieving, and everyone would need something differerent. If you like this, look up the poem, "I depart as air" by Walt Whitman. He talks in the present tense, as if he is experiencing his own death. Its so beautiful - sad, yet victorious.<br />
remind anybody else of Neil Young's "Helpless"?
@seanmo63 Very much so. Spot on, in fact. Both beautiful though.
A lot of interpretations here, which I think are good. People are going to interpret vague Dream songs like this in very personal ways, and I think that is good and speaks to the quality of the song.
I don't think this song implies suicide or death in any way. The feel of the song does bring about very distinct feelings of loss as if there was a death. I believe this was intentional, as leaving a loved one very often feels as if they had died, or as though one was dead.
I feel that this song is simply about saying goodbye and coming to terms with loss. The lyrics in particular bring up a few motifs that help put this song into perspective:
The first is the contrast between "fountains down there" and "raining up here". This conjures up images of water falling from the sky (generally a sad motif) versus fresh water coming up from below (a motif surrounding rebirth and prosperity).
"Everybody seems so far away from me / everybody just wants to be free" She wants to be free like everyone else she has felt isolated from.
"I can't be the same thing to you now / I'm just gone" Something messed up, and she has to leave. This is the only reason given in the lyrics, and it seems to imply something happened with her.
At this point she doesn't know how to say goodbye, and "maybe I'll just place my hands over you / and close my eyes real tight". At this point she sees it in the other's eyes that they know she is gone.
And now she is waiting for them to say goodbye too. Maybe they never did, and she is still waiting long after.
@Adrian232 :)
Pretty acceptable explanation, very nice!
this is my favorite of hers, and the imagery inspired me to begin a story, which i never wound up finishing.
it's so downhearted and resigned, both musically and lyrically. when she utters the last lines, it breaks my heart... mostly because i could easily be the one saying them.
@delial I'm reading your words 10 years after you wrote them. Are you on Twitter? Wondering now about you - during the blip of time since 2005. <br /> @WhoHasThisName find me. :^)
heard this for the first time tonight from a show called Rick & Morty - episode Rick Potion #9. Haunting time to play it in the show (you'd have to watch). But it's haunting me now due to its profoundness...
@cheesesteak Yes, this is where I came upon it, too, but it took me till a rerun in 2017 before I noticed its beauty. Now when I listen, I can't stop weeping. Only songs by Bread have had that effect on me. Another awesome song discovered via "Rick & Morty" is Blonde Redhead's "For the Damaged Coda" and its predecessor song, "For the Damaged".
For me it reminds me of my beloved boyfriend who passed away 4years ago. I still love and miss him very deeply and now I've been lucky enough to have found love again after such pain, such emptiness, such darkness. There still however remains a part of me that will forever love him and at the end of my days I will look for him.....If only for just his smile.
It's one of the most beautiful ways to say goodbye to someone. It would be perfect for a suicide note.
The most beautiful song mazzy wrote-just stunningly sad.