In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Easy
Easy
My man and me
We could rest and remain here, easily
We are tested and pained by
What's beyond our bed
We're blessed and sustained by
What is not said
No one knows what is coming
Or who will harvest what we have sown
Or how I've been dulling and dumbing
In the service of the heart alone
Or how I am worn to the bone by the river
And in the river, made of light
I'm your little life-giver
I will give my life
Haven't you seen what I've seen?
Don't you know what you ought to do?
I was born to love
And I intend to love you
Down in the valley where the fields are green
Watch my luck turn, fro and to
Pluck every last daisy clean
Till only I may love you
I am easy
Easy to keep
Honey, you please me
Even in your sleep
But my arms want to carry
My heart wants to hold
Tell me your worries
I wanna be told
Sit and see how the fog from the port in the bay
Lays like snow at the foot of the Roanoke
Hear the frog going courtin'
Till the day he croaks
Saying even then
How there is light in the river
And there's a river made of light
C'mon, you little life-giver
Give your life
Who asked you?
Who asked you if you wanna be
Loved by me?
Who died and made you
In charge of who loves who?
All the livelong day
If I have my way I will love you
But one can't carry the weight
Or change the fate of two
I've been waiting for a break
How long's it gonna take?
Let me love you
How about it?
How about what I have to say?
How about that livelong day?
How am I gonna stay here without you?
Easy
Easy
You must not fear
You must meet me to see me
I am barely here
But like a Bloody Mary
Seen in the mirror
Speak my name
And I appear
Speak my name
And I appear
Speak
And I appear
Easy
My man and me
We could rest and remain here, easily
We are tested and pained by
What's beyond our bed
We're blessed and sustained by
What is not said
No one knows what is coming
Or who will harvest what we have sown
Or how I've been dulling and dumbing
In the service of the heart alone
Or how I am worn to the bone by the river
And in the river, made of light
I'm your little life-giver
I will give my life
Haven't you seen what I've seen?
Don't you know what you ought to do?
I was born to love
And I intend to love you
Down in the valley where the fields are green
Watch my luck turn, fro and to
Pluck every last daisy clean
Till only I may love you
I am easy
Easy to keep
Honey, you please me
Even in your sleep
But my arms want to carry
My heart wants to hold
Tell me your worries
I wanna be told
Sit and see how the fog from the port in the bay
Lays like snow at the foot of the Roanoke
Hear the frog going courtin'
Till the day he croaks
Saying even then
How there is light in the river
And there's a river made of light
C'mon, you little life-giver
Give your life
Who asked you?
Who asked you if you wanna be
Loved by me?
Who died and made you
In charge of who loves who?
All the livelong day
If I have my way I will love you
But one can't carry the weight
Or change the fate of two
I've been waiting for a break
How long's it gonna take?
Let me love you
How about it?
How about what I have to say?
How about that livelong day?
How am I gonna stay here without you?
Easy
Easy
You must not fear
You must meet me to see me
I am barely here
But like a Bloody Mary
Seen in the mirror
Speak my name
And I appear
Speak my name
And I appear
Speak
And I appear
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
Standing On The Edge Of Summer
Thursday
Thursday
No Surprises
Radiohead
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.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
I believe this song is about a one-sided relationship. Honestly, describing its meaning in some ways feels to me like taking away from the song itself because it's so beautiful, it should be left alone, but I can't so that and I've concluded the meaning to be rather simple.
I find it to be about a relationship in which one person loves tremendously and the other cares very little. The "easy" I believe is more a plea than anything. The narrator (Joanna, presumably) is trying so very hard to convince her "man" that it will be easy, she is easy, she doesn't need much. However, directly after proclaiming "Honey, you please me, even in your sleep," she admits she wants to carry, hold, and listen. Her fields of green (where she possessively plucks every last daisy, not leaving any for any other admirers to wonder whether he ("[her] man" mind you) loves them or not) turn to a foggy river, cold with metaphorical snow. She finally bursts into an angry and crazed plea, turning childish taunts into a sad statement of, "Who died and made you in charge of who loves who?" and asking, pleading, "Let me love you. How about it?" and then wondering, "How am I gonna stay here without you?"
She eventually admits she'll be there, whenever he decides he needs her and musters up the energy to at least call for her.
There are portions of the song I'm unsure on. At one point I thought for sure there were references to pregnancy, or something of the sort. The river stuck me as a very fertile image, and lines like, "No-one knows what is coming, or who will harvest what we have sewn," and, "But One can't carry the weight..." seemed to refer to a pregnancy. When I read that Bloody Mary (the mirrored-game I've heard of, of course, but don't know much about the history or legend in detail) is sometimes known as a woman who murdered her children, or had her child murdered (or even a queen who suffered many miscarriages, possible self-induced), I was sure that I'd find connecting ideas strung throughout the whole thing. There's also the whole "life-giver" title, which could very obviously be referring to pregnancy. However, I can't seem to make the theory hold water given the entirety of the song.
