Transcontinental

I think this song expresses the singer's feelings of inferiority, and that he has no desire to live. Even though he knows he could live if he wanted to, he decides he would rather just lay on the railroad tracks and bleed to death.

Why aren't there more comments on this song? Seriously, these are some of my favorite Bazan lyrics ever, they're so perverse. David has said that they were all written from that first line. The song seems to pretty much be about a man's revelation about the way he has led his life framed by extremely strange circumstances. I love it.

he said at a show that this song just started when the phrase "engine severs lower legs" popped into his head so he just wrote a song from there... no real deep meaning just a great song

"click-clack, now handicapped", it sounds funny and yet is very serious

I never thought pedro the lion was so sadistic until I actually listened to the lyrics...very eerie..has a sort of elliott smith feel about it, depressing yet beautiful lyrics.

This song means a lot to me. For me, it's about this feeling of almost insisting to succumb to weakness. It's this shame in feeling that you know you could actually go out and live your life but something deep inside wont let you.

He compares himself to other people with enough will and passion to live, and for that he feels pathetic. You know how it is; you read stories of extraordinary circumstances, self-sacrifice, and triumph over despair. This is the 'hard part,' which is accepting the pain and struggle.

I know how this feels. You feel like your life issues could not compare to those of other, stronger people. The feelings of inadequacy and personal failure are so profound. I think this song is a beautiful rendering of these feelings. It brings tears to my eyes...

Love the song, this one and the Fleecing are my favorites from Achilles Heel.

I agree with the general sense of Envelopes' interpretation, but I think there is a religious metaphor in the sacrifice of one's body parts. The "certain tales of bravery" the narrator recalls are about Jesus sacrificing his own life to save the world. The narrator has been "spared the hard part" - he doesn't have to willingly sacrifice anything of his own. All he has to do is live by Jesus' message. But this proves hard for him to do, and he feels inadequate for failing at such a comparatively simple task.

"The luxury of having been Spared the hard part You'd think would be enough For me to pull this off"

He didn't have to saw his own legs off to save himself, but he still doesn't save himself. Genius.

Our English teacher showed us this song today...it's a bit frightening. "But I'm left to bleed to death, now all the man I've ever been"... That says that whoever the narrator is, he has always been that way, too weak to try to go on...the way he acts now as he lies there dying shows just what kind of a person he has been his entire life. It's sad, really. Not just the song, but the person.

I love how it's sort of a sad song, but the lightness of the music kinda gives it a wierd effect.