Haligh, Haligh, a Lie, Haligh

This is what I gathered from listening to this song about 500 times... haha I love it way too much. I wrote this essay on it for personal enjoyment so I'll post parts of it here...

The intro to “Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh” by Bright Eyes starts with “call ended” phone tone faintly in the background, implying someone is not answering the narrator’s calls. The narrator then calls a friend and is nervous; therefore he has a “loose grip” on the phone handle (l. 1). “Words were missed” because the narrator is worried and deep in thought about the situation (l. 2). The friend confirms the narrator’s suspicions: his girlfriend has been with “some guy” for the past while and she is indeed unfaithful (l. 3-5). Immediately after the phone call, the narrator is extremely distraught. The “funeral” is for himself because he is dead inside sadness, and he implies he is in a closed casket (l. 7-8). On the other hand, the situation did not upset his girlfriend enough to kill her too, so she is a visitor to this funeral and wears “split-black ribbon” (l. 9). The narrator implies that he helps her put the ribbon on, meaning she did not care to show sympathy by herself; the ribbon is merely for show. The narrator is in such a depression that he does not understand happiness anymore. He hears laughing in his house and compares it to the unrealistic ideas of television (l. 10-12).

“Haligh” is an exclamation; a religious word the narrator calls out through his extreme emotion, and “A lie” refers to the continuous lie that she will be faithful (l.13). The words “a lie” are cleverly disguised between the words “haligh” as they sound the same when spoken together. There is a burden on his chest from all the sadness she has caused. That burden must be “satisfied”, meaning he is going to eventually break down and release his feelings (l. 14). The narrator tells her his depressed feelings to brings but she only tells him she “know[s] not” about the suffering she causes him (l. 15-16). She does not realize her effect on him. The tearing of hair from roots aggressively represents the girlfriend trying to offer a promise that their love is forever, but she has “twice removed” the figurative hair already proving she cheated before and such promise was indeed a lie (l. 17-20).

The narrator is nostalgic now; thinking back to the times he spent with her. He remembers watching her comb her hair everyday for school in a mirror that she decorated in “blue and glued with jewelry tears” and remembers how those colours made her feel better (l. 25-26). It is ironic that the tears make her feel better when tears represent sadness, therefore suggesting she is not mentally stable herself and gets pleasure from pain.

The narrator and his girlfriend now communicate with only anger and sadness in their voices (l. 29). The words they say are not “meant for anyone” because they are only spoken out of grief (l. 30). Neither of them are getting through to the other, so his words have the same value as words someone is mumbling while another uncaring person walks by (l. 31) The narrator then states that she said she understood and hates his “suffering” and is always there for him. He then wonders this, because he is currently suffering but she is not comforting him as promised (l. 32-37)

Their relationship was never stable; therefore any future plans were not “finalized” and were merely longing thoughts to the narrator (l. 39). These thoughts of the two of them teased him. They were right before his eyes but he could not achieve them, like a cat being taunted with dangling string. The “yarn and twine” are metaphors. The “yarn” represents his girlfriend: still lively and comfortable, whereas he is the “twine”: now dull and worn down (l. 40-41).

Again, there is irony in the narrator’s words. He creates songs using his miserable experiences as inspiration, yet his listeners get enjoyment from hearing them (l. 46-49).

The narrator is now going to satisfy the burden on his chest of sadness by telling her his true feelings (l. 51). He only gives her “one reply” because she did the same to him on other accounts (l. 52). His reply is he doesn’t know himself anymore due to the sadness she caused him (l. 53). He now looks into his mirror only to see a “stranger”. His thoughts are “circles” because he can’t make up his mind in what way he needs to solve it, and has come to the same sad place so many times from staying with her. The narrator knows his best choice is to leave her, because if he chooses to stay he won’t “live”, therefore saying he will never be happy (l. 54-64).