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"
In the wake of his chariot
You swam toward the latitudes
Leaving for happier times
Florida far behind
Trying your best you were
Ignoring the rescuers
You'd gone so very long
You were so very strong
The scene was so tragic
But that was the magic
Will you never drown?
Will you learn to use
Some forgotten part?
Some forgotten part?
Are you going down
Where the ballyhoos
And the tritons are?
And the tritons are?
You were so incredible
Finding all the edible
Prize of the sea
Prize of the sea
In the wake of his chariot
You swam toward the latitudes
Leaving for happier times
Florida far behind
In division pelagic
You were choragic
Will you never drown?
Will you learn to use
Some forgotten part?
Some forgotten part?
Are you going down
Where the ballyhoos
And the tritons are?
And the tritons are?
And the tritons are?
You swam toward the latitudes
Leaving for happier times
Florida far behind
Trying your best you were
Ignoring the rescuers
You'd gone so very long
You were so very strong
The scene was so tragic
But that was the magic
Will you never drown?
Will you learn to use
Some forgotten part?
Some forgotten part?
Are you going down
Where the ballyhoos
And the tritons are?
And the tritons are?
You were so incredible
Finding all the edible
Prize of the sea
Prize of the sea
In the wake of his chariot
You swam toward the latitudes
Leaving for happier times
Florida far behind
In division pelagic
You were choragic
Will you never drown?
Will you learn to use
Some forgotten part?
Some forgotten part?
Are you going down
Where the ballyhoos
And the tritons are?
And the tritons are?
And the tritons are?
Lyrics submitted by dragonflower44
The Swimmer Lyrics as written by Charles Thompson
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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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.
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I'd like to know what this is about, no doubt it's something about a tragic case with a swimmer...I'm good at detecting the obvious
I think this is related to Thallasocracy. A guy is swimming into the past to be what he once was cos he wants to detach himself from this world and return to the sea: pelagic = oceans, choragic = leader
This is one of my favorite FB&TC songs. I initially liked it for the musicianship and the beautiful sadness of the steel guitar over the unconventional chord progression that somehow work perfectly, as most FB&TC songs do.
After many listens, I think I finally realized what the song is about. Frank is singing about someone with a persecution complex, or victim complex. They have gone through a painful experience, but now removed from it, they continue to struggle and insist that they are being persecuted. Frank is describing that help is available, but the swimmer refuses to grab the hands of those who have reached out to rescue her (him?). Frank wonders how the swimmer is able to stay afloat, yet not make any progress with their problem. Frank wonders if the swimmer will figure it out, or if they will ultimately sink to the bottom of the sea.
I took it to be about a whale (metaphorically speaking one presumes). Leaving Florida for the latitudes, being pelagic and choragic all seem to fit that. And being the 'prize of the sea.
Frank Black has said this song was about a real event, but it's not clear if he was serious.
I remember when this came out thinking back to an event where an extreme long distance swimmer was lost, I've always felt it was about that.
Frank has a few songs with the same theme, Angels Come to Comfort You is one, where a tragic death is contemplated in a fantastical way, possibly as an allegory to a potential afterlife, or as a eulogy showing his admiration.