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"
From day to day, to day, today to today
From day to day, to day, today to today
We care, we care, we carry our own weight
From day to day, to day, today to today
As sharks in sheep's clothing, pumping with our hips
Filling every single corner with our soft little gifts of ourselves
Getting carried, so, so carried away
I am not afraid to be dead but it's scary for me to stay
From day to day, from day to day to today
Be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave, and be brave
Be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave, and be brave
At the Parthenon
Ants were climbing 'round
Every head of bronze
At the Parthenon
Another monster hiding inside of a cave
We go from day to day misbehaving in the most appropriate ways
The unicorns missing last call to get on Noah's ship
We don't quit, we won't quit, we can't quit, we just don't quit
Well the Earth doesn't care and we hardly even matter
We're just a bit more piss to push out its full bladder
And as our bodies float down onto all their rocky little bits
Piled up under mountains of dirt and silt
And still, the world, it don't give a shit
But be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave! (Be brave!)
Be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave! (Be brave!)
Be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave!
Ants were climbing 'round
All them heads of bronze
At the Parthenon
The ants are climbing on
From day to day, to day, today to today
We care, we care, we carry our own weight
From day to day, to day, today to today
As sharks in sheep's clothing, pumping with our hips
Filling every single corner with our soft little gifts of ourselves
Getting carried, so, so carried away
I am not afraid to be dead but it's scary for me to stay
From day to day, from day to day to today
Be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave, and be brave
Be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave, and be brave
At the Parthenon
Ants were climbing 'round
Every head of bronze
At the Parthenon
Another monster hiding inside of a cave
We go from day to day misbehaving in the most appropriate ways
The unicorns missing last call to get on Noah's ship
We don't quit, we won't quit, we can't quit, we just don't quit
Well the Earth doesn't care and we hardly even matter
We're just a bit more piss to push out its full bladder
And as our bodies float down onto all their rocky little bits
Piled up under mountains of dirt and silt
And still, the world, it don't give a shit
But be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave! (Be brave!)
Be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave! (Be brave!)
Be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave!
Ants were climbing 'round
All them heads of bronze
At the Parthenon
The ants are climbing on
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher, edited by Passenger146
Be Brave Lyrics as written by Jeremiah Green Isaac Brock
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Sentric Music
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I honestly think this song is just comparing humans to ants. We are ants to the earth, and the earth obviously does not give one shit about us. To the earth, we are the ants crawling around the Parthenon.
We continuously screw as much as we can and our corpses litter the earth, filling cracks and crevices, and despite everything we keep doing it over and over and over.
Be brave because you will die, as ants do die and by the droves.
To me this is another song on the self destructive nature of humans. This time Isaac seems to point to the growing problem of overpopulation specifically.
"As sharks in sheep's clothing, pumping with our hips Filling every single corner with our soft little gifts of ourselves Getting carried, so, so carried away"
We as a species tend to view children as a wonderful gift, rather than a danger. We are unwittingly overpopulating the earth and filling every little nook and cranny with too many human beings.
"I am not afraid to be dead but it's scary for me to stay From day to day, from day to day to today Be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave, and be brave Be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave, and be brave"
To Isaac or the narrator dying today is not nearly as scary as the prospect of living in some unspecified future time when things have gotten really dicey. A time in which overpopulation has resulted in the depletion of resources, and perhaps lead to unspeakable wars over water, food, and land.
"At the Parthenon Ants were climbing 'round Every head of bronze At the Parthenon"
Comparing humans to ants covering everything....
"Well the Earth doesn't care and we hardly even matter We're just a bit more piss to push out its full bladder And as our bodies float down onto all their rocky little bits Piled up under mountains of dirt and silt And still, the world, it don't give a shit"
To hear some people describe it today humans are going to bring about the end of the world, but this could not be further from the truth. The earth will live on long after human beings have wiped ourselves out, or rendered the earth incapable of sustaining us. Can we bring about our own destruction? Absolutely. However, to think we will bring about the end of the world itself is perhaps thinking a bit too highly of ourselves.
Love this song and the album theme in general. I'm a big fan of the HBO news show VICE, or as I like to call it "the most depressing half our on television". I'm also fairly pessimistic about our chance of survival as a species, so this really speaks to me.
Dang can't edit my post. To go a bit further on the title and chorus, I believe Isaac is speaking to the generations to come, telling them they better be brave, because things are gonna get scary.