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Cocoon Lyrics
This cocoon, caught in Vesuvius' shadow
Only the ashes remain
And I waited there for you
Why couldn't you?
Here we lie waiting for something to startle
To shake us from gravity's pull
And so the sleeping hours are through
What can we do?
The tainted election, the low dirty war
It happened before you came to
But this is solution, and this is amends
The joke always tends to come true
But there on your windowsill over the unmoving platoon
Written in paperback
The key to the quarterback's room
Under waning moon
This quiet serves only to hide you
Provide you
What I knew: it'd come back to you
Take this palm, follow the lines here are written
Tracing the bends and the shapes
And feel your fingers falling slack and all folding back
The sorry conclusion, the hole in the sky
Command what is tried, what is true
But without solution, with feet on the ground
It won't make a sound until you're through
So loosen your shoulderblades
This is your hour to make due
Because there on the timberline
Deep cold November shines through
Soft and absolute
This quiet serves only to hide you
Provide you
What I knew: it'd come back to you
Only the ashes remain
And I waited there for you
Why couldn't you?
Here we lie waiting for something to startle
To shake us from gravity's pull
And so the sleeping hours are through
What can we do?
It happened before you came to
But this is solution, and this is amends
The joke always tends to come true
But there on your windowsill over the unmoving platoon
Written in paperback
The key to the quarterback's room
Under waning moon
Provide you
What I knew: it'd come back to you
Tracing the bends and the shapes
And feel your fingers falling slack and all folding back
Command what is tried, what is true
But without solution, with feet on the ground
It won't make a sound until you're through
So loosen your shoulderblades
This is your hour to make due
Because there on the timberline
Deep cold November shines through
Soft and absolute
Provide you
What I knew: it'd come back to you
Song Info
Submitted by
hunter On Apr 13, 2004
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This song is about the shock in the aftermath of 9/11, metaphorically feeling as if you're in a cocoon. "Caught in Vesuvias' shadow/only the ashes remain" making a parallel between the destruction of that historical eruption and the destruction of 9/11. "Here we lie waiting for something to startle/To shake us from gravity’s pull"...trying to come out of that shock. "The sorry conclusion/the low dirty war/it happened before you came to...". The government rushed into the war before the people were even aware of what was going on and it was a bad solution for the attack. "this quiet serves only to hide you/provide you/what I knew It'd come back to you". The "you" being the Bush administration. The American people are quiet, so you're able to get away with rushing into the war, but it'll back to haunt you. "the tainted election" -- the controversy over the 2000 election. "the hole in the sky" -- the absence of the twin towers. "Command what is tried, what is true...So loosen your shoulder blades/This is your hour to make due." a call to action. we were so shocked and scared after 9/11 we let the government take over but now we need to "command what is tried was is true" and stand up for what's right.
I don't know if this is the correct interpretation or not, but it's certainly the one I'm going to be thinking of every time I hear the song from now on.... it makes a devastating amount of sense.
I don't know if this is the correct interpretation or not, but it's certainly the one I'm going to be thinking of every time I hear the song from now on.... it makes a devastating amount of sense.
I don't know, that sounds too political for the Decemberists. "The hole in the sky" may very well be referring to the hole in the ozone layer. It sounds to me like someone coming out of a coma that they'd been in while a lot of terrible events happened (the tainted election, the "low dirty war", the eruption of Vesuvius, etc.). Now they have to deal with the consequences of those events, their "hour to make due", even though they didn't see or take part in any of the events. I don't know if that's any more right, but I...
I don't know, that sounds too political for the Decemberists. "The hole in the sky" may very well be referring to the hole in the ozone layer. It sounds to me like someone coming out of a coma that they'd been in while a lot of terrible events happened (the tainted election, the "low dirty war", the eruption of Vesuvius, etc.). Now they have to deal with the consequences of those events, their "hour to make due", even though they didn't see or take part in any of the events. I don't know if that's any more right, but I feel like the Decemberists wouldn't write a song about something so controversial, especially with the stance you claim this song is portraying (one that believes we should all stand up to our government and do what is right). Not on this album, anyways.
"script out the rest of your life" is in the liner notes, "tracing the bends and the shapes" is in the song.
I miss these songs and I wish Colin would write more like them, because they're absolutely wonderful.
i love this song.
"...the lengthiest (and most abstruse) track of the album (discounting the final track's double entente), undulates along slowly. Vesuvius, a volcano in southern Italy sets the scene for the saga of love during a time of war and strife. During World War II, Naples, which is not far from Vesuvius' location in the Bay of Naples, was repeatedly bombed by Allied forces until its capture in 1943, as well as being heavily damaged by the retreating Germans, who learned a trick or two from the Russians. The protagonist waits under the great volcano, but 'only the ashes remain,' he/she says--in essence--he/she has been stood up. The character then jumps forward to the present, lying with a lover, both of them 'waiting for something to...shake us from gravity's pull.' They are in a state of immobility, sleeping away the days, asking, like the mother of 'Odalisque', 'What can we do?' The protagonist is jolted out of his stagnant state by the 'low dirty war' but his partner was not: 'it [the war] happened before you came to.' The lines following are ambiguous, which is not helped by the line sung 'view to the quarterback's room' written as 'key to the quarterback's room' in the liner notes. Possibly an allusion to an illicit affair? Nevertheless, the devotion the main character shows to his partner is incessant in spite of idolatries--it's a protection, a cocoon."
http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=43
"and script out the rest of your life"
..not sure, is that in the liner notes? in the song it says "tracing the bends and the shapes (could be shades? I'm not sure)"
"the sorry coclusion, the hole in the sky command what is tried, what is true"
^ makes me think of the ozone layer, the hole in the sky being the damage we've done.
this song makes me too sad. it's my favorite song of theirs.
Believe it or not, it's my favorite Decemberists song, too.
It's all over the place. There are so many feelings and so many images it'd be hard to extract one meaning from it.
"waiting for somethig to startle... to shake us from gravity's pull"
Beautiful.
my generation
Now, perhaps I am not as well learned as the person who wrote the above article, and maybe they know for a fact that that is what the song's about, but to me this draws some serious parallels to the story of Pompeii. Pompeii was a city directly in Vesuvius' shadow, of which only the ashes remain (it was destroyed by a huge volcanic erruption in AD 79), everything, including the people, were encased in cocoons(woo!) of ashes for hundreds of years. I won't go through a throrough song analysis 'cause I'm lazy, but trust me, if you look up Pompeii, you will see what I mean. Also the characters in this sort of remind me of Pliney the younger/older but don't mark me on that.
i agree!
i agree!
Pompeii was definitely the first thing I thought of when I heard this story.
Pompeii was definitely the first thing I thought of when I heard this story.
This song is great. Obviously. But what I find really depressing is the "cocoon"- the bodies turning to ash inside their little coffins of volcanic crap. Sadface. And I always hoped they would play this song at a show...
This song is so calming, listening to it now, I can breath deep and I feel relaxed. I'd make an input as to what I think it means, but I'm too in dream land to concentrate, so I'll just enjoy the song.