Long Way Down

i absolutely love this song. i love the music and melody and everything. i wish i knew the story behind it. .but im just guessing that it could be about God or angels or someone who died? and when he says. ."are you sorry you almost disappeared?" talking about how they almost disappeared until they "sang what you are." i need more help people. .tell me about it.

i wasn't to clear what i meant at the end. .when they talk about the disappeared part. . i think they might have started to forget about the person or whatever they are talkin about and then thankfully they started to get reminded of them again and talked about them and "sang" what they are. .ok i dont know. .im crazy. .dont agree to that though

I like the idea of one's afterlife being the memory they leave behind. Madison, I like your idea of someone who had left adn the memory being forgotten. It could also be the singer stepping outside of the eyes of love and seeing the person for who they really are.

the word "dreamt" at the beginning is left out--it's supposed to be "dreamt i was dead..." also, it's supposed to be "all the lights are changing" the second time, it's not the same thing as before.

i think it's about realizing that you are too good for the person you are in love with. he has a dream in which he dies and floats up towards heaven, but the other person stays down below, possibly going to hell. the angels sing to him, revealing who she really is (a "bad" person morally). the higher up he goes, the less important and influential she becomes to him--"this far away, you're a miniature to me;/are you sorry you've almost disappeared?" deep down they both know she doesn't deserve him.

in the end, the dream is coming to an end--"now the notes are fading" (the angels' voices), and "everything's turned around"--it's almost over. when he says, "i can't help but thinking, it's a long way down", he is realizing just how far apart they are as people--she is way below him, and he is up near heaven. this could also have a double meaning: he knows that when he wakes up he will still be with her--he will fall way back down to the place where he doesn't belong (the relationship with her). he knows that when you are in love with someone, it's hard to leave them, even when you see them for what they really are.

that's what i think.

yeah, wimpy shrimpy. he's sayin that he's realized how far he really is from his significant other and it's a long way down to get to their level...farther down than he should go.

I agree with the above two. I believe it's specifically about the perspective shift that one experiences when they are no longer blinded by love.

I'm not too analytical with songs, but this song is absolutely my current favorite, and I love it so much. The melody of it is tranquilizing. The lyrics paint a mental image for me of an out-of-body experience in which he is viewing himself and some girl together in bed. He as the singer is ghost-like and cannot stop drifting upwards to the ceiling and beyond, and he is reaching and reaching to her, but to no avail.

The song is about an altered state experience in which the speaker's awareness splits away from his sense of self or ego, rises up, and comes to see how small his ego really is. The song refers to an "I" and a "You" as if to two different people, but it's really about self knowledge. In the altered state one's awareness seems to split from one's sense of self or ego. One recognizes that one's ego, which one had previously identified with completely, is but a limited and largely illusory construct. That's why the speaker can address that construct as "You". "Miniature" and "almost disappeared" refer to the limited and largely illusory nature of the ego.

"Everything is turned around" refers to the complete change of viewpoint brought about by the altered state and the revolutionary self-knowledge gained in it. Where once the speaker had identified himself completely with his ego, he now has a wider understanding of himself, one that includes the experiences typical of the altered state.

"It's a long way down" refers to the period after the knowledge about the limited and illusory nature of the ego has been gained. The altered state experience will come to an end, and the speaker will return to his normal state of perception and egoic functioning.

This is a common experience in the altered state. Look up references to these sensations in the altered state: dreaming that one is dead, flying up to a height or being lifted up, looking down, hearing the angels, self-discovery and self-knowledge, ego death, meta-perception, perceiving the working of one's own mind, the illusory ego, pure awareness.