| Manchester Orchestra – Colly Strings Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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The songs opens with a calming, yet eerie simple sound of a guitar playing a clean riff over and over, while a pipe organ plays a single note and allows it to reverberate through the first few verses. Andy Hull, the singer of the band Manchester Orchestra, begins to sing the first lines in a quite spoken word with just a touch of melody. The slow beginning to the song accompanies the emotions and atmosphere within the lyrics. In an interview with the band, Andy Hull explained that he had written the song for his fiancée, explaining all the troubles they worked through so that they could finally be together. He also explained that each three line verse alternates from his fiancée’s perspective to his, and the singular lines are epiphanies of the characters in the song. The entire song brings together a feeling of hope and admiration for the couple as they admit that they love each other, no matter what. The first verse is from the perspective of the woman, which I feel builds sympathy for her primarily. Because her thoughts are heard first, they become stronger and set the scene for the rest of the song. The verse plays out as follows: “Take a leaf of paper and draw your mind, Your bourbon brown that can burn my eyes, I lost your presence underneath the bridge.” The use of the word leaf to describe the paper hints at how delicate the human mind is. By drawing his mind (everything he loves and thinks about) on a piece of paper, he is making himself venerable and opening up fully to his fiancée, she could easily tear the paper, and in essence, tear his mind. The next line refers to his alcoholism, and how it hurts her so much to watch him drink. It burns her eyes similar to how bourbon would burn someone’s throat as they swallowed it. Then she goes on to say that she feels that she had lost him under the bridge, which I believe is as if she is trying to say that back when they used to walk together is when she feels she had lost him, which was so long ago. The next verse carries a little more anger and power within the words, quite the opposite of the sad, quiet and controlled words of the woman. “Lock the door, let's talk it out, Against the wall, hands on my mouth, Could this be it, is it really over now?” This is spoken from the man’s point of view, where he is attempting to be rational and try and coax her to stay with him. I receive image of them in a room together with the man against the wall, as far from her as possible and shocked at the truthful words she had said to him. He is clearly confused and unwilling to give her up as he doesn’t want to admit it’s over between them. The shock of her saying that she feels she had lost him long ago brings up questions in his mind. Then the woman continues to talk about the past and how things used to be better between them. “You wore a pink t-shirt and khaki pants, You played your songs and you danced your dance I unwrapped your presents underneath your feet.” She goes as far back to remember what he was wearing when they met, and how she allowed him to play the expected role of a boyfriend as if it was a dance that was choreographed carefully. And the last line suggests that they were happy and spend gift-giving holidays or birthdays together and that they were happy. Following these reminiscent words, the man begins to express how distraught he is. “Nine to eleven you're getting weak, The tile is cold, I can barely speak, And I think she's gone, but I'll be sure for safety's keeping.” Here I think he’s saying that it’s getting late at it’s almost eleven o’clock and he can see that see looks weak, tired and sad. He feels the cold tile beneath his feet and he’s speechless and afraid of what is happening to their relationship they once had. The final line of the verse is an internal thought that she no longer loves him but that he needs to be cautious in case she actually still loves him. He is still hopeful and clinging on to the idea that everything will be alright eventually. The story continues at a farther point in their relationship where they are yet again going through some troubles. “If you say no, then no it will be, I'll stick it at our skin, pierced with colly strings, Just play it cool yeah, and try avoid being seen, I'll stick it at our skin, pierced for nothing.” This is an important verse because it is the first instance where the title of the song is mentioned, which is a hint that the phrase “colly strings” hold significance. The first line radiates sarcasm to me, because I feel that this was said during an argument, and she realized that he was stubborn and whatever he wanted, happened. Colly means to soil or make dirty, and so the title to this song literally means dirty strings. But this hold much more meaning in the figurative sense. The song is describing their relationship as something which is pierced with colly strings, which would infect you the more and more you moved. Basically I think that it means, the longer they are in the relationship, the worse (or the more infected) it gets, and “Colly Strings“ means and infecting relationship. The following line is a display of the fiancée attempting to calm down and be rational, but then thinking that she went through all the pain for nothing. Here, the singer uses much more power behind his voice and the drums come in slowly but strongly with a steady beat repeated over and over. This adds to the