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.
The wine it was drunk, the ship it was sunk,
The shot it was dead, all the sorrows were drowned.
The birds they were clouds, the brides and the shrouds
And as we drew south the mist it came down.
The wooded ravine to the wandering stream,
The serpent he moved, but no-one would say.
The depths of the waters, the bridge which distraught us
And brought to me thoughts of the ill-fated day.
The temples were filled with the strangest of creatures
One played it by ear on the banks of the sea.
That one was found but the others they went under.
Oh the tears which are shed, they won't come from me.
The methods of madness, the pathos and the sadness,
God help you all, the insane and wise.
The black and the white, the darkness of the night,
I see only smoke from the chimneys arise.
The pilot he flew all across the sky and woke me.
He flew solo on the mercury sea.
The dream it came back, all about the tall brown people,
The sacred young herd on the phosphorus sand.
The shot it was dead, all the sorrows were drowned.
The birds they were clouds, the brides and the shrouds
And as we drew south the mist it came down.
The wooded ravine to the wandering stream,
The serpent he moved, but no-one would say.
The depths of the waters, the bridge which distraught us
And brought to me thoughts of the ill-fated day.
The temples were filled with the strangest of creatures
One played it by ear on the banks of the sea.
That one was found but the others they went under.
Oh the tears which are shed, they won't come from me.
The methods of madness, the pathos and the sadness,
God help you all, the insane and wise.
The black and the white, the darkness of the night,
I see only smoke from the chimneys arise.
The pilot he flew all across the sky and woke me.
He flew solo on the mercury sea.
The dream it came back, all about the tall brown people,
The sacred young herd on the phosphorus sand.
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Sandy Denny famously said she recorded it based upon a dream. She woke up with the lyrics and the melody swirling around her head like a demon.
Late November was born.
What´s it about?
What are dreams about? What is a sunset about? What is life about?
This song is impossible to define. It sits in that mystical unconcious world were meaning is limitation, and limitation defies meaning.
A place where dreams exists and life floats, free of form or definition.
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I imagine a work of a surrealist. Temples, smoke and strange creatures.
Denny´s voice drifting out like incense, a voice from that nether-realm where reality shifts and floats. A reality from beyond the mundanity.
A reality we visit every night in our dreams, where nothing is stable. Everything floats and dances without inhibition.
But it can´t last, because the pilot (the emperor tarot card, structure, reality in all its barren indistinguishability) comes in.
Denny wakens up we waken up, life moves on, monotony reasserts its dominion. We are jolted from our reverie.
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The one true reality that exists behind the veil.
I think this sounds downright apocalyptic. Maybe her dream was foreshadowing the "ill-fated day" that she mentions here. It also sounds like she'll be none too sad when it happens: "Oh the tears which are shed, they won't come from me." I'm sure I couldn't help but feel the same way.