| The Tallest Man on Earth – Like the Wheel Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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The thing that blew this song wide open for me was thinking that perhaps the verses aren't in chronological order. I believe the story starts with the first verse, with the second being a kind of epilogue, and the third is actually the climax, which is why it's put at the end. The second verse is about the author's brother cutting down the tree on which the author hanged himself. The brother whispers out a paraphrase of the suicide note left for him to find: "This is all I am, so please don't follow me." This is the author's conclusion after sitting down to wonder "where the hell among these mountains" he is- or rather what he is. "Please don't follow me" appears to be a plea for the brother to not follow suit. "It's your brother in the shaft that I'm a-swingin'" As MelleB90 pointed out, the brother now is swinging an ax, noting the irony that his brother hung from the tree whose brother is in the shaft that will cut it down, echoing the pain haunting him by his brother's suicide. "Please let the kindness of forgetting set me free." The brother wants to forget what he's seen and done involving this tree, so he cuts it down. This also explains why the author says, "HE said, 'Oh, my lord, why am I not strong? Like the wheel that keeps travelers traveling on? Like the wheel that will take you home'" The author is echoed here in his desire to save his lost love from the path she's on- the brother wishes the exact same thing. Families of those who commit suicide often have no idea there's such a burden on those that they end up losing. sbowman nailed it, but melleb90's comment got me thinking, and this is what I came up with. Beautifully written and painfully tragic song. |
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