Look On Down From The Bridge

To me, this song is told from the perspective of someone who has recently died and is traveling the "bridge" from Earth to Heaven (or your choice of skyward afterlife).

She's looking down on those that she's leaving behind. The "fountains" are the tears wept by her loved ones, the rain could be literal or her own tears. Everyone wants to be free from the pain, which she compares to when someone leaves home (thus abandoning their loved ones in a way). She wants them to move on ("look away from the sky"), but acknowledges that it is indeed different, especially since she can't literally say goodbye to them. So she says it anyway, knowing that they won't hear her.

She tries to cover their pain from herself by blocking them out with her hands and closing her eyes. The "light in your eyes" is the life that they still have and she's reminding them that they must go on living it, then acknowledges that they indeed know this, even if it's not a reassuring thought to them. She looks at them one more time and says that she's waiting for them, the ultimate reassurance to herself, that they will one day join her in the great beyond.

I understand why many people connect this track to death, or even suicide (the bridge imagery doesn't help I guess), but in my interpretation it's much simpler than that.

As at least one person has suggested, for me, the song sums up and expresses the pain of knowing when you must move on from a failed relationship, for your own good, or even your own survival.

"The bridge" isn't a literal bridge in my take, it's the connection between the life you must leave behind (and all the possibility and hope contained in that), and the choice you know you have to take for your own sanity, safety and survival.

The fountains still down there? Those are the fantasies where the relationship could actually work out, the heady dreams you know you must abandon.

The rain up here? That's the impending reality that you have to face, because you know it's the truth, you know it can't be saved, you know it will consume you and drag you down if you keep trying. It's time.

Everybody seems so far away from me because in these circumstances you're cut off from everything. The old life you now know was a dream isn't real anymore, but you're still on the bridge that separates that from a future life you're moving towards.

Everybody just wants to be free. Free from lies, free from constraints, free from things that harm us and hold us back. Free from this relationship that has become an unhealthy bond and a source of pain.

Maybe I just place my hands over you? Close my eyes real tight? And hope. And wish. And try to return to the dream, but even the other person knows by now. It can't happen. There's a light in your eyes. And you know. Yeah you know.

Look on down from the bridge. I'm still waiting. For you. Forever. For the dream that died. For the love you know now can never work. The part of you that you leave behind forever when you know you must.

It's sad alright, I'm literally crying my eyes out writing this, but it's also hope. The knowledge that it's hopeless enables growth and a move forward, across the bridge, to something new. Something better. Look on down from the bridge, but don't get stuck there. Keep on moving. Cross the bridge.

When I hear it, I always think to the suicide bit. That ending line "Look on down from the bridge, I'm still waiting for you" makes me think of someone who's too miserable to remain here, and they're waiting for their lover to join them in eternity. Though, I can definitely sense just the failed relationship interpretation.

I guess you can take it literally or figuratively. Whichever way it resonates more with you.

It's so gloomy and beautiful. I think this is the song I want played at my funeral.

remind anybody else of Neil Young's "Helpless"?

A lot of interpretations here, which I think are good. People are going to interpret vague Dream songs like this in very personal ways, and I think that is good and speaks to the quality of the song.

I don't think this song implies suicide or death in any way. The feel of the song does bring about very distinct feelings of loss as if there was a death. I believe this was intentional, as leaving a loved one very often feels as if they had died, or as though one was dead.

I feel that this song is simply about saying goodbye and coming to terms with loss. The lyrics in particular bring up a few motifs that help put this song into perspective:

The first is the contrast between "fountains down there" and "raining up here". This conjures up images of water falling from the sky (generally a sad motif) versus fresh water coming up from below (a motif surrounding rebirth and prosperity).

"Everybody seems so far away from me / everybody just wants to be free" She wants to be free like everyone else she has felt isolated from.

"I can't be the same thing to you now / I'm just gone" Something messed up, and she has to leave. This is the only reason given in the lyrics, and it seems to imply something happened with her.

At this point she doesn't know how to say goodbye, and "maybe I'll just place my hands over you / and close my eyes real tight". At this point she sees it in the other's eyes that they know she is gone.

And now she is waiting for them to say goodbye too. Maybe they never did, and she is still waiting long after.

this is my favorite of hers, and the imagery inspired me to begin a story, which i never wound up finishing.

it's so downhearted and resigned, both musically and lyrically. when she utters the last lines, it breaks my heart... mostly because i could easily be the one saying them.

heard this for the first time tonight from a show called Rick & Morty - episode Rick Potion #9. Haunting time to play it in the show (you'd have to watch). But it's haunting me now due to its profoundness...

For me it reminds me of my beloved boyfriend who passed away 4years ago. I still love and miss him very deeply and now I've been lucky enough to have found love again after such pain, such emptiness, such darkness. There still however remains a part of me that will forever love him and at the end of my days I will look for him.....If only for just his smile.

It's one of the most beautiful ways to say goodbye to someone. It would be perfect for a suicide note.

For me this song is about a romantic relationship and the narrator’s complicated, conflicting feelings regarding her unfulfillment, and yet she holds tightly to the possibility that things might improve. There’s also a sense that they struggle to be close to each other at the same time – they’re always on different sides of the bridge. She starts letting go, and he wants to hold on. Maybe she struggles with true, lasting intimacy or even fears it and has to flee. Ultimately it reflects the couple’s collective denial of the true state of the relationship breaking down.

The fountain/rain metaphor represents two perspectives of the same relationship. The fountains represent the places she goes in her head to fantasise about things being fixed, that things might improve and their love may still flourish. Or, it could also represent where he is emotionally – still holding onto hope and wanting to make the relationship work. Whereas “up here”, where she is emotionally – or, in the part of her head that isn’t engaging in denial – she has taken a step back to gain perspective. Up here, it’s still raining – there are problems that mean she must leave.

When the narrator says everybody feels so far away, it feels like she’s circling around the issue that she struggles to form healthy intimate bonds or unconsciously creates distance. In many ways, she wants to be completely free from attachments, even though she craves love, and justifies her personal need to leave by saying freedom is something everybody wants. This also reminds me of the themes in Halah, which for me, tells the story of a person in a state of bargaining about relationship breakdown. In Halah, she is also in denial about her own faults in the relationship and her inability to open herself fully to the other person.

Look away from the sky is a call to collude in denial in order to keep things going, but she admits she has emotionally checked out and cannot be present for him anymore in the same way. She bargains with herself, suggesting she close her eyes to the issues and keep going, especially when she sees the light in his eyes. But he knows - pointing out that he is in a state of denial too.

And still, she struggles to let go fully, even after the relationship ends. She feels unable to say goodbye and accept reality. To the extent that even after she says goodbye, and things have ended, she still finds herself waiting for him under the bridge. Maybe she wants the relationship only when she knows it's no longer within reach.