| Caledonia – So True Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Thanks for posting this! I love these NS dudes! | |
| Florence + the Machine – Blinding Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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It seems to me that this song is about her experience when she finally let go of religion. I think she's specifically referring to Christianity for reasons that will become clear in my explanation of the song. I don't know, of course, if this is her intention, but this song resonates so strongly with me because of my interpretation that I automatically assume it's what she meant as well. How solipsistic of me. Seems that I have been held in some dreaming state/ A tourist in the waking world never quite awake/ the "dreaming state" is the haze of vague notions and highly unlikely certainties that Christianity engulfed her in - she was "a tourist" in that she was living outside of reality, yet even when she was in the "waking world" (reality) she was still under the spell of her beliefs, hence: "never quite awake." No kiss, no gentle word could wake me from my slumber/ Until I realized that it was you who held me under/ "no kiss, no gentle word" could refer to lovers she's had who have tried to talk her out of her religious beliefs "wake me from my slumber" - then she realized that it was someone very close to her, like a parent or relative, who, because of her love for said parent or relative, was keeping her loyal to the religion she wouldn't otherwise believe in, "you who held me under". Felt it in my fists, in my feet, in the hollows of my eyelids/ Shaking through my skull, through my spine and down through my ribs/ these lines are referring to physical sensation. after leaving behind her romantic and wishful notions of a life other than this one she may have had an extremely powerful experience that solidified her new acceptance of reality on reality's terms. feeling the true fragility of life for the first time. this is the line that resonates most with me because I know that experience well. it's intense, beautiful bliss. No more dreaming of the dead as if death itself was undone/ No more cawing like a crow for a boy, for a body in the garden/ No more dreaming like a girl, so in love with the wrong world/ "dreaming of the dead" this could refer to Jesus and the myth of his resurrection "as if death itself was undone" - "no more cawing like a crow for a boy" this may be prayer to Jesus (God's boy) - "for a body in the garden" could be an allusion to Jesus being buried and coming back to life (gardens give life) - "no more dreaming like a girl" this could be a comment on the immature nature of irrational beliefs, to which young girls and boys are prone, and how they are so powerful and compelling that they can cause you to fall "in love with the wrong world". And I could hear the thunder and see the lightning crack/ And all around the world was waking, I never could go back/ "and I could hear the thunder and see the lightning crack" more references to natural phenomena and sensory experience. reality asserting itself. "all around the world was waking" may be referring to how more and more people are being awoken from their dogmatic slumber and facing up, without wish-thinking, fully open, to reality - "I never could go back" now that she's woken up as well she can't get back into the bubble of delusion, it's impossible. Cause all the walls of dreaming, they were torn wide open/ It finally seemed that the spell was broken/ these lines refer to how utterly shattered her delusions were. religion's spell was finally broken. "seemed" in that line may indicate a new-found unwillingness to make statements with absolute certainty. And all my bones began to shake, my eyes flew open/ And all my bones began to shake, my eyes flew open/ this again refers to a powerful visceral experience "bones began to shake" - it may also indicate a sudden realization "my eyes flew open". perhaps the beautiful, liberating, horrifying, and sobering realization that this is it, this is all there is, this body, this life, this short period of consciousness is all we get before we die and turn to dust. coming to grips with the reality of death and annihilation tends to make you feel life intensely, right down in your bones, she may be alluding to this feeling. Snow Whites stitching up the circuit board/ perhaps she's Snow White, awake now and busy repairing ("stitching up") the damage the religious indoctrination inflicted upon her brain ("circuit board"), she may also refer to "circuit board" because that indicates the primacy of materialism as the mind is dependant on the brain OR Snow White is a reference to Christians (because they are still asleep) who are "stitching up the circuit board". "Stitch up" being slang for secretly pre-arranging something, in this case pre-arranging the indoctrination of children's brains ("circuit board") so they'll be more likely to accept Christianity. Synapse slipping though the hidden door/ this could be a reference to connecting, in material terms ("synapse"), with mystery or the ineffable ("hidden door") but that depends on which interpretation of the previous line holds. Those are my thoughts on this incredibly powerful song. I realize they may be much more esoteric than I intended but...that's interpretation...that's the flexibility in subjective description which good art allows. Love it! |
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