Were you surprised that we never spoke?
And in the still of the night, when nothing stirs
I woke and I gathered up some clothes
I never planned on this but it's the way it goes
And now it all seems too familiar like pages turned on calendars
We get the same twelve months to fuck things up, year after year
And I can't believe how down I am like a well I'm being lowered in
Now water stops, the bucket drops us farther and farther down
Farther and farther down

Well, I guess that you never knew me
Or at least not well enough

So I fill my gut with that dark red wine
Until my brain shuts off and my eyes go blind
You won't see me there in that thick black air
Yeah, I'll finally make something disappear
'Cause I've been practicing disappearing
And I think that I've got it down

Now there is no sun, just a cellar
Nowhere is sky, just that black, black dirt, oh
Now there is no sun, it's just a cellar
Nowhere is sky, just that black, black
Black, black dirt

Expanding outwards, just echoes for answers
Not that it matters, it's back or it's forwards
Unhappy lovers with baskets of flowers
Use them as markers
The place where your bed once stood
A time when it still felt good

But you'll get that feeling back
You just need some time to think
And to add up the hell, get it straight in your mind
But to calculate cost, that may take some time
But I'm sure I'll get to feeling better
Yeah, I just need some time to drink

So I'll fill my gut with that blood red wine
Until my insides swim and my veins unwind
I'll be lying there in that hot white air
Once that something's gone, it may never reappear
It may never reappear
Yeah, it may never reappear


Lyrics submitted by PLANES

The Vanishing Act [Companion Version] Lyrics as written by Conor Oberst

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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The Vanishing Act song meanings
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    This is certainly one of my favorite Bright Eyes songs. Just to sit down and completely emerge yourself in it brings a wave of emotion. Conor really did a brilliant job on the atmosphere. Everything sounds absolutely perfect.

    This is probably one of the more straight forward songs though I choose to analysis it anyways. I think that the song really represents a feeling at the time. He never planed it but it just seemed to happen and he didn't really try to stop it. Now he knows how the story goes and he keeps slipping farther and farther & he's just drinking(no shit) a lot. I think that the thick black air and vanishing is more of his way of saying that once he drinks that he can "vanish", probably as in just leave everything behind all the feelings and forget that he is anyone. The cellar (wine cellar?) more drinking? and also that he has kind of become a recluse, just hides himself from the world and drinks. "echoes for answers" means that he keeps trying to figure out all of this, why things are falling apart, but it just echoes out for answers, never getting any. "doesn't matter if it's backwards or forwards." This kind of conflicts though I think that it doesn't matter if the answer is bad or good, maybe his fault or not. The next part took a lot of contemplating but I have come to the decision that it means to dwell on past/unhappy lover(s) (I have no clue about the flowers) not allowing you to love/god knows what any longer, that love only hurts now. You will be able to love again you just need some time to dwell on the pain of the last/drink. Now this part might be totally off by the hot white air represents that now he is clear to see that he wants to love but once something is gone it might never reappear, meaning he may never get that love again.

    2)Here is an over all, a little different now that I analyzed the whole thing. His love with a girl was falling apart slowly though he did nothing to really stop it. Maybe even helping it by trying to mask the fact that it was falling apart. Now the love is dead and he notices how much he loved her and keeps on asking what happen to their love, not caring whose fault it was. Afraid that they could never have the same love.

    ((sorry it was really early, über-infomal))

    ParadoxicalTruthon March 11, 2005   Link

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