We Are Nowhere and It's Now Lyrics
This has been my all time favorite song for as long as I can remember, and I believe it intends to stay that way.
I just got my girlfriend a necklace of a little yellow bird. I'm such a hopeless romantic, HA.
This song takes me back to my early days of recovery. To me, he was singing to himself. "Why do you drink until you're blind". The beginning of the song is about trying to stay off the alcohol/drugs. Moments feel like a lifetime:
I've been sleeping so strange at night Side effects they don't advertise I've been sleeping so strange With a head full of pesticide
(Sleeping in early recovery was difficult for me..weird dreams, restlessness)
Then, gets restless (as we do) trying to get clean.
I've got no plans and too much time I feel too restless to unwind I'm always lost in thought as I walk the block To my favorite neon sign
And, ends up at the bar.
The yellow bird has always signified hope for me. My daughter is the reason I initially got sober. She was my yellow bird. I can't forget my yellow bird.
thought the "side effects" line was about antidepressants, cause I had strong sleeping issues and they didn't advertise them
thought the "side effects" line was about antidepressants, cause I had strong sleeping issues and they didn't advertise them
As for the 'yellow bird' reference:
They used to send canaries (which are yellow. And birds.) down the mines to find out if there was a lack of oxygen or any other dangerous gases - if the canary died, then they knew that something was wrong, and so they didn't send the humans down.
So, "did you forget that yellow bird?" - did you forget to send the bird down first, to check if the coast was clear? Did you just plunge ahead and find out too late that there was danger awaiting you?
Just a theory :)
I think this song, like many songs, is about being stuck in "that place". That place in your life where you're young and have no idea where you're going and you want to go back to when you were a kid and happy, but you have to move on, and people sometimes don't know how to do that. Kind of like a quarter life crisis. I think there is a lot of references to people being depressed/stuck in this song, like the person who drinks wine til their blind and the waitress who looks but doesn't say a word. She knows the narrator is depressed but just lets it be. that's just what I get out of it anyway.
I've read someone mention elsewhere that the line ''You're the yellow bird I've been waiting for'' in Poison Oak means his friend's brother dying was what led Conor to stop abusing alcohol and drugs. (i.e: that death was the ''yellow bird'' that alerted him to how much he was putting his life in danger, just like yellow birds used to alert ppl that mines are dangerous).
So, I think
And my friend comes after work When the features start to blur She says these bars are filled with things that kill By now you probably should have learned
Did you forget that yellow bird? How could you forget your yellow bird?
means his friend telling him ''How could you forget that people die from drinking the way you're doing? How could you forget your wake-up call?''
this song is beautiful
my favorite part is the second line "And if you swear that there's no truth and who cares, how come you say it like you're right?" then also "for a ten minute dream in the passenger's seat while the world was flying by, you haven't been gone very long but it feels like a life time."
he captures things so well that I hear him describe the obvious and I feel this BAM of a realization, and i love that<p><b><i>Edited by mellow_harsher on July 23 2005, at 12:42PM</i></b></p>
i'm not a fan of the lady.
I found this on Urban Dictionary...
1.yellow bird
a person's true love; the one person they are both externally and internally, both consciously and subconsciously attached to with the realization that those feelings will never die; the one person that they know they can't live without
if they find this person, they are the luckiest in the world. if not, they are eternally screwed.
i love this song. i hope it gets released because seeing it performed live was amazing x 30303
At the manchester show lastnight he said it's about people who live their life always on the road, like the bands. 'If you hate the taste of wine why do you drink it till you're blind? ' I love it.