I also believe she said (though I didn't read the interview) that "Does Not Suffice" was the counterpart to this song. In that song, she sings, "how easy I was not," clearly referencing this song. In that, I believe the "easy" in not entirely truthful. She knows she's not easy, can't be easy, because she's worth more than that.
But, in this song, she concedes and stays, though even the frog tries harder than her significant other, "going courting till the day he croaks."
I haven't fully delved into all the other songs, but there is another reference to a stalking and obsessive sort of love in "Soft As Chalk" and definitely other references to pregnancy, or at least impending motherhood that never happened. Even though Have One On Me is a collection of songs, less cohesive than Ys, I still get the feeling there will be common themes and I'm so excited to pick through them and make connections.
Oh, and I love the violin, flute and cello in this song. It's so beautiful, so eerie, and such a pleasure to listen to. I imagine two people on a bed in the middle of a forest or swamp (not sure where that came from) while a river of light runs alongside them. It's quite a cluster of images, but I love it.
I'm willing to stake my life on the fact that this song is actually about what I call a difficult man. (no offense) Now I grew up on a farm so, "Easy, easy" to me refers to the way that one would calm a spooked horse. This is re-enforced by the line in the last verse "you must not fear." Now of course, good poetry doesn't ever have just one meaning so I suppose that it could also refer to a state of being "easy." <br /> <br /> When I say "difficult man" I most certainly mean one that has a hard time being in a relationship period. Not necessarily one that doesn't reciprocate the emotions of the narrator. <br /> <br /> I agree wholeheartedly that there are images of fertility that certainly pop up, whether Miss Newsom intended or not. But I wouldn't go so far to as to say pregnancy. Bloody Mary as a historical figure was the queen preceding Queen Elizabeth I. She has been deemed such, because of the way that she persecuted English Protestants during her reign in an attempt to restore England's relations with the Catholic church, after her father King Henry VIII destroyed them and created the Church of England. <br /> <br /> As far as the mirror legend goes, I have to say that this is the only symbol Newsom could possibly be referring to. La Llorona or the "Weeping Woman" is a Hispanic legend in which a woman kills her children and is condemned to an eternity of weeping. When she mentions this in the verse, she's probably trying to say: when you call, you'd better call as much as you can in order to reach me - considering the fact that one never actually says "bloody mary" only once in order to call up the spirit. <br /> <br /> In short: my reading of this is that the narrator is involved with a man that doesn't know what he wants, and can't seem to come to a decision. And in addition to, has a difficult time opening his heart to the love of another. Which does not constitute a love that is not reciprocated.
I interpreted the "But One can't carry the weight..." line to almost be a weakening in her stubbornness. Throughout the song she's sending out the message that she doesn't need a lot from him and she's going to love him whether or not he likes it, but that line goes to say that it doesn't matter how much she's willing to sacrifice to love him, one person simply can't care enough to keep a relationship going.
mindfulexportsofvine: I'm slightly confused -- was the "no offense" directed to me? I can't figure out what I would have to be offended about. It appears we came to very similar conclusions. Maybe it wasn't that clear in my post, but I agree about the "difficult man" thing. I don't think there's too big of a difference between the person I was envisioning, who I described as caring very little, and yours, who simply has trouble in relationships. I didn't necessarily mean that the emotions weren't there, but that the person wasn't interested in (or able to be) investing that much into a relationship.<br /> <br /> I really like your thoughts on easy, and how it reminds you of calming a horse. I definitely see that. I was interpreting easy in the vein of "I am easy, easy to keep," but I see that there could be a difference in the two. I suppose I just took the clear-cut usage of easy (where it seems obvious it is used to refer to a "state of being easy") and attributed that meaning to the other usages as well, but I think that was simplification on my part.<br /> <br /> Regarding the Bloody Mary legend, I played the "game" a lot as a child, but to get more information, consulted Wikipedia. Bloody Mary isn't always, or at least not explicitly, referencing Queen Mary I, and there are references to pregnancies/children, etc. in that. I assume, considering it's a folktale sort of thing, this varies tremendously. I'm slightly confused about what you're saying regarding the mirror legend, so I don't know exactly how to respond. <br /> <br /> Again, I don't think the differences are vast between our interpretations. To me, someone having difficulty opening their heart is rather similar to feeling not being wholly reciprocated. After all, if the narrators heart is open wide, and the other's isn't, regardless of it's purposeful or not, there's a lack of reciprocation. That's the sort of situation I was intending to suggest, I believe.