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.
During the time of which I speak it was hard to turn the other cheek
To the blows of insecurity
Feeding the cancer of my intellect the blood of love soon neglected
Lay dying in the strength of its impurity
Meanwhile our friends we thought were so together
They've all gone and left each other in search of fairer weather
And we sit here in our storm and drink a toast
To the slim chance of love's recovery
There I am in younger days, star gazing
Painting picture perfect maps of how my life and love would be
Not counting the unmarked paths of misdirection
My compass, faith in love's perfection
I missed ten million miles of road I should have seen
Meanwhile our friends we thought were so together
Left each other one by one along the road of fairer weather
And we sit here in our storm and drink a toast
To the slim chance of love's recovery
Rain soaked and voice choked like silent screaming in a dream
I search for our absolute distinction
Not content to bow and bend
To the whims of culture that swoop like vultures
Eating us away, eating us away
Eating us away to our extinction
Oh how I wish I were a trinity, so if I lost a part of me
I'd still have two of the same to live
But nobody gets a lifetime rehearsal, as specks of dust we're universal
To let this love survive would be the greatest gift that we could give
Tell all the friends who think they're so together
That these are ghosts and mirages, all these thoughts of fairer weather
Though it's storming out I feel safe within the arms of love's discovery
To the blows of insecurity
Feeding the cancer of my intellect the blood of love soon neglected
Lay dying in the strength of its impurity
Meanwhile our friends we thought were so together
They've all gone and left each other in search of fairer weather
And we sit here in our storm and drink a toast
To the slim chance of love's recovery
There I am in younger days, star gazing
Painting picture perfect maps of how my life and love would be
Not counting the unmarked paths of misdirection
My compass, faith in love's perfection
I missed ten million miles of road I should have seen
Meanwhile our friends we thought were so together
Left each other one by one along the road of fairer weather
And we sit here in our storm and drink a toast
To the slim chance of love's recovery
Rain soaked and voice choked like silent screaming in a dream
I search for our absolute distinction
Not content to bow and bend
To the whims of culture that swoop like vultures
Eating us away, eating us away
Eating us away to our extinction
Oh how I wish I were a trinity, so if I lost a part of me
I'd still have two of the same to live
But nobody gets a lifetime rehearsal, as specks of dust we're universal
To let this love survive would be the greatest gift that we could give
Tell all the friends who think they're so together
That these are ghosts and mirages, all these thoughts of fairer weather
Though it's storming out I feel safe within the arms of love's discovery
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
American Town
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One of Indigo Girls best songs I think. One thing these girls have a great sense of is that meaningful relationships necessarily have down times as well as the obvious exciting wonderful moments.
This is not just an observation song about watching relationships struggling around them, they also capture beautifully that it is the struggles that ultimately leads to the greatest discovering of what love actually is. So we make the best plans and have hopes when we venture out in the big wide world of love and friendship, but we soon discover that the 'fair weather' and plans based on 'picture perfect maps' just don't work out that way - that's not the reality of this thing we call life, we get blind-sided by all sorts of things. On top of that, the culture we live in doesn't always help:
To the whims of culture that swoop like vultures Eating us away, eating us away Eating us away to our extinction
Our culture presents this false image of 'perfection' in an individual and relational sense, expectations that can't possibly be met which pressures our sense of how things should be in our lives, ultimately eating at the very things that matter to us the most.
The closing lines are just great:
That these are ghosts and mirages, these thoughts of fairer weather Though it's storming out I feel safe within the arms of love's discovery
The notion of forever 'fairer weather' is illusion, propped up by popular culture, and ultimately will lead us away from the very thing we seek. Rather, Love's discovering is found in riding the storms of life and relationship. It is this which ultimately gives our relationships and lives in general depth and significance.
That's my take anyway.