In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Some of them were dreamers
And some of them were fools
Who were making plans and thinking of the future
With the energy of the innocent
They were gathering the tools
They would need to make their journey back to nature
While the sand slipped through the opening
And their hands reached for the golden ring
With their hearts they turned to each other's hearts for refuge
In the troubled years that came before the deluge
Some of them knew pleasure
And some of them knew pain
And for some of them it was only the moment that mattered
And on the brave and crazy wings of youth
They went flying around in the rain
And their feathers, once so fine, grew torn and tattered
And in the end they traded their tired wings
For the resignation that living brings
And exchanged love's bright and fragile glow
For the glitter and the rouge
And in a moment they were swept before the deluge
Let the music keep our spirits high
Let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal its secrets by and by, by and by
When the light that's lost within us reaches the sky
Some of them were angry
At the way the earth was abused
By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power
And they struggled to protect her from them
Only to be confused
By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour
And when the sand was gone and the time arrived
In the naked dawn only a few survived
And in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge
Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge
Let the music keep our spirits high
Let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal it's secrets by and by, by and by
When the light that's lost within us reaches the sky
And some of them were fools
Who were making plans and thinking of the future
With the energy of the innocent
They were gathering the tools
They would need to make their journey back to nature
While the sand slipped through the opening
And their hands reached for the golden ring
With their hearts they turned to each other's hearts for refuge
In the troubled years that came before the deluge
Some of them knew pleasure
And some of them knew pain
And for some of them it was only the moment that mattered
And on the brave and crazy wings of youth
They went flying around in the rain
And their feathers, once so fine, grew torn and tattered
And in the end they traded their tired wings
For the resignation that living brings
And exchanged love's bright and fragile glow
For the glitter and the rouge
And in a moment they were swept before the deluge
Let the music keep our spirits high
Let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal its secrets by and by, by and by
When the light that's lost within us reaches the sky
Some of them were angry
At the way the earth was abused
By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power
And they struggled to protect her from them
Only to be confused
By the magnitude of her fury in the final hour
And when the sand was gone and the time arrived
In the naked dawn only a few survived
And in attempts to understand a thing so simple and so huge
Believed that they were meant to live after the deluge
Let the music keep our spirits high
Let the buildings keep our children dry
Let creation reveal it's secrets by and by, by and by
When the light that's lost within us reaches the sky
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I think that line "And exchanged love's bright and fragile glow, For the glitter and the rouge" sums this song up to a large extent. In a general sense it's a song about the coming of a modern culture which lacks substance, is filled with pointlessness and a decent fulfilling life of learning and inquisitiveness is replaced with artificially created wants of glitter and rouge. "And in the moment they were swept before the deluge" - the moment they traded the fulfillment of life for the artificial version thats only a mediocre temptation, you will lose it all, and that has turned out to be true today. This is the first time in history we have in front of us the possibility of destroying most species on the planet. There are in fact two ways - nuclear devastation as well.
"Some of them were angry, At the way the earth was abused" - It's as true today as it was 200 years ago with Native Americans and of course further back. I recently heard a Native American say "If we'd have lived the way Native Americans lived, today we would still be able to drink out of Rivers." So many activists and concerned people who are trying to simply get people to listen to them are still being labeled as extremists, crack-pots, tree-huggers etc. Unfortunately these people harm profits and growth. Pretty selfish of them to want to save our very existence. "By the men who learned how to forge her beauty into power" - In another version I have heard the line is slightly changed by the removal of "her" so the line becomes "...forged beauty into power" which to me has connotations of wealthy men in society understanding that as a vulnerable and scared mass of people we are easily subjected to artificial contrivances like vanity and beauty and while we are strutting about comparing ourselves, competing on the most ridiculous basis, they are carrying out the objectives that protect themselves from "the rascal multitude" as we are distracted. Although this version of that line is slightly different it's still a point I'd like to make, because it's blatantly obvious in our developed societies but it miraculously evades discussion in most forms.
The "..the magnitude of.." natures "..fury" is one of the most important points to make in this song. People who tried to protect the earth from the men who wanted to exploit her for their sole personal gain found it difficult to understand how destructive nature could be when we pushed her too much towards the edge. In all, I think it's a song about two groups of people that encapsulate true respectfulness, dignity, decency and thought as there principles and another much smaller but more powerful group that see individual gain, self-interest and plundering as unchangeable aspects of our human nature. If that's true then we were doomed to begin with.