The children are walking back from the beach
Sun on the sidewalk is burning their feet
Washing the salt off under the shower
And just wasting away, wasting away
The hours and hours and hours

Come on, climb over your father's back fence
For the very last time we'll take the shortcut across his lawn
Then lie together on the estuary bed
Perfectly still, perfectly warm

Sleep no more
Sleep is dead
Sleep no more on the estuary bed
Ache no more
Old skin is shed
Sleep no more on the estuary bed

I see you still
I know not rest
Silt returns along the passage of flesh
I hear your voice
I taste the salt
I bear the stain, it won't wash off
I hold you not
But I see you still
What use eyesight if it should melt?
What use memory covered in estuary silt?

I know your shape
Our limbs entwined
I know your name, remember mine

Sleep no more
Sleep is dead
Sleep no more on the estuary bed
Ache no more
Old skin is shed
Sleep no more on the estuary bed

Edit Lyrics

Lyrics submitted by scatter_brain

Estuary Bed song meanings

Add Your Thoughts

2 Comments

+1
General Comment
'Tarrilip Bridge' is song about a woman infatuated with the "tv movie" of herself being made... this song however, reflects (in my mind) novelization. I think it definitely reflects what David McComb was reading at the time he was writing the album.

It reminds me of youth, young love, and at the same time eschews in on death. It reminds me of my favorite book, 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter', by Carson McCullers. There is a scene where a young pair of teenagers have sex next to a riverbank, and immediately afterwards, both feel this overwhelming sense of remorse, and he runs away from home to begin a life of honest work.

Meanwhile, the girl just stays behind, moves on as she tries to cope with the many other problems in her life. McCullers always wrote about social pariahs, but when I first read the book, I believed it was written in the mid 1960s. It was an astonishing revelation that it was in fact published in 1940, and written in the few years prior, when McCullers herself was just leaving the teen years behind.

Anyway, the whole "estuary bed" makes me think back to the two young lovers entering that forbbiden new world in the novel, hence the McComb-channeling-McCullers reference. I may be off, but it's what the song means to me.

'Tarrilip Bridge' is song about a woman infatuated with the "tv movie" of herself being made... this song however, reflects (in my mind) novelization. I think it definitely reflects what David McComb was reading at the time he was writing the album. It reminds me of youth, young love, and at the same time eschews in on death. It reminds me of my favorite book, 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter', by Carson McCullers. There is a scene where a young pair of teenagers have sex next to a riverbank, and immediately afterwards, both feel this overwhelming sense of remorse, and he runs away from home to begin a life of honest work. Meanwhile, the girl just stays behind, moves on as she tries to cope with the many other problems in her life. McCullers always wrote about social pariahs, but when I first read the book, I believed it was written in the mid 1960s. It was an astonishing revelation that it was in fact published in 1940, and written in the few years prior, when McCullers herself was just leaving the teen years behind. Anyway, the whole "estuary bed" makes me think back to the two young lovers entering that forbbiden new world in the novel, hence the McComb-channeling-McCullers reference. I may be off, but it's what the song means to me.

Reason:

Sneedyon June 19, 2007 Link
- No Replies Log in to reply
There was an error.

@Sneedy