| Iron & Wine – The Trapeze Swinger Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I fucking love this song. The lyrics are so deep and beautiful. It seems like everything a person experiences in his or her life is somehow incorporated into this song with such wonderful imagery and meaning. Perhaps that's the reason this song can be interpreted in a wide variety of personal dealings and relations. This song, man. This song. Brings you up; brings you down. It overwhelms you with feelings you can't even begin to describe. Like the title suggests, this song brings you to an emotional balance of feelings. This song doesn't make you feel only happy; it doesn't make you feel only sad. This song does not limit a reaction to one set feeling. It makes you feel all, everything, somewhere delicately placed and beautifully balanced in between the ruckus of your brain. Fucking excellent. Let's start... I like to think that this song is in general about a man who just passed away, and is relaying to his lost lover that he grew up with this message of remembrance, and that he hasn't seen her in a long time (maybe years?). I think this man is in between Heaven and Hell, and is reminiscing both good and bad moments in his past lifetime as he wanders through observing notable features of where he is (purgatory? line for the gates?). I believe the "Happily" verse captures two separate scenarios that this man remembers from his past, long ago as a child with his "potential" lover. The first scenario is self explanatory: laughing by the rosebush with bruises on his chin (oh, the carefree days of childhood... getting bruised and battered from the curiosities life so elegantly delivered). Here, I also believe the rosebush portrays a symbol of blooming (either growing as a child, learning from mistakes, etc.). The next scenario deals with a death and a funeral (of a family member perhaps). And, being so young and oblivious with no understanding to what is going on, the man (as a child) and the girl count the black cars passing the house in almost a game-like manner. Because they don't fully understand what has happened and they don't want to be around this mess they decide to "escape", getting the maps, getting the piggy bank of coins, and pinpointing a destination (mountain range). "A vision too removed to mention" is how as he grew older he realized this vision of escaping with this girl was unrealistic and surely never going to happen, so he tried to forget it. The "Fondly" verse to me verifies that he is in fact waiting at the line of the Pearly Gates. He meets someone who has also died who knew this woman who tells him she is still pretty. The person he meets in line proceeds to tell him about the graffiti at the Pearly Gates. The three graffiti lines are words of people who either got into Heaven or didn't make it. "Fuck the man" is a graffiti of someone who was sent to Hell; someone who desires to live by his own choices with no outlook for consequences. The "man" is Jesus (or God). The angels with their great handshakes being done in such a hurry represents how fast-paced people die; how there is such a high concentration of people waiting in line for the Gates. Maybe not what he expected. The verse "At Halloween" is somewhat straightforward. Halloween night. Costumes, faces painted white. Being loud and having a good time (making fools of all the neighbors). Party. And by midnight I believe they were both intoxicated to a degree that they had forgotten something between each other. Maybe they had forgotten they were only friends, but ended up having sex that night only to feel ashamed and embarrassed the next morning. But reminiscing about it at the line of the Pearly Gates he thinks it was silly and maybe even laughs about it. The season leaving the world and returning is confusing to me, but I think it deals with him and/or her both trying to forget that season of the year they had drunken sex. But it returned (to him, at least), and he feels deeply in love with her now. Hence her being lit up by the "city". In the "Mistakenly" verse, unlike the other verses, he is asking her to remember him as who he wasn't. Maybe who he tried to be. He asks her to remember him in the tallest tower (confident, powerful, everything she wanted, etc.). But he says he was "much too high to see the empty road at happy hour". This isn't literal, obvious. This is a huge metaphor for being too self-absorbed to take an open one-time opportunity (to be with her, I suppose). "Lost and found" reminds me of a Lost & Found bin at an airport. You go to a designated area to find what you've misplaced (and hope it's there). He's trying to find what he's lost. "Don't look down" I think is both literal and figurative. Don't look down from where you are. You are where you need to be at that exact moment. Don't lose yourself in your past. "Someone save temptation" is kind of a big one. Temptation is the Devil. Temptation is the prime cause of wrongdoings. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Does he mean save it for later? Or actually rescue it? I'll go with the latter. But I'm still stumped on what that means. The verse "As in the dream" talks about remembering him in the dreams they had as babies together. Fallen trees is a grave symbol for mortality and death. I believe this has significant meaning for mortality. Nobody lives forever; everybody dies. They had these dreams among the deceased, fast asleep BESIDE the lions and the ladies. Lions are symbolic for resurrection, conversion, and strength. Protection, if you will. I think lions and ladies refers to father and mother. Giving the baby boy and girl gifts for good behavior. Quite literal, I think. Mainly referring to when everything was handed to them; innocence. The fleeting chance to see a trapeze swing as high as any savior isn't quite clear to me. Who knows. Savior, though, refers to the Heavens. Christ is the highest "swinger". Nobody can swing as high as Him. Maybe he wanted to see someone else do it. In this "My misery" verse, he wants her to remember his sorrow and melancholy state that lost him what he wanted. Maybe he gave up on her. And that inevitably leads to loss. The next few lines create beautiful imagery, and I love when Sean uses dogs in his songs. I believe he is describing what he sees at St. Peter's guard. "Those dogs