Gentleman Who Fell

the following was previously posted as a comment to the same song but replicated under "Milla" instead of "Milla Jovovich".

i'd like to build on previous posts which started the idea that the song is about jesus and about doubt in religion.

to me, it sounds like the song starts from the point of view of a new mother "reaching over" to her newborn boy, who is literally, physically incapable of lifting his chin, as though "ashamed" (by his original sin?)

"life to life" makes me think of the umbilical cord.

"a voice is speaking / he's the prophet" = in the reverie of having just given birth, the mother's thoughts turn to the words of Jesus ? or perhaps St. Paul, who upon his conversion to Christianity was "blinded by the light" when he was still named Saul of Tarsus while he was travelling to (or was it from) Damascus (not really a prophet though, but perhaps poetic license is being taken here) maybe she (either Milla the writer, or the persona of the new mother) is combining/syncretizing the traits/histories of Jesus and Paul into a "prophet/blinded by the light"

or maybe the mother is the one who is "blinded by the light" of the harsh fluorescent lamps of the hospital room while thinking of "the prophet"

"A heart is breaking/I can hear it/dropped when gone beyond my sight" she can hear her baby crying (thus "a heart is breaking" which she can "hear") once the nurses take him out of her arms, then the sound ceases ("dropped") once the baby is out of the room ("when gone beyond my sight")

"Mr Talk Too Much" = refers to Jesus, portraying him as someone who preaches voluminously to a fault "what's in store for us now" she wonders and worries about the future for herself, her baby son and her family (maybe she's a single mom in which case its just the two of them)

the lyrics "I don't know how to love you" remind me of "I don't know how to love him", sung by Mary Magdalene about Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar the musical. the "you" in the song would be Jesus, which may be a synecdoche for Christianity and/or religion and/or spirituality in general.

"I don't know how . . . . etc." the new mother is troubled or frustrated that she doesn't feel her faith in Jesus more strongly, which she feels she should have because she is worried about what it will be like raising her baby, and would like to "trust" that Jesus will be there for her but has trouble.

"i feel your closeness/like a shotgun/a chill within my soul...." she responds emotionally to the idea of having faith in jesus

"your passion takes its' toll" and "let the suffering go" = both lines refer to the Passion (suffering) of the Christ, which the new mother feels she can relate to after her long, arduous labor giving birth.

"talk is cheap..." she has trouble believing religious sermons, particularly about the suffering of Christ as a the salvation of humankind.

"let the suffering go" double meaning--the new mother wishes to leave behind ("let go") her suffering (of the labor), but also she wishes not to feel indebted to jesus for his suffering for the sins of humankind, thus beseeching him to "let" it "go".

could the new mother be comparing her suffering of labor to that of jesus? and thus questioning her faith while hoping to find it.

-Mike