In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
I'm pushing pins through the pavement.
I'm adding days to the week.
I feel the city sidewalk shake beneath me
While everyone sleeps.
I'm spiking Punch & Judy sendoffs
With silver dollars I stole
From Michael's dresser somewhere back in Brooklyn
While he was out digging holes.
I wrote the horse you rode in on a letter
To keep the focus off me, and make it stay there,
To keep you guessing whil the shift change splits the streets,
But I still can't sleep.
I'm adding days to the week.
I feel the city sidewalk shake beneath me
While everyone sleeps.
I'm spiking Punch & Judy sendoffs
With silver dollars I stole
From Michael's dresser somewhere back in Brooklyn
While he was out digging holes.
I wrote the horse you rode in on a letter
To keep the focus off me, and make it stay there,
To keep you guessing whil the shift change splits the streets,
But I still can't sleep.
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correction- Judy Sandolfs*,
this is actually one of my favorite songs on the new album, kevin really threw himself into it and made the world's problems personal.
I think the meaning of this song is really broad but its such a good song.
I'm not too sure about the meaning behind this song, but I suspect that the first verse is about heroin (as many of KD's songs tend to be about drugs). "pins through the pavement"... needle through black tar heroin maybe?
Then the second verse could be about just stealing money and spending it on booze. Again, not 100% sure. He may have been doing this while his brother Michael (now deceased) was "digging his own grave"...
And the last verse I've yet to contemplate, but this is one of my fave songs from him so I'll keep trying :)
This song, like so many of Kevin's other songs, is about drugs and the effects they have over his life. Like deadfinch said, "pushing pins through the pavement sounds like a reference to heroin. When he says "adding days to the week" he's talking about how slow the drugs have made his life become; nothings exciting anymore. And in the next lines he's describing how things in his life are falling apart and everyone around him is oblivious to that. In the next verse, he's talking about stealing money from his brother Michael to buy these drugs, but Michael didn't notice because he was out doing drugs too. I'm really not sure about the last verse, but it seems like he is trying to depict how backwards things in his life have become, and that everything going on is still affecting him.
All I know is this is an amazing song and Kevin Devine is an incredible lyricist.
His brother Michael was out doing heroin. Kevin stole money from him for his own drugs or whatever. And the last part is about focusing on his brother's drug problems while neglecting his own problems. "I wrote the horse you rode in on a letter<br /> to keep the focus off me, and make it stay there"<br /> <br /> <br /> Kind of connects with his other song "You'll Only End Up Joining THem" - where his brother tells him not to follow his path of drugs and death. <br /> <br />