clever build up in the song and accompanies the mans comeback. Andy sings the next lines with a bitter and angry undertone to his voice: “Well yeah I saw inside the mirror your smoking gun, Along the sign, the hours, the subscribing one by one, And I fell so fast in Set Ott’s bedroom.” In an interview, Andy Hull explained that Seth Ott is a friend of his, and the line refers to when he collapsed on the bed in his friend’s room when he heard "rather alarming news” relating to his wife. Seeing the smoking gun in the mirror, I believe, is not literal in it’s meaning, but it means he saw her holding something she felt guilty about, or evidence of something she had done and not wanted him to see. And he is trying to place some sort of blame on her by saying that even though he may have faulted, she also did something wrong. She then retaliates with something to blame on him, “You said you saw something but you didn’t see nothing”, saying that he had lied to her in the past and that was his fault. “Your eyes are on the living room your eyes are on the closet, Don't worry about, don't worry about anything” Then she gives examples of how suspicious he seems in her eyes, keeping his eyes on places where she feels he is hiding things. And then she says that they don’t have to worry about anything because they have both been wrong and faulted in the past. Andy continues to sing about other events in their relationship and brings up happier moments once again to lighten the song. “A pity invitation to an awkward house, a pseudo boy who would rather wear a blouse” is referring to a time where she asked him to come over for the first time and he felt that he was a ’pseudo-boy’ because he wasn’t a real man at the time. “I sincerely saw your skin for the very first time” suggests that this event in there relationship was farther back in the beginning to the first time they spent the nights together, marking an important part in their relationship. The mood of the song seems to lighten as he reminds her of happier times, and I think that this triggers her to start believing things will be okay. With the line, “My curly hair and a voting booth” she link simple things that would trigger his memory to times they spent together and things her said he loved about her that only they, as a couple, would understand the meaning of. A hint of concern and fear is held in the next two lines as she prays for clarity. “Confessingly this is the first time I’ve loved you, and God I mean it, God I mean it, I hope that I mean it”, this makes me feel as if after all they have been through, she finally feels the true love that she thought she had felt the entire time. The chases this expression of love with a seemingly strong verification of it’s truth., but then counteracting it with hope. Andy Hull sings this line carefully, and you can feel the weight that it holds, as if he heard her utter this under her breath and made him fear whether she really loved him or not. Now, the beat of the drum becomes more intense and the singer’s voice becomes slightly stronger, building up for the lines in the next verse. “'Cause like dying young, idols got the best of me”, as this line is sung, each word is given attention and is articulated carefully, and prepares the listener for the next line, which I feel is the most powerful line in the entire song. “Well, don’t stop calling, you’re the reason I love losing sleep.” to say that someone means so much to you, that you want them to deprive you of sleep, is such a powerful sentiment and such a meaningful, unique way to put it. Andy and his fiancée have moved on from all the troubles at this point and he has realized how much he truly loves her, and wants her to stay with him. “And the building collapsed, we’ll shop one for something, I’ll stick it at our skin pierced for something”, these lines show how the emotions in the song have moved to a more positive area, as Andy counteracts his fiancée’s previous statement by saying that they’ve gone through the troubles in the relationship for something, making it worthwhile, instead of pointless, as his fiancée had said during the more negative times. He says that when their relationship (the building) collapses, they’ll find a way to fix it up again, because it’s all worth it. The drums cease for the first line of the next verse, and for that moment, only Andy’s voice and the very light shakes of a tambourine can be heard, emphasizing the intensity behind the seven words to be spoken. “Besides, don’t release me until it’s over.” I feel like this embraces Andy’s emotions towards his fiancée completely, he doesn’t want to leave her, and he wants her to stay with him until they die, honoring the vows he will make in the future, till death do us part. As he finishes this line, all of the instruments start back up again with all the power they have accumulated throughout the song. Then, the singer comes back in with the line, “And besides, you can’t believe without bleeding.” |
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| Manchester Orchestra – Colly Strings Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| i know what you mean :) | |
| Manchester Orchestra – Colly Strings Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| wow that's so clever! thanks! | |
| Manchester Orchestra – Colly Strings Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| "Don't stop calling, you're the reason I love losing sleep" favourite lyric in any song...ever. | |
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