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Everything Merges with the Night Lyrics
Rosalie, I've been waiting all evening
Possibly years, I don't know.
Counting the passing hours
Everything merges with the night.
I stand on the beach, giving out descriptions
Different for everyone I see.
Since I just can't remember
Longer than last September.
Santiago, under the volcano,
Floats like a cushion on the sea.
Yet I can never sleep here
Everything ponders in the night.
Rosalie, we've been talking all summer
Picking the straw from our clothes.
See how the breeze has softened
Everything pauses in the night.
Possibly years, I don't know.
Counting the passing hours
Everything merges with the night.
Different for everyone I see.
Since I just can't remember
Longer than last September.
Floats like a cushion on the sea.
Yet I can never sleep here
Everything ponders in the night.
Picking the straw from our clothes.
See how the breeze has softened
Everything pauses in the night.
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What does this song mean to you?
everything
this song carries such a beautiful emotional weight
there is a key to the universe in this song. Good God what a freakish genius is Eno.
So the meaning can be whatever you want. I doubt this song is meant to convey something literal. Something surreal to evoke a response.
But isn't it funny how the part about the volcanoe seems to have a counterpart in reality? There's an island in the Galapagos called Santiago. It's formed from two volcanoes. And being an island, it "floats like a cushion on the sea" in a manner of speaking. Wonder if Eno had heard of the island... maybe couldn't sleep with the fear of volcanic activity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_Island_%28Gal%C3%A1pagos%29
I was just thinking of this song and the phrase "Santiago/under the volcano" struck me. It occurred to me that it was only a couple of years or so after the coup in Chile when Eno wrote this song. I can't read a direct comment on the coup into the song, but unless he specifically had another Santiago in mind it's difficult to think he could have referred to it without thinking about the repression in Chile. Perhaps there was something more deliberate in it to start with and it got changed for artistic reasons. Of course with Oblique Strategies in play there might have been some other consideration at work.
@PaulH42 I agree about the coup. The song was written in 1974 so when he says "I just can't remember past last September" - Allende was assassinated on the 11th September 1973 - I think he means to reference the coup. It is a very sad song. And quite beautiful.
@PaulH42 I agree about the coup. The song was written in 1974 so when he says "I just can't remember past last September" - Allende was assassinated on the 11th September 1973 - I think he means to reference the coup. It is a very sad song. And quite beautiful.
I guess it's a song about love. "Rosalie" is the name that represents Love in this song. It's about a love that has been in a certain way removed, but maybe is returning. During the separation from love, standing and waiting, the Narrator gives out different descriptions for everyone he sees. I wonder why he does that. Maybe he is trying to help other people to encounter their "Rosalies". Or maybe he is trying to descript "Rosalie" into those people, trying to convert them into Rosalie, in a certain way. "Rosalie" may not even indicate a specific person, but something like "roses". Something beautiful but maybe with a thorn! Like Love.
And I love this verse, "Everything Merges With The Night". It sounds very mysterious and true to me. It is with the Night that everything merges. We fail to perceive many sources of light in the constant and strong light of the Day. But in the Night we can see a more profound universe maybe, reflected in the light of the Stars. It is also in the Night that our life is more quiet, away from distracting noises. And it is the Night also the moment when we can be the most alone with ourselves, if so we wish.
Santiago is the place where the Narrator lives, in the Night. In one side, it has the volcano with it's Fire activity and the danger of burning. In the other side, there is the possibility that the Sea swallow the whole city. Santiago floats between the two. But under the Volcano, even without it's eruption, there is a strong activity; an activity strong enough to left the Narrator awakened at the Night, in a moment where everything merges, ponders, and is in silence, because everything have paused for an instant. The breeze has softened.
And what happens after the Pause? Maybe the Dawn? The Coming of Love? Maybe Brian Eno have sung about it in another song...