This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
She went out
And found
Her father face down on the ground
Out in the cold
Walked her way 'round
A hill where the sun's sinking down
Into the snow
Oh, white caps of the waves slap
Like last hand claps
And the dark
Water dies in the crash
Is sucked back with a moan
Smoke on the coast
And old, piled fathers
Soft-sighing daughters
Where does it go
It's a dream now
I'll describe
Let your mind drift on down
Like so
To when the world was young
Big sky
Blue with a dead
Bachelor's tongue
Blood-red bloom on the rose
So, some line someone told
Says, "Even light can get old"
Oh, slobbering lovers
Drink-clinking brothers
They don't have to tell us
'Cause we know
"What a way down
What a ride
What a slide
Spin around
What a life to have known
What a time"
And how
I was singing out in a crowd
Of a thousand of the most frightening faces I've known
When the lighthouse
Lending a sight, finally went out
What a fright we felt in that night
Friends, just shout it all out
All the 'why's and 'no-no's
All the cries in your throat
How right
We felt
With our hands tightly closed
Around something we broke
And then our whimpering sisters
Sobbing well-wishers
Well, it's over
Just let my hand go
And found
Her father face down on the ground
Out in the cold
Walked her way 'round
A hill where the sun's sinking down
Into the snow
Oh, white caps of the waves slap
Like last hand claps
And the dark
Water dies in the crash
Is sucked back with a moan
Smoke on the coast
And old, piled fathers
Soft-sighing daughters
Where does it go
It's a dream now
I'll describe
Let your mind drift on down
Like so
To when the world was young
Big sky
Blue with a dead
Bachelor's tongue
Blood-red bloom on the rose
So, some line someone told
Says, "Even light can get old"
Oh, slobbering lovers
Drink-clinking brothers
They don't have to tell us
'Cause we know
"What a way down
What a ride
What a slide
Spin around
What a life to have known
What a time"
And how
I was singing out in a crowd
Of a thousand of the most frightening faces I've known
When the lighthouse
Lending a sight, finally went out
What a fright we felt in that night
Friends, just shout it all out
All the 'why's and 'no-no's
All the cries in your throat
How right
We felt
With our hands tightly closed
Around something we broke
And then our whimpering sisters
Sobbing well-wishers
Well, it's over
Just let my hand go
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I don't hear that "[And]" in the live version that I have. The first missing part sounds like "bachelor's tongue". In the next part, I think it's "...drink-clinking brothers, they don't have to tell us, 'cause we know". At your next missing part, I hear, "... What a fright we felt in that night. Friends, just shout it all out, all the 'why's and 'no-no's, all the cries in your throat. And how right we felt..."
You did a great job of transcribing the lyrics! Thanks for doing so. We won't know the true and final lyrics until the album comes out, though. I can't wait. :)
Will introduces it with: "Well, I'm going to soldier on with the incredibly depressing songs for which I am so known and tolerated. This song is called Lay of the Last Survivor."
As for the title (and possibly the lyrics), it is probably a reference to the lines in Beowulf (2247-2266, heorot.dk/beo-ru.html) that are commonly referred to by the same title. I know little about Beowulf. This is what Wikipedia told me.
For some reason, at least live and acoustic, this song reminds me of I Came Here to Say I'm Going Away. I guess it's just the way it's sung.
-OFFICIAL LYRICS- *(Of course, some of them are a little different in the old live version. There is one part added.)
She went out and found her father face down on the ground out in the cold.
She walked her way around a hill with the sun sinking down into the snow.
All the whitecaps of the waves slap like last handclaps, and the dark water dies in a crash, is sucked back with a moan.
And the smoke on the coast -- oh, piled fathers, soft, sighing daughters, where does it go?
--
It's a dream, now, that I'll describe: let your mind drift on down, like so,
to when the world was young. A big sky, blue of a dead bachelor's tongue. A new bloom on the rose.
So some line someone told says even light can get old. There's a girl, she unfolds in her cell all alone and stands, and beats her hands, and stares, and gasps and chokes, and the air scrapes her throat --
Oh, slobbering lovers, drink-clinking brothers, they don't have to tell us, because we know.
--
What a way down. What a ride. What a slide spin-around. What a life to have known. What a time, and how I was singing out in a crowd of the thousand most frightening faces I've known
and when the lighthouse lending us sight finally went out, what a fright we felt in that night, friends. Let's just shout it out, all the whys and don't knows, all the cries in our throats, and how right we felt, with our eyes tightly closed, holding something we broke --
and then, whimpering sisters, sobbing well wishers, it's over. Just let my hand go.