that love the rain / And chasing trains" is a beautiful line. Dogs symbolize faithfulness and guardianship and loyalty. They were also associated with priests since priests were thought of as watchdogs against the devil. The symbolism of rain derives from its correlation with the sacred substance water, a universal metaphor for the origin and renewal of life. Rain is seen as the promise of survival here. As for trains, they run on tracks. I believe this is a play of words for encouragement, find the right track - "you're on the right track". "The colored birds above their running / In circles around the well". Another fantastic line. Birds symbolize freedom from limitation. These birds are colored (full of spirit) flying above the dogs' running in circles around the well. A well typically symbolizes the womb, a place of birth or rebirth. Putting this all together, it's a big metaphor for being near the brink of rebirth. The loyal dogs and free birds in the pure rain, on the right track, running around well. "And where it spells / On the wall behind St. Peter / So bright with cinder gray / And spray paint / "Who the hell can see forever?"". This is self explanatory. He's made it to the Pearly Gates, and he sees more graffiti. In the "Seldomly" verse he is referring back to the past. I'm guessing they're older, and this was after they had their drunken shenanigan. They're at a carnival, he tries to go for it (sex) again, but is rejected. She's had too much. She wants to be nothing more than friends, but now feels like she can't even be friends with him because he is in love with her and has created an awkward bond between them. She says it was never meant to last ("it" being what they had - I assume they had previous flings, tried dating, etc. but it was never mutual). The trapeze act she was talking about symbolizes a strong desire for freedom, but it didn't work out. He failed. He fell. "The clown that passed / Saw me just come up with anger / When it filled with circus dogs / The parking lot / Had an element of danger". Clowns, here, are used for irony. He feels foolish and not taken seriously. He filled with anger, which in turn filled the circus dogs with fright. The parking lot, to him, was now dangerous. Ironic, twisted, and dangerous. He knew this was their last bout, and probably the last time he would ever see her. But he would always love her. So, he asks her to remember him, finally. He asks her to remember his uphill battle with fate and happiness. He asks her to remember how hard he tried (clawing uphill) to be with her; his devotion for her. Now he tells her that IF he makes the Pearly Gates, he will do his best to make a drawing of a symbol of opposition. God and Lucifer (love and hate; good and evil), a boy and girl (opposite sex; Adam and Eve, perhaps), an angel kissing on a sinner (beautiful... it shows no matter how bad you are, no matter how much you hate everything, you are still loved no matter what), a monkey and a man (evolution and intelligent design), a marching band (moving in unison), all around a frightened trapeze swinger. He is symbolizing his feelings for all of us. He is showing that what he felt for this woman was the opposite of what she felt for him. He wanted her; she didn't. Simple. A trapeze swinger is balanced. A trapeze swinger lets go in mid-air of one bar (never to go back), and swings to the next bar. This signifies letting go and moving on. The trapeze swinger is you, me, everyone. If you'll notice, the trapeze swinger signifies balance. However, surrounding him is opposition. Only the extremes. The trapeze swinger is frightened because of this unbalanced "aroma" around him. We never know what the middle is. We never know where to choose. We only go with what we think is right. His message is to keep your life balanced; never be frightened at what is thrown around you that will cause you to stagger. He suggests letting go, and moving on - even with the hardest of heartaches. There is a little good in everything. I read somewhere that balance is the meaning of life. But where the hell is the fulcrum? |
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| Beirut – Postcards from Italy Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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i believe this song is about a relationship, obviously. but it holds more reference to the past. like many of you stated, it is quite a nostalgic song, and it does give that feeling of wanting to go back to the past, when everything was "free". but that's a relative term. you cannot relive something, and that's what this song is about. the first verse, in my opinion, is about the happy times him and his lover had. rain and snow could be literal, but they could also be metaphors for fights or bad times, and you can tell they were happy regardless, because "they were not all that bad". the line "we put our feet just... never to go" refers to the foundation of their relationship. think of it as sticking your feet into wet cement and letting it dry. they put their relationship where they wanted it, and they wanted it to remain like that forever. "the shattered soul following close but nearly twice as slow" could mean a number of things. in my opinion, it refers to a happiness yet to come. he made some mistakes in the past (which he tells of in the next few lines) and was shattered by them, but he is now moving into a better path in life, perhaps because of this special girl. the following four lines in the second stanza talk about his past (i assume when he was single), and the mistakes he made. but he slides in that he doesn't regret them. the line "at those who admit defeat too late" is analogous to 'not quitting while you're ahead'. "those were our times" refers to his mindset of no regrets. the last stanza, perhaps the most beautiful stanza i've ever read, refers to him settling down with his loved one. he's finally realized he's done all he can do, he has become wiser perhaps; made all the mistakes in the book and learned from them; done all the crazy things a guy can do; had all the fun he can have. he's ready to marry this girl, and he can't wait. |
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| Mercury Rev – Lincoln's Eyes Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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