Your Friends Are Gone

We can only speculate at what Anthony Green means, because this is his expression of his own experience. Please keep in mind that what we're reading and what we're writing has only to do with OUR OWN experience, not his, and that whatever we come up with is a mere interpretation of his words. Remember that although language gives the illusion of sharing an experience, everything that arises in our life is OUR's not anyone else's. That being said:

When I listen to this song it resonates with a lot of my feelings. Especially the loneliness that comes with understanding that although you may have friends, family, and spouses, every relationship in this life is impermanent. What I hear is his own struggle with this type of understanding. The first few lines "it climbs in slowly behind, you trust youre neighbors theyd never suspect what you're like, welcome them into your life, no one has to know playback delete and rewind" seem to me like he's talking about waking up to the people around you, and beginning to trust them, but still with reservation. We all want to be liked, so sometimes we waste our time trying to manipulate our personalities to be more congruent with society's beliefs. Rather quickly we come to find that by conforming we are shutting out parts of ourselves which end up causing us further suffering. But until we find that out we spend time reflecting, throwing theories/ideas/concepts out and going back to the "beginning" trying to start fresh.

When I started opening to people I discovered that not many people really care about what you have to say. In my own interactions with co workers, customers, family, friends, etc I noticed how if I try to discuss things with people they quickly close down, no matter what the subject. So I started paying attention to what I was saying and I've noticed that nobodies interested in my life, mostly because everyone's living there own. Each time I notice this in my life it seems more pronounced, like I'm more aware of something. So you get "nobody wants to hear another story about how you couldn't write right...each one is louder then the one before people you care for..."

Brilliantly it seems like he understands the experience of opening up and finding your own path and he hints at that freedom in the lines "you'll be relieved when you open up, you let yourself seem vulnerable but the morning sun will make our bodies comfortable in taking off our clothes everything hidden is suddenly ." On a side note, if I look at this from the perspective of my (extremely small amount) of buddhist study it seems like what he's saying is "Drop your self, and find that you're still here" almost like an "enlightenment" experience. But I'm a bit too enthusiastic about that idea to take it too seriously.

Obviously, to me, the "keep it on the inside, cause thats the safest place to hide" is about becoming a little more introspective/introverted. Honestly I don't know if he's pointing to becoming your own best friend, or becoming TOO introverted and losing yourself in your head, both are closely related and they each involve a little of the other. Inference tells me that becoming too introverted can be crippling emotionally so I hope what he means is to let your experience unfold internally and flow out. rather than being so caught up in the external world that we have no idea what's going on inside ourselve The last part "all of your friends are gone." resonates with where I am in life right now. A few years out of high school all of my Best friends either won't talk to me, or have gone away. Quite literally sometimes i feel like the "loneliest of men." and while this seems extremely negative, because the experience is VERY painful and confusing, the sun always shines after the darkest of night. So it's almost like he leaves the album on a hopeful note.

I hope you found this interesting, but for all intents and purposes you probably didn't.