This Wind

"Like a dog set on wheels"

That reminds me of the cute and humble dog in R.E.M.'s music video for I'll Take the Rain.

Oh goodness, I love the phrase "cannonball love."

Oh, and this song, too.

this song is so rediculously beautiful.

The way I hear it:

As the buildings GREW HIGH you knew nothing about time.

Does anyone know what it means? I am guessing, but I always picture the wind as a changing force. So maybe the world is changing and the old world, the raven is dying, allowing the eagle to emerge.

This song is about time and the nature's cyclical force as represented by the wind. I agree that the correct lyric is: "as the buildings grew high (or maybe TOO HIGH) you knew nothing about time." The reference there is, in time, all these thing we make (skyscrapers) will eventually succumb to the forces of nature. "damn be this wind its still movin' on in/to the bones and the bed of my soul"--to me this is a reference to our death and how the world continues thereafter. That 'dew' and 'tears' are equated could refer to the idea that our tears evaporate and, possibly, could return to earth as rain/dew. Additionally the death of the raven and the birth of the eagle further represent this life/death cycle.

I think this song may be about The tallest man's (or anybody's) realization of the fact that their time on earth is temporary. in the grand scheme of things, our lives dont have quite the effect that we think they have on our planet.

Favorite song on the album.

can someone explain the black cross in june??

I believe that the 'wind' is a metaphor alluding to depression, because a lot of the imagery is of something sad or bad coming over on someone (dog set on wheel, laughing at you, raven is dead builders who hide). It could either be an extended metaphor, the whole song, about seasonal depression or bipolar disorder and the depression that is comes with it (damn me this wind it's still moving on in...).

I feel like it's a reasonable interpretation that makes a lot of sense on the song itself, if not even just on my own personal level. But even so it's notable to mention that many people who are artists and creative struggle with bipolarism and depression, and despite there being an unknown link it's undisputed in the medical and psychological field that there is a correlation.

I think it is about time, and the impermanence of life. The raven is the "not yet grown man" that doesn't know that everything is temporary (it's rain in your hands). It's a fact, but you don't really want to be aware of it (you will lope down the street). Maybe "when the building are too high" is another metaphor for childhood, which is light-heartedness. The fox on the run, again, you try to run away from reality, until something happen, something change you and the raven dies (black cross in june). Before nobody told you where the eagle was fed, so, nobody taught you how to grow, how to become an eagle.

what about it?

My interpretation of this song is that it's about a man (the 'raven') who has a sort-of temporary, fiery relationship with the protagonist of the song ('you'), who has 'rain in their hands' - i.e. the relationship is based it all on something fleeting and exciting but ultimately insubstantial. The protagonist is giving an illusion of something and, like a carrion-bird the 'raven' can't resist pursuing the protagonist who's trying to hide this fact from them.

'Like a dog set on wheels' is a reference to the fact that, much like a dog wheeling itself along, it's rather a pathetic scene. The metaphorical dog is very obviously deficient and lame to have to pull itself along on wheels, and so the illusion of the 'rain in your hands' is cut down to the same level as the dog, and the protagonist's attempts to hide the illusion are justified solely by the repercussions that are now driving this pathetic scene to continue ('the sound of the scratch in his claws'). The idea of a lame dog fleeing something it fears gives the idea of cowardliness.

The 'chorus', if you like, then seems to me to go some way to forgiving the protagonist. "As the buildings grew high / you knew nothing about time" gives the idea that they've been doing it for so long as to begin to forget how long and their original purpose, and "but an arrow just brushing your chin" suggests that they've actually become the victim. They no longer know anything but running from the consequences they're so scared of and are driven now only by this fear.

"You said 'Damn be this wind it's still moving on in' / 'to the bones and the bed of my soul'" suggests that they themselves are oblivious to what's forcing them onwards by calling the anxiety "this wind", like it's an unavoidable natural force with inexplicable roots. They do recognise how deeply its damaging them, however.

"Like a fox on the run from the well-informed son / With the bearings for cannonball love" gives the idea that they can't escape because not only is the son ('the raven') 'well-informed' so he can hunt the fox (the protagonist) down no matter what, but they have only the most inaccurate of 'bearings' or direction to go in which they're pursuing with a blind cannonball like momentum.

"Just like nobody said where that eagle was fed / 'Till you stood on the black cross in June" is another reference to their obliviousness and that nobody's helped them out either. The idea being that the 'raven' who's after them is now 'that eagle' and that unwittingly the protagonist wandered right into their trap -- just nobody told them where it was. The 'black cross in June' is I think just suggesting that the trap was in fact laid somewhere blatantly obvious (marked with a 'black cross') and underlining just how ignorant the protagonist is to what's going on.

"And nobody said that the raven was dead, / So you hid all your tears in the grass" - I'm not so sure about this bit. It's either that nobody else knew what had happened to the man ('the raven') and so the protagonist was sad and hid it from them, or that the protagonist was scared of the raven seeing the tears and so hid them from him.

"Sure, it could look like dew, but they're laughing at you / And they'll send in their clowns when you're lost." is I think again referring to the other people. It's become clear that the protagonist may have started this charade but has since become trapped in it as a victim, and importantly a victim who's vulnerably ignorant by not being helped by those around them. The idea is that actually the people who could be helping are having a laugh at this person's expense.

So ultimately I suppose I'd say that the question remaining at the end is whether actually being pursued by the evil raven who the protagonist loves but is abused by/scared of in some way is better or worse than the kind of humiliation and lack of concern received at the hands of other people. Personally I think that the protagonist is overwhelmed by the world around them and what's going on and that the final refrain somehow lessens their predicament by reminding us that despite it all somehow they still keep referring to it as "damn be this wind" - and they can't be suffering as much as they ought to be because actually they're somehow dumb to it. To them it's an incomprehensible wind that keeps bothering them and the various cruelties which affect them are reduced by this protective layer of ignorance.

I love this song, best on the album and possibly my favourite by the Tallest Man :D Sad there aren't more people trying to think up explanations!