Nightmares By The Sea

In the French folktale, Bluebeard is an old aristocrat who's past six wives had all disappeared and who is feared by the local women and girls for his enigmatic and concealing blue beard. He remarries, telling his new wife never to enter one of the rooms in his castle. She disobeys, and discovers the bodies of Bluebeard's murdered wives.

Jeff uses Bluebeard as a metaphor to express how he may not be what he seems based on his physical appearance, "Your Bluebeard's young and handsome", how the women who fall for him don't realize or recognize that he has (hidden) inner demons, "Beware the bottled thoughts of angry young men..." "Don't know what you asked for", and that he has had many lovers in the past who he has had to "drown" or lose, but has not forgotten, and this haunts him, hence the lines, "I've loved so many times..." and "...they'll rise up when darkness falls".

This is an extremely dark and conflicted song, and in MY opinion, demonstrates Jeff's mental and emotional instability at the time. I believe he may have been having nightmares, specifically of a subconscious nature, due to the line "nightmares blind my mind's eye", that were revealing, and perhaps causing, all of this turmoil. Drowning, and water in general, is symbolic of overwhelming emotion and vulnerability, which accounts for the title and general underlying theme and mood of the song. Jeff was very much an Ondine, even astrologically. Quite haunting indeed...

this is one of my very favourite songs... i believe it explores the naivety of 'young lovers' and the girl getting cold feet and perhaps realising the complexity of what she's getting into. "in the middle of the shore she wonders, don't know what you asked for..."

yet it also explores the notion of HER using him 'so new to your bedroom floor'

It's a very abstract song... if it were an artwork it would be surrealist, i think. Intricately woven, technically brilliant, a strong and meaningful core that speaks to the heart in many different and sometimes conflicting ways. This song is so evocative - i see blue, green, a single figure on the shoreline of a turbulent sea at night falling behind another figure... there's somethign so surreal about it.

Wuthering Heights anyone?

this song is so sad...the music and lyrics use drowning imagery...it makes you wonder if it was an accident

its such a beautiful song...xx

i love this song too. probably my fav off sketches. but i think the song has to be about people using each other for sex basically, or getting into relationships purely on physical attraction, and the effect it has on future relationships and the like. i'm not overly sure on this, and i'd be interested to hear other opinions but it just sounds from the lyrics such as;

"i've loved so many times and I've drowned them all. from their coral graves, they rise up when darkness falls. with their bones they'll scratch the window, I hear them call, "don't know what you asked for"

stay with me under these waves, tonight be free for once in your life tonight

so new to your bedroom floor, you know damn well where you'll go.

beware the bottled thoughts of angry young men. secret compartments hide all of the skeletons

It sounds like a dream to me thats the feeling it leaves with me, though I dont think the actual song is about a dream. It spooks me, but I also find the lyrics enticing.

I'd like to say that I've got this song worked out but thats a lie. It's kind of a mystery to me,perhaps why I am so hooked.

All in all, this song is from another time, another place,I wonder where Jeff was at in his life when he wrote this song because its so unusual...its beautiful...thats all I can say.

I like pods explanation, I think that just about nails it, plus it's like he regrets these sort of experiences, there's and idea that they haunt him, in lines like the skeletons bit and the bones scratching the windows (ZOMBIES)

it really makes you wonder if his death was an accident..i mean listen to 'you and i' and you'll understand

Well, I just listened to this song today...and I was just lying on my bed with the music in my ears, reading along with the CD booklet and my first thoughts about what this song could possibly mean is that it's about some sort of abusive relationship.

"beware the bottled thoughts of angry young men. secret compartments hide all of the skeletons."--> These first two lines tell me that the man the woman (girl) married had anger issues she never knew about before she married him. He kept them well hidden.

"your rube is young and handsome, so new to your bedroom floor,"--> The second line especially...just says to me she's been beaten by this man she never thought would do that to her, so she's shocked and "new" to the situation.

i've loved so many times and I've drowned them all. from their coral graves, they rise up when darkness falls. with their bones they'll scratch the window, I hear them call, "don't know what you asked for" "don't know what you asked for" "--> This part of the song however...I think is not necessarily attached to the storyline, but rather Jeff going over his own past failed relationships. Because he wasn't satisfied with them? I'm not sure, but that's the vibe I get from the line "don't know what you asked for."

Anyways...that's just my interpretation.