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.
Rag weed tall better hope that his ladder don't crack
Or he'll hit the ground low, hard and out of his back
At the battle at the bottom of the ocean, well the dead
Do rise
You need proof I got proof at the surface you can watch
'Em float by
Way in back of the room, there sits a cage
Inside it's a clock that you can win if you can guess its age
Which you never can do 'cause the time it constantly changes
For luck or lack
I guess that is the saying
On the first page of the book of blue it read
"If you read this page, than that'll be your death"
By then it was too late
And you wound up on an island of shells and bones that
Bodies had left
And the one thing you taught me
'bout human beings was this
They ain't made of nothin' but water and shit
Or he'll hit the ground low, hard and out of his back
At the battle at the bottom of the ocean, well the dead
Do rise
You need proof I got proof at the surface you can watch
'Em float by
Way in back of the room, there sits a cage
Inside it's a clock that you can win if you can guess its age
Which you never can do 'cause the time it constantly changes
For luck or lack
I guess that is the saying
On the first page of the book of blue it read
"If you read this page, than that'll be your death"
By then it was too late
And you wound up on an island of shells and bones that
Bodies had left
And the one thing you taught me
'bout human beings was this
They ain't made of nothin' but water and shit
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"On the first page of the book of blue it read 'If you read this page, than that'll be your death' By then it was too late"
The book of blue is the rules of living on Earth: once you are born (open the book and read the page) then you're bound to the rules (that you'll one day die).
"And you wound up on an island of shells and bones that bodies had left"
This is not a metaphor at all. Land is dirt and rocks, which are from dead organic matter from millions of years ago. We are all bound to an island of the old shells and bones of all living things.
"And the one thing you taught me 'bout human beings was this They ain't made of nothin' but water and shit"
Again, this is not a metaphor. Literally, what is all life made of? We are essentially just matter recycled from what's already here. The land is literally made of the excrement of bugs and worms that have processed the mass of things once living.
Of course, when it's screamed out and with Issac Brock's attitude, this final sentence manages to be both empathetic to our biological-determinist earth-bound nature, and also scathingly harsh and pissed. Genius.