This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Grey light, new day leaks through the window
And some old soul song comes on the alarm clock radio
We walk the forty blocks to the middle
Of the place we heard where everything would be
And there were barracades to keep us off the street
But the crowd kept pushing forward
Until they swallowed the police
Yeah, they went wild
Yeah, they went wild
Yeah, they went wild
We left before the dust had time to settle
And all the broken glass swept off the avenue
And on the way home I held your camera like a bible
Just wishing so bad that it held some kind of truth
And I stood nervous next to you in the dark room
You dropped the paper in the water
And it all begins to bloom
Yeah, they go wild
Yeah, they go wild
Yeah, they go wild
Yeah, they go wild
And just when I get so lonesome I can't speak
I see some flowers on a hillside
Like a wall of new TVs
Yeah, they go wild
And some old soul song comes on the alarm clock radio
We walk the forty blocks to the middle
Of the place we heard where everything would be
And there were barracades to keep us off the street
But the crowd kept pushing forward
Until they swallowed the police
Yeah, they went wild
Yeah, they went wild
Yeah, they went wild
We left before the dust had time to settle
And all the broken glass swept off the avenue
And on the way home I held your camera like a bible
Just wishing so bad that it held some kind of truth
And I stood nervous next to you in the dark room
You dropped the paper in the water
And it all begins to bloom
Yeah, they go wild
Yeah, they go wild
Yeah, they go wild
Yeah, they go wild
And just when I get so lonesome I can't speak
I see some flowers on a hillside
Like a wall of new TVs
Yeah, they go wild
Lyrics submitted by keely, edited by pixelcreme, Mellow_Harsher
Old Soul Song Lyrics as written by Conor Oberst
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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does none of u people see the 9/11 references ("we left before the dust had time to settle" etc.) Most of the new songs are related to New York as well.
And the real songtitle is: Old Soul Song (FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER)
I went to see him in NYC last week and he said it was about 9/11 but there are tons references like you said
"Grey like new day leaks through the window and some old song comes on the alarm clock radio. You walk the forty blocks to the middle of the place. We heard where everything would be and there was barracades to keep us off the street, but the crowd kept pushing forward until they swallowed the police. Yeah, they went wild.
We left before the dust had time to settle and all the broken glass swept off the avenue. On the way home I held your camera like a bible, wishing so bad that it held some kind of truth. And I stood nervous next to you in the dark room, you dropped the paper in the water and it all begins to bloom. Yeah, they go wild.
Just when I get so lonesome I can't speak, I see some flowers on a hill side, like a wall of new TVs. Yeah, they go wild. "
I'm not really sure how to explicate this song, but I'll damn well take a guess.
The first verse- He talks about the new day (a recurrent theme throughout the album), then overpowering the 'controlling force', the police (I think this has to do with the other theme on the album, that war is stupid and childish. Maybe. ). They just got tired of being repressed.
Second verse- They leave the place when it's all still a mess. I think the think about the camera and the bible is somewhat of a mockery of religion. He knows that the camera will hold something that really happened, where as the bible is all BS. So his longing for truth is fulfilled in the darkroom where "it all begins to bloom"- the photos coming up on the paper. I really think that verse is all about losing religion, and him knowing that truths are found in concrete evidence and not in faith.
Third verse- Not much there, but it's lovely. He says he's "so lonely [he] can't speak", but then he sees flowers on a hillside, symbolizing hope.
As for the choruses of "they go wild", I think it's just all about being released (from the government, religion, and depression [stated in the verses, respectively]) and finally being free.
I think it's absolutely wonderful.
I always like to imagine that this song takes place during Orwell's 1984. Everything is just a little dirty and a little cold and a little grey, and there's that lonesome aching in the bones that tells you you've been dealt some great injustice, but you can't remember things being any different.
And the guy holds his camera like a bible because beauty is so rare in those days! Not even beauty, just... secrecy, being able to have something un-inspected and un-fuddled. You know? Something organic. It's sacred and special and he's careful with it.
In a world like that, art would be the first little step towards fighting the man. Photography, holding truth, could make the people realize they've been cheated out of their lives, and... yeah. So they're just huddled there in the dark room, clutching their sacred vessels of change, probably scared silly and about to do something totally epic.
But then it flashes back to the present or back to reality, and the main character has only been day-dreaming that he could have rebelled. But he has still won, sort of, because he knows that he has been cheated; and also because there are beautiful things like flowers in the world--which he compares to bright and colorful new TVs because that is the closest to flowers that anyone from 1984 can get--if he could only find his camera and show the public their motivation!
"On the way home I held your camera like a bible, wishing so bad that it held some kind of truth. And I stood nervous next to you in the dark room, you dropped the paper in the water and it all begins to bloom. Yeah, they go wild"
just lovely!
This song seems to take place over the course of one day. He wakes up when the alarm sounds. Then, he is walking with someone to a place in an inner city. whatever this place is, there are barricades to keep everything orderly. what ends up happening instead of order is chaos and everyone going wild. this sounds like a new york city protest. <br /> <br /> then, he and this other person decide to leave before it is completely over, or before the location's original order is restored. many people believe that their bible holds the ultimate truth, whatever that truth is. The speaker of this poem hopes his ultimate truth is displayed on the film of the camera. Many times you protest because you strongly believe in something, and whatever you are defending, you will defend it as if it is your religion. --Then the other person puts the unprocessed photo paper in the liquid that processes photos and he uses a metaphor to suggest that the photos come to life, open, appear, and he is reliving that moment of what he saw at the protest because that is what is on the developed film. <br /> <br /> the last stanza is alluding to new york city where protests are held daily and depending on where you stand, all you see is a wall of televisions and that is a simile for the hillside of flowers. This is where we find out that he is referring to a past memory. he says he is lonely to suggest he is no longer in the big city but in some sort of rural area looking at flowers on a hill, and these wild flowers remind him of that day in new york when everyone was going wild. <br /> <br />
i don't really know what this song is about, but i have to comment on it because its wonderful, lol
i think this song is about all the crappy things in life being seen a different way, in a different light. even when things go bad, people revolt against the "badness" and find something better.
I love the way this song is a memory and possesses the qualities of memory so well: time in a memory is not linear-the first 2 sentences are 'present' then it becomes 'past'. We often attach memories to a strong sensory experience- leading to the importance of the 'old soul song'. But memories dont count so much in the 'real world'- hence the photos' importance. I guess the scene at the start is the Seattle riots. Not quite sure about the 'wall of new tvs' - twice in the song he compares pictures to flowers (the photos bloom and the tvs are flowers). Cant say i ever think of tvs when i see flowers.
this song is one of conor's most amazing pieces i've heard, and i've heard everything. amazingly he compares wild flowers to new tvs, i love that symbolism.<p><b><i>Edited by mellow_harsher on July 9 2006, at 04:36PM</i></b></p>
he actually says "like a war on your tv"
or "a war on new tvs" or something. something about a war on tv definetly