On Up the Mountain

To me, it seems like an ode to the 'everyman.' This is a somewhat literal and basic interpretation, but here we go. The first stanza reminds me of mining; in fact there seems (to me at least) to be a theme of mining rather than war.

"You're old enough to know well/The better things are all up hill/Bitter songs are never sung/In the highlands where you belong"

I'm not exactly sure what to make of the "old enough to know well" part. It seems to be projected at a child, but also seems to be projected at an older person, perhaps someone who has recently entered adulthood and has just begun to work.

"In the smoke of cannons below/Men they bury each other in rows" While the "men they bury each other" part may seem to signal war, I think of it as mining. Smoke cannons would clear the mine, and perhaps "bury" doesn't mean to bury in the ground, but to bury each other in soot as they work.

"People come people go/Work in numbers and leave alone" This seems to me to be a simple line about how laboring jobs are often temporary and you really only see your coworkers while you are working.

"There's a light making its way/On up the mountain night and day/You'll get tired and you'll get weak/But you won't abandon your masterpiece" The chorus again relates to mining. The third line seems even more so to be directed at a young man entering the workforce for the first time. They will toil and work hard, but they won't stop working for whatever makes them who they are. I'm interpreting "your masterpiece" to be something ambiguous, and not a physical masterpiece like a painting or novel. As in the masterpiece is your life; you'll work hard, wear yourself out, and it will be tough but you will still do what needs to be done.

"Off to sleep you'll go/Through the halls and opened doors/Silver bells swinging low/Strung in branches of the unknown" Lines about dreaming. This stanza is somewhat more melancholic and a bit mysterious. Silver bells conjures up the image of marriage, or even just a joyous occasion, but they are somewhat ominous and intriguing because they are in "branches of the unknown."

"Soon morning comes/To warm the world and wake you up/Night is gone awful fast/It ain't wrong to be sad" These lines seem to signify that the hypothetical young man does not want to leave the dream. Because the end of the dream means he must begin his toiling again, which is where the chorus comes in again.

Here the stanza isn't just an introduction into how he'll work but maintain, but a repetition (it's the chorus so it's repeated, but it also symbolizes how the young man's job is circular) and a reminder after he wakes.

"Here it comes and there it goes/The unbearable sound/Of the earth making men out of boys/First you learn then you'll teach/About the bright light" I see mining metaphors here, too. "The unbearable sound of the earth" could be the sound of young men working in the mountain. Since (in my interpretation) the song is written to a young man just beginning, he is young and almost like a child, echoing the initial lines that sound like they are meant for a child ("You're old enough to know well"), but the hard toiling makes him a man. The last lines imply that this cycle is circular and unending. The current young man will learn ("You'll get tired and you'll get weak/But you won't abandon your masterpiece") and will pass this wisdom along. It's almost like a revelation here, since it goes from just a light to a "bright light."

That's just my interpretation. Sorry it was a little long-winded. :)