When I Fall

I think the song also has as much to do with immortality as it does suicide. I think the window washer is lamenting that he will leave no legacy. Even a crappy painter will most likely have SOMEONE save one of his or her paintings. The window washer feels he will leave nothing. A hundred years from now no one will know he even existed. But the Painter lives on...if not on some gallery wall for the masses to worship, at least in the closet of some old lady's house or in a thrift store with a $2.00 tag on it. Further on...some other person might buy it just for the frame...take it home and fall in love with it.

On a more dorky note, I love the 9.8 straight down. I wonder how few people actually get that. 9.8 meters per second2 is the acceleration of a falling body due to gravity. Gotta love BNL for remembering that tidbit from high school physics.

This is an interesting song. To me the situation in it, i.e., window washing, insn't a metaphor for anything, but i think that his fear of falling is meant to be ironic. It's like a lion tamer who is allergic to cats.

And I think that the transition from "if i fall" to "when i fall" is important. the washer has given up struggling with fate, his kismet is to fall off his scaffold and die.

"would you catch me if I fall?"

They're frightened of jumping, in case they survive

I wish I could step from this scaffold Onto soft green pastures, shopping malls, or bed With my family and my pastor and my grandfather who's dead

the window washer hopes that when he falls, god will "catch" him, I.E., take him to heaven

I agree with Catheriniks, it is pretty unbelievable the range of maturity, or immaturity, that these guys produce.

I agree that it's about a window washer, but I don't think he's suicidal (or depressed) at all. If he were, he wouldn't be afraid of falling, and there are a lot of lines that indicate that he is.

I also think maybe there's a metaphorical aspect to the song, about the uncertainty and danger of non-traditional career choices (ie, musician), versus the men in the boardroom. Some choices may be less secure, with the danger of falling/failing, but at least in that case you're happy. I believe the narrator IS happy, and that's a contrast to the boardroom people who want to die. ("They're frightened of jumping, in case they survive.")

Whatever. You've got to respect any band that can successfully allude to the rate of acceleration due to gravity in a song. :)

wow, so for school I wrote a paper on this song, and I pretty much tore it apart and I think i may have figured out its meaning. I won't go too far into it, because i would have to basically just rewrite my essay online, but basically:

the scaffolding is a metaphor for a purgatory: the stage between heaven and hell, where people have to earn their way into heaven, and he is trying to earn his way to immortality on earth--or "earning his way into heaven"--as seen in the last verse as he says that his masterpiece is a crystal clear canvas...if that made any sense

Also--"my hands clench the squeegee, my secular rosary"--from this phrase I figured that since a rosary is a string of beads in which every bead repents for a sin, and secular means not relating to the church--this phrase means that every window he washes (squeegees) is like another prayer he is repenting, and he wishes to make himself a better person, but it isnt getting him anywhere because he is just cleaning windows.

He also mentions his notion of heaven "green pastures...his family, grandpa etc"

So after explaining that and some other stuff that im too lazy to post, i came to the conclusion that this man is a metaphor for the everyday person who just wants answers, to be immortalized and to have a better home life (ex. how he says he wants to be with his family in heaven)

i actually enjoyed writing this paper...weird

the window washer is contemplating suicide. it'd be so easy, but he doesn't want to die. He likes life, just not his life. He'd "gladly swap places" with the business men in the building. in last verse, the window represents his life. living a life, "creating," is art, and "just erasing" would not be a feat or accomplishment, but a work of art destroyed.

I disagree somewhat. I believe that the person is genuinely depressed about his life. He talks about how useless it is in the last verse, where the only purpose of his life is to destroy. And if nothing else, it is simply a yearning for someone to catch him, to give him purpose. For example, "if I fall" vs. "when I fall."

Either way, it is a masterpiece of a song itself, and literally their best one. It is a perfect "I'm depressed" song.

This is a great BNL's song! I listen to it everytime I'm depressed and it always makes me feel better.

you know, you listen to this song and you can scarcely believe these same guys also wrote "if i had 1,000,000 dollars" and "one week." this song is incredible and introspective - an amazing insight into depression.

I look in the boardroom; a modern pharaoh's tomb

this ties in with 'gravity defiants' comment about traditional career choices. the boardroom is like a place where the business mans life is pretty much over anyway because its not exactly following the heart and all the riches that come with this career choice are just taken through to the next life anyway as the lifestyle itself can restrict the pleasure gained from it

Ed talked about writing this song in Episode 11 of the BNL podcast. Basically, the idea (a window-washer afraid of heights) came from a discussion with a friend who was helping him write more. Ed says "for me the song is able being selfless in the name of your friends or family." The character in this song is deathly afraid of heights but needs to provide for his family. He's certain that it'll be the death of him (no "if I fall" but "when I fall.) The song is about his fear as he's up there.