| Japandroids – The House That Heaven Built Lyrics | 7 years ago |
|
First, the most recent comment was 5 years ago (today is 10/7/2018), so I may just be typing this to myself much in the same way I sometimes think outloud. I really enjoy all the different interpretations of this song's meaning. I think that a good song connects with each listener on a very personal level, often for different reasons. And this is a good song. It is played with passion and emotion and definitely feels like it was inspired by something very tangible that Brian experienced. But it is written in a way that touches on universal themes in a way that each of us interprets it in a way that is very personal to us and our experiences. That combination of great songs that feel personal and passionate performances is one reason I've been a big fan of Japandroids. As far as how I relate to this song, i have a good friend that died earlier this year. Without getting into details, he pretty much drank himself to death in the end. He was a person who lived fully at all times. He had a reputation as a wild man, but he was very intelligent and exceedingly kind. I really got to know him when I was going through the process of losing the person closest to me. In spite of all the people who may have only known him as a wild man, a fun person to party with, the guy who would fiercely champion a band then passed put at the bar, I got to know him as the guy that would drop whatever he was doing the minute I walked in and come engage me when my mind was a million miles away from the people around me. I would come in to get a drink after a rough day and he would make sure he got me smiling and for me talking. He didn't care what people thought of him. He fully lived the way he wanted to and the way he needed to. On the end, I don't know if he knew how loved he was by so many people, but he left a huge hole when he left us. I loved this song since I first heard Celebration Rock, but it hit me in a new way when we lost him. For me, the song feels like it is partially from his perspective, and partially from the perspective of those of us who loved and lost him. The last verse, in particular, really feels like those first days after he died. We are saying "you're not mine to die for anymore so I must live" in the midst of our confusion and grief. He is the one saying "born of a bottle from Heaven's hand, and now you know and here I am." We are trying to hold on to any part of him that we can knowing we have to let go, and he is telling us that he had to live the way he lived and die the way he died. That's the beauty of great music; it connects to us in ways we never realized, and it expresses things that can't be expressed by talking. And the Japandroids are great music in many ways. Even when it's sad, they still have us celebrating and singing along at the top of our lungs.... |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.