Rubber like your lover's neck you tripped into the garden, you tripped into the garden of the sun
on you tried, unbuttoned eyes, imprelious telusion, tripping past your guard into the sun
these dreamers, so eager, throw their hands in the fight
I spy walrus tooth in the way outside of the shoegaze revolution

I'm seein' bright lights, silhouettes of knife fights and I see it all, I see it all
I'm seein' bright lights in-between the knife fights and I see it all, I see it all
I see it all through the wolves in the walls
who might you be, who should you be
killing with featherguns when they don't understand you're fighting for ground control

stealing glances colorblind encouraging confusion, crossing all the boundaries undrawn...
...I'm hearin' white lies coursing through the disguises, I hear it all, I hear it all
I'm hearin' lost cries chorusing the night sky and I hear it all, I hear it all...

...hands bound behind withered backs, blindfolds laid on hollow eyes too hopeless to hear
ready...aim...fire...
change ammunition, don't give a war of attrition tacit permission to minimize genocide...


Lyrics submitted by FeLKoN

Feathergun in the Garden of the Sun song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

6 Comments

sort form View by:
  • +3
    My Interpretation

    I'm certian this song can be interpreted in a variety of fashions, but all dealing with some type of omniscience, prescience, or knowledge by a person upset by the upcoming and or occuring war.

    For my interpretation I draw upon Frank Herbert's Dune and it's protagonist Paul Orestes Atreides and his transformation into Paul Muad'dib. If you haven't read Dune, than I highly recommend you read it, but you may not fully understand my explanation.

    "you tripped into the garden, you tripped into the garden of the sun" is when Paul was on Dune and gained increased prescience from the ever present melange and waking prescience from converting the water of life. The "garden of the sun" is prescience, and though Paul had prescient dreams on Caladan a few years before House Atriedes gained management of Arrakas, he never seeked to be prescient or be the Kwisatz Haderach - he was fated to be, he "tripped" into it.

    "on you tried, unbuttoned eyes" refers to the blue-within-blue eyes of Ibad as well as Paul taking the unchanged water of life to gain more prescience in order to prevent the upcoming jihad he saw in his prescience.

    "tripping past your guard into the sun these dreamers, so eager, throw their hands in the fight I spy walrus tooth in the way outside of the shoegaze revolution" is about Paul and his unleashing of the jihad, cause it would have happened without him with worse consequences for humanity, and how the Fremen, as well as offworld pilgrims, took up the religion of Muad'dib and the jihad that overthrew the old imperium, the "shoegaze revolution".

    Then you get to the main parts - " seein' bright lights, silhouettes of knife fights and I see it all, I see it all I'm seein' bright lights in-between the knife fights and I see it all, I see it all I see it all through the wolves in the walls who might you be, who should you be killing with featherguns when they don't understand you're fighting for ground control

    stealing glances colorblind encouraging confusion, crossing all the boundaries undrawn... ...I'm hearin' white lies coursing through the disguises, I hear it all, I hear it all I'm hearin' lost cries chorusing the night sky and I hear it all, I hear it all..." - which is about Paul's prescience and knowledge of the current jihad that occurs directly after the events of Frank Herbert's Dune.

    Killing "with feather guns" is about the jihadis and how they're killing with the false justification of the religion of Muad'dib rather than for the safety of humanity, which only Paul knows about through his prescience. Fighting for "ground control" is the real reason of the jihad, to save humanity.

    "hands bound behind withered backs, blindfolds laid on hollow eyes too hopeless to hear ready...aim...fire... change ammunition, don't give a war of attrition tacit permission to minimize genocide..." is after the events of Frank Herbert's Dune Messiah where Paul is blind both of sight and prescience when Chani, his concubine, dies during childbirth and wanders out into the desert in sadness and relief of his freedom from prescience. Don't "give a war of attrition tacit permission to minimize genocide..." is Paul critisizing his jihad and telling his son, Leto II, advice on how he conducts placing humanity upon "The Golden Path".

    Dune fit so well with this song.

    JamesDeCharpenteiron May 31, 2016   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve. The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future. Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere" The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Album art
Holiday
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday". I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Album art
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version. Great version of a great song,
Album art
When We Were Young
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Album art
No Surprises
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.