In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
going to your funeral and feeling I could scream
everything goes away
driving down the highway through the perfect sunny dream
a perfect day for perfect pain
look at all the people with the flowers in their hands
they put the flower on the box
that�s holding all the sand that was...
that was once...
that was once you
Honolulu hurricane I knew that you were not insane
living in the insane world
smiling like it�s no big deal
scrabby wounds that never heal
the woman was only a girl
look at all the people with their heads down in their hands
when everything I�m feeling makes it hard to understand
that,
what I need to miss...
It�s what I need to miss...
is you
going to your funeral and I�m feeling like a fool
no one�s gonna take the blame
thinking about the days of hanging out behind the school
everything goes away
everything goes away
driving down the highway through the perfect sunny dream
a perfect day for perfect pain
look at all the people with the flowers in their hands
they put the flower on the box
that�s holding all the sand that was...
that was once...
that was once you
Honolulu hurricane I knew that you were not insane
living in the insane world
smiling like it�s no big deal
scrabby wounds that never heal
the woman was only a girl
look at all the people with their heads down in their hands
when everything I�m feeling makes it hard to understand
that,
what I need to miss...
It�s what I need to miss...
is you
going to your funeral and I�m feeling like a fool
no one�s gonna take the blame
thinking about the days of hanging out behind the school
everything goes away
Lyrics submitted by one hit wonder
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Standing On The Edge Of Summer
Thursday
Thursday
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
Just to correct a few things: his mother was still alive when Electro-Shock Blues was released, although he knew she had cancer. According to his autobiography this song was written about the funeral of his sister, Elizabeth.
Most of this album makes me teary, but one of the parts that really breaks my heart is when he says, 'Honolulu hurricane/I knew that you were not insane'. That part seems to be for his sister.
Lord. This guy's full of powerful stuff.
"scrabby wounds that never heal the woman was only a girl"
His sister. Scrabby wounds by the electro-shock therapy.
Onceagain is wrong. E was never a drug addict.
At the start, E appears to be talking to 'us' - the listeners: we are who he says 'Look...' to. But it becomes obvious that the song is actually addressed to his sister - at her own funeral. The box (coffin) holds 'the sand that was once you'.
It's a very powerful image: a train-of-thought lyric addressed to the deceased at her own funeral.
What always gets me about this song is the resulting contrast between him getting over it and him totally incapable of dealing with it: 'what I need to miss is you', he says to someone as he instructs her to look at the people assembled for her funeral.
He's obviously not going to be able to miss her if he keeps on pretending she's there.
I've fortunately only had to have gone to one funeral, but it really is a strange feeling to first see a coffin and suddenly process the fact that someone you once knew is inside there.
Slightly off topic: I don't think everything he says is necessarily to be taken as the truth. Autobiographical, oh yes, but he didn't necessarily hang out behind the school with his sister (or mother?), it's just a sentence that is meant to present us with our own reality. Either we have lost friends, and our thoughts will stray back to smoking (or whatever) behind the school, or, if we haven't yet "been there", it will ask us, as listeners, "what if?" he does this a lot on this album, appeals to people in a way that's general for a lot of people, but he in a way makes it his own in a very hauntingly honest way. Just an interesting thought about the album.
"going to your funeral and I’m feeling like a fool no one’s gonna take the blame thinking about the days of hanging out behind the school"
I'm pretty sure this is about the funeral of one of his friends that passed, not his sister or mother. Actually, I think his mother is discussed in the first verse, his sister in the second, and his friends in the third. Pretty overwhelming stuff.
Also, E did hang out with his sister- he ended up falling in with a lot of her group of friends. And this is very by-and-by, but he did take drugs as a kid but he got over it when he grew up a bit more. So I guess it's like the opposite of what onceagain said!
beautiful song.. it describes the feelings of losing someone close unexpectedly and then goin 2 their funeral perfectly
look at all the people with their heads down in their hands when everything I'm feeling makes it hard to understand that, what I need to miss... It's what I need to miss... is you
it's unreal how accurate this is.. you have so many friends and family at the funeral.. you struggle to comprehend what you have lost.. ur in shock and you're not yet capable of grieving
One can see that E is singing from experience.. one would expect to instantly grieve and miss the person you have lost.. but that's not how it happens. The grieving comes later.. at the funeral ur just trying to cope and figure out how its possible for everything to change in the blink of an eye