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.
We need a myth
We need an amethyst bridge
We need a high hanging cliff
Jump, fall and lift
We can make it
We need a myth
We need a path
Through the mist
Like in our beds
We were just kids
Like what was said by our parents
I guess
What we're after is just this
We need a myth
I feel my heart's like a fist
I words spilling out
From the blessed lips
Of any prophet or goddess
I need a myth
Brought back to life by a kiss
Scrape away grey cement
Show me the world as it was again
In a myth
A red ribbon to reconnect
The lady's head to her neck
And to forget that her throat
Was ever slit
I guess
What we're after is just this
A myth
And I'm sick
Of all these picture books that try
To steal some old reflections for their light
But desperate measures point to desperate times
Which is why
We need a myth
We're cut adrift
We need a mass uplift
The world is trembling and weeping
And at the point of believing
In a myth
The sun that shines on my head
The moon that lights me to bed
Were two identical twins
In a myth
I heard the voice of a friend
On Lethe's banks
Wading in
He said
"Before I forget
We need a myth
As we lean in to kiss
To get two nails
Through the wrist
To get covered in blood
And to get covered in spit
And to forgive."
And if all we're taught is a trick
Why would this feeling persist?
And with the truth closing in
I must insist
We need a myth.
We need an amethyst bridge
We need a high hanging cliff
Jump, fall and lift
We can make it
We need a myth
We need a path
Through the mist
Like in our beds
We were just kids
Like what was said by our parents
I guess
What we're after is just this
We need a myth
I feel my heart's like a fist
I words spilling out
From the blessed lips
Of any prophet or goddess
I need a myth
Brought back to life by a kiss
Scrape away grey cement
Show me the world as it was again
In a myth
A red ribbon to reconnect
The lady's head to her neck
And to forget that her throat
Was ever slit
I guess
What we're after is just this
A myth
And I'm sick
Of all these picture books that try
To steal some old reflections for their light
But desperate measures point to desperate times
Which is why
We need a myth
We're cut adrift
We need a mass uplift
The world is trembling and weeping
And at the point of believing
In a myth
The sun that shines on my head
The moon that lights me to bed
Were two identical twins
In a myth
I heard the voice of a friend
On Lethe's banks
Wading in
He said
"Before I forget
We need a myth
As we lean in to kiss
To get two nails
Through the wrist
To get covered in blood
And to get covered in spit
And to forgive."
And if all we're taught is a trick
Why would this feeling persist?
And with the truth closing in
I must insist
We need a myth.
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
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
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 the “we” in this song is humanity, and the song is generally about humanity’s requirement for “myths,” both fictional and religious in nature.
The first movement starts off with the first types of “myths” most humans are introduced to as children: fairy tales. I don’t think there is a reference to any particular tale, just obstacles (bridges, cliffs, paths) that are typical in fantastical children’s stories. This shows from our earliest age, we’re looking for something more than what reality has to offer us.
The next movement gets slightly more up-tempo and the narrator seems to have grown up and is looking to re-live the escapism that his childhood myths provided by looking for it in classical mythology (references to prophets, goddesses, and people brought back to life.) The narrator wants to see the world as it was when he was a child when he still “believed” something more than reality could exist and he was not inundated with “truth.”
The narrator then makes reference to a traditional children’s story sometimes called the “The Red Velvet Ribbon” or the “The Red Thread” in which a lady’s head is only kept on by a red ribbon around her throat. Her husband unties the ribbon and her head falls off. At this point, the narrator knows that these myths are impossible and he is longing for the time when he still believed they could be true. (Likely why he tells the story in reverse. He wants to reconnect her head to her neck and forget her throat was slit, ie, innocence.)
The narrator then seems to rue the current state of mythology, believing that all stories now are only re-hashed from older stories. They “steal some old reflections for their light.” He goes on further to give his observation of humanity as being overly disenchanted and needing more than ever to be uplifted by some new type of empowering fiction.
The tempo of the song picks up even more as the narrator begins to discuss religion; sort of the ultimate “myth” that people believe in to escape reality. First he mentions Greek mythology by referencing the twins, Apollo and Artemis, the God and Goddess of the sun and moon, and then the River Lethe, one of the rivers surrounding the Greek underworld, which would cause those who entered it to forget everything they’ve ever known. The narrator then moves on to Christianity by referencing Jesus, who is about to walk into the Lethe, (thus, “before I forget”), who briefly touches upon peace, sacrifice, and forgiveness.
The narrator then delivers his closing statement, which is that even though we as humans know the “truth” and have reality all around us, we need new mythology, via fiction or religion, now more than ever. It’s necessary, probably to protect ourselves from becoming overwhelmed by how harsh the world actually is. If we forget this, and become too obsessed with truth and reality, we’ll become less human. Thus, “we need a myth.”
You last paragraph exposes your personal bias against religion. I was with ya up until you discredited yourself :)
I'm really only looking at it from the point of view of the song's narrator. I don't think there is much disputing that the song analogizes religion and mythology. If anything, you might argue that the narrator has a bias against religion, but even there I'd disagree. He might not have the same reverence for it that others may, but I think ultimately he thinks it is a necessary part of humanity.