Guernica

Don't really listen to the band as a whole, but this song is nice. (I listen to a lot of stuff like that... Love a song or two while not really caring about the rest. :P)

Anyway, one of the interpretations I had about this song was someone dying. Glad to know that was right!

But I also made up a little story about it recently (I do that a lot with songs), just for something to think about. In this interpretation, the lyrics actually come from two points of view. It's about two childhood friends, a more stable and "normal" one, and an extremely intelligent but spacey and unstable one. The verses come from the former, and the chorus comes from the latter. But the watch/batteries part is split. Obviously, it's the less stable one who feels like their batteries are running dry. And I always thought that the watch was a real object. Like the more normal friend is comparing themselves to a watch their friend never bothered to set because they were both always there, or something.

The way I saw it, friend #2 has a breakdown of some kind every few years and calls friend #1. I'm thinking that he's (I'll just go with male pronouns, to make it easier) the only person from his youth that he's still in contact with, because everyone else went on to have really normal lives and sort of fall away from him. ("The best part of what has happened was the part I must have missed" made me think this. Like he feels like he missed some stage of development and can't get it together.) I imagine that he called his friend, spouted some short but rambling message, and hung up. Now he's sitting alone in the middle of the night waiting for a call back or for his friend to drive to his place to see if he's alright. But he's not a danger to himself, just confused and a little panicky.

Friend #1's role is more complicated and involves more backstory. It seems like he sort of looked up to his friend and admired his intelligence, while at the same time pitying him a bit because it was obvious even early on that he wasn't all there. As time went on, what envy there was vanished, for obvious reasons. And the sympathy only increases as the rest of their group drifts away from friend #2. So he's the one who always has to get the calls in the middle of the night and deal with him when these things happen. Thus, he has to worry and take time out of his life for this person. ("Worry and wake the ones you love") Even though he know it isn't intentional, and no more fun for him that it is for anyone else, he feels that his friend is a troublemaker and is frankly exhausted by having to deal with him. But there's also an obvious sense of compassion, affection, and nostalgia. You can tell that he genuinely cares about his friend, thinks of their times together fondly, still respects his intelligence, and would do anything to make him ok. Even though it isn't really the case, he thinks his friend is going to do something stupid and rushes to go see him.

I think the song does cover them finally meeting up. There's a little break in the song that makes me imagine the story flashing forward a few hours. By this time, friend #1 has arrived, and friend #2 has finally calmed down, probably after the two of them struggle for a while to get to that point. At this part, I imagine that the lights are off, #2 is lying quietly on the floor, and #1 is sitting behind him, talking in a soft voice, telling stories about their childhood that both of them already remember, saying anything he thinks will make his friend feel better, etc. I think "Does anybody remember back when you were very young? Did you ever think that you would be this blessed?" is a little snippet of this. The phrasing and tone of voice really smack of someone nervously, but gently and sincerely, trying to talk someone down from something. Like #2 isn't responding to anything, so #1 is just rambling on to him to keep both of them calm. I think the meaning in this case would be something like "Hey, remember when we were little? Man, you were messed up back then. But you turned out great. I know you'll be just fine." It doesn't really have a defined ending. It just stops with the two of them in the dark room together, like it probably has many times before.

...You know, I just realized that they could just as easily be brothers. But I always imagined them as friends who ended up with a similar kind of closeness to what brothers would have, if that makes sense.

(Does anyone else make up long stories to go with songs? Because I do that all the time. There are some songs where picking something to listen to is more like choosing a movie to pop in to my head.)