| The National – It Never Happened Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I'm trying to determine if there is any intended continuity between the themes of verse one and two, here's my take. Verse one is clearly based in NYC at the time of the 9/11 attacks (fashion week was cancelled that year as it was due to begin the day of the attack). I figure the following lines are indicating that the city badly needs a distraction in the immediate aftermath. The chorus expresses the subject inability to wrap their head around the chaos and how their entire world was changed when our very own homes were attacked. The ending lines of the chorus are the subject seeking comfort. The second verse could indicate a fleeing from NYC in the aftermath where they were unable to find comfort to a smaller town where "nothing ever happens". A lot of people take that line as being derogatory of small town life, but I think in this case it's exactly what the subject was searching for. Somewhere without the chaos. The air being empty, devoid of planes and ash and speculation and mourning and media is a good thing. But a change of scenery rarely resolves internal struggles and the subject still seeks to be fixed (rearrange me) or comforted (cover me). The final line that extends through the aftermath of the song kinda throws a wrench in the cogs of my interpretation. could be taken as sarcastic... a jab at the people that were complaining about fashion week being cancelled in light of the seriousness of what actually happened. Or maybe that the beautiful are too self centered to really grasp the gravity of tragedy... or fuck man, someone ask Matt if he can even remember what he was trying to suggest a decade ago when he wrote this song. I don't know shit. |
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