| The Shins – Saint Simon Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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vinitlee said: "hmm.. just a thought... what if "mercy's eyes are blue" was showing how rare mercy is? Blue eyes are rare in humans, being quite recessive, and it could be showing that mercy cannot always be there, but, when it is, it is beautiful." i like the idea, but i personally don't believe this to be the case. at first, i don't think mercer wants to tell us how much he likes blue eyes or that the rare occurance of mercy makes it more beautiful. it seems a bit far fetched in this particular context. i think it's more about being "blue-eyed" in the sense of naivety, which needs to be understood metaphorically above all. as a personification of mercy by giving it a human quality it also fits into the very part of the lyrics that it is located in. that part is about somewhat irrational ideas that rather affect us on an emotional level than on a cognitive one. to mercer, life itself is not all about concepts and structures that can be depicted as logical patterns. mercer values all those "ancient lines" given by the great philosophers and scientists in general, such as saint simon himself was one, but in the end they are not more than "nursery rhymes" (that CAN help us "make a sense of our lives" though), so he doesn't mind when one is "wiped out", which i understand as a theory being turned down for whatever reasons, eg. being outdated and therefore abandoned. this could also contain religion, but i don't necessarily see religious theories mentioned in particular. "the saints" are saints of saint simon's kind, one of the fathers of socialist theory and humanitarian in nature. "texts designed by intellects" seems to refer less to the bible or other religious scripture than to works by thinkers of a modern age. the line that i find most important and that has always fascinated me the most is the enormous sentence after the first refrain: "Since I don't have time nor mind to figure out the nursery rhymes that helped us out in making sense of our lives — the cruel, uneventful state of apathy releases me — I value them but I won't cry every time one's wiped out." as i tried to illustrate by punctuation, i think it is necessary to read all of this as one single sentence (this actually was an idea of a friend who first introduced me to the shins). since mercer doesn't have the time nor mind to figure out the nursery rhymes, he doesn't mind if one is wiped out. the state of apathy, a thing that mercer has stated his personal sympathy about, relieves him from the pain of dealing with "texts designed by intellects." the pain occurs when we are "vexed to find" that there is still "so much that hides". none of the said texts and sentiments (which i interpret as humanitarian ideas essentially) can explain the concept of life and what it contains to a degree thoroughly enough to be satisfactory. there simply is no "measuring of" "the solemn warmth you feel inside," since nobody can define abstract things such as love or passion, things that in mercer's eyes are more essential to our existence than anything, but at the same time impossible to depict in language with rationality alone. the pain is also a result of how hard it is to "pluck the sentiments from the vines", meaning figuring out the sometimes very complex theoretical approaches to life, isolating the core arguments of a theory and investigate their validity. many thanks to "elegantgraces" for the hint of mercer's affection for elliot smith, because now this affection can serve as another example of a rather irrational fact that can nonetheless become important to one's life. the chorus is a statement of how mercer approaches life: "I'll try hard not to give in Batten down to fare the wind Rid my head of this pretense Allow myself no mock defense As I step into the night" when he "rids himself of the pretense" of the above stated (the impossibility of completely explaining life rationally, one might say) and does not try to defend himself with or hide behind "texts designed by intellects," he can approach life like stepping into the night that life is; stepping into the dark and unknown means letting things come as they are, not "batten down" oneself and evade all the obstacles of it. because in the end, "nothing else is love." i love mercer's life-affirming and not at all nihilistic position, based on the idea of ambivalence as understood by eugen bleuler, the person who coined the word "ambivalence" as essential to every part of human existence. there is no either-or. you wouldn't and shouldn't want to decide between rationality and irrationality, for both play important roles. by refusing to accept wisdom as the highest principle, this song shows true wisdom. i think mercer and the shins never again showed such great skills in songwriting and composing. the way how he creates incredibly strong and profound sentences, fits them into verses and combines them with those melodies that define the distinctive shins-feeling of juvenile naivety and atmospheric beauty simply impresses me deeply and makes this one of my all-time favorites. |
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| Iron & Wine – Walking Far from Home Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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i don't think this song is about moving on or leaving something behind. it is more like a vision or singular expierience of something completely different or maybe 'out of this world'. i don't see why names that are burned alongside of walls have anything to with home. even associating it with the chinese wall makes more sense to me, since people were executed there by being buried up to the neck killed by the sun in the end. some kind of burning at least. but this reference as well makes no sense combined with the rest of the song. |
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| Iron & Wine – Walking Far from Home Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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full of biblical references. in fact, with all that "i saw..." it is like a "revelation of sam" (as opposed to the revelation of john). "and it came like a call from the lord" does the rest to complete this idea. does somebody have an idea about "where the names were not burned along the walls"? i would love to figure that out. |
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| Iron & Wine – Tree by the River Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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i love "being strangers to change" as an expression for being young. what is "parted-mouth girl" supposed to mean? "potty-mouth" is not less cryptic for a non-native speaker as i am. |
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| Vampire Weekend – The Kids Don't Stand a Chance Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| think the expression is "tremolo". | |
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