A Little Consolation

this song is so beautiful that it doesn't really matter what it means. it's one of those songs that makes me wish it was a beautiful warm summer night and i was driving with the window down looking at the stars with someone who cares.

and that's what this song means to me.

this song resides at the top of a list of so many other good songs that a favorite just cannot be chosen. this band is very special

Is everyone sure about the last line? Because in my booklet it says "a little consolation ascend in the night away"? It sounds pretty similar. I like both.

And I love this song and the lyrics although I don't really understand what they are about, but that doesn't matter...

Especially these lines: "Hello, she will be here not too many more days, Speak up in a hurry, so there won't be pain"

(And, of course, I didn't say anything :-( ...)

But the ending is so great, it's just so much ... consolation...

This song is about woman, probably a mother or grandmother, at the end of her life. The first verse is some friends/family going to visit her in the hospital/rest home and asking the narrator if he's coming with them. But it hurts to see her almost dead, so he decides not to; they tell him they'll call if "it" (her death) is close.

The second verse is someone exhorting the narrator to get something off his chest, to talk to his mother/whomever about something that they haven't talked about before. Time is running out to speak up, because soon she'll be gone.

The chorus here is him leaving the rest of the group and going to talk to her alone. Perhaps it's about his feelings of homosexuality, alluded to in "The Decision Made Itself" and (possibly) "Surrender."

The third verse is after she's died, at the funeral. The pipes of the organ are a little consolation. But just a little; he's still crying.

And the last bit about ascending (thanks WayToBlue!) is her spirit flying off to heaven or wherever.

When I figured this out just now, it blew my mind. Somehow I had always interpreted it as the end of a summer fling, but the true meaning is much more powerful. I really, really love this song.

Thanks, toadtws, I never thought about that, but it makes sense. What an amazing song!