| The Antlers – Shiva Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
Shiva is a a seven-day Jewish mourning period. After someone dies, the mourner is supposed to go to the home of the deceased (in this case, a hospital) and remain low to the ground by sitting on short stools for a week. I think that's what this song is about: the patient dies and the husband mourns. In the "Hospice" prologue (printed in the album's liner notes) and in the song "Epilogue," someone who has died comes back to haunt the mourner in dreams right before the mourner falls asleep. I think that's what the middle of the song is talking about. The alternate title listed for this song in the liner notes is "Portacaths Switched." A portacath is a medical device for oncology patients installed subcutaneously, making both blood withdrawal and drug injection easier. Any ideas how that applies to the song? |
|
| The Antlers – Two Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
Also, there's a prologue printed in the album's liner notes that might be helpful. I'll reprint it here: Before diving into this, I think some background would be useful. When she was younger, she had nightmares. She had scissor-pain and phantom limbs, and things that kept her nervous through that twelve-year interim. When she fell crossing that street (south of Houston, old Manhattan-land), those nightmares fell from building tops and took her by the hand. She was brought into those rooms with sliding curtains and shining children's heads. One of the, that boy, was not as lucky as she then. (Years later, he would return to her at night, just when she thought she might have fallen asleep. As she would later describe to me, his face would be up against hers, and she'd be too terrified to speak.) Now, I won't pretend I understand, because I can't, and now I never will. But something makes her sting, and something makes her want to kill. It made her crawl under that house, and stick her head under the stove...well, my point in all of this is that it's all connected in these complicated nightmares that we wove. |
|
| The Antlers – Two Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
I think listening to the rest of the lyrics on the album helps in understanding this song. You can tell he works in the hospital from the song "Kettering:" "Because you'd been abused by the bone that refused you, and you hired me to make up for that...When I was checking vitals I suggested a smile...Something kept me standing by that hospital bed; I should have quit but instead I took care of you." And from the song "Epilogue:" "You've been gone for quite awhile now, and I don't work there in the hospital (they had to let me go)." It's possible that the woman's parents had something to do with her rash behavior, but I think the cancer is a more major theme in the album. Death can be used as a metaphor for a lot of things, but I think it's important first to understand the literal death in the album before applying it to something else. Also, I think the woman actually dies in the next song, "Shiva," and not in this song. |
|
| The Antlers – Epilogue Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
I just wanted to respond to some of the comments so far to clear up any confusion. The story of the album is about a man who works at a hospital, falls in love with a bone cancer patient, marries her, and then watches her die. This song is about her haunting his memories. The song is about a real, physical death, but I suppose the listener can choose to use that as a metaphor for the emotional loss of a breakup if he or she wants to. The melody is the same as "Bear," which I think adds to the haunting theme. I think when someone dies, people often tend to forget the negative and romanticize the positive. What I love about this song is we get to see just how depressed and abusive the deceased was when she was alive. |
|
| The Antlers – Two Lyrics | 16 years ago |
|
Joshua 27 is right. "Hopsice" is a concept album about a man who works at a hospital, falls in love with a cancer patient, marries her, and then watches her die. I think the psychological and physical breakdowns described in this song are all a result of the cancer. If you ask me, the entire album is genius. What I love about this song (and the whole album, for that matter) is how it differs from traditional cancer stories. I've heard so many cancer stories that drip of sadness but in the end they all arrive at something positive: "I found the meaning of life," "I discovered what's really important," "My wife died but she was the love of my life and I was blessed to have the time with her I did," "I'm at peace about what happened," etc. But in this story the overwhelming emotion isn't sadness, it's anger. The cancer patient throws phones at her husband, blames him for her mistakes, and daily threatens to leave him. And the narrator doesn't romanticize his relationship with his wife; he actually lets us in on its dysfunction and admits that they were married hastily and at the disapproval of their friends. There's no redemption in this story at all, and that's what makes it so powerful. I love it! |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.