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Arc of Time (Time Code) Lyrics

You can make a plan
Carve it into stone
Like a feather falling
It is still unknown
Until the clock speaks up
Says it's time to go
You can choose the high
Or the lower road
You might clench your fist
You might fork your tongue
As you curse or praise
All the things you've done
And the faders move
And the music dies
As we pass over
On the arc of time

So you nurse your love like a wounded dove
In the covered cage of night
Every star is crossed by frenetic thoughts
That separate and then collide
And they twist like sheets until you fall asleep
Then they finally unwind
It's a black balloon
It's a dream you'll soon deny

I hear if you make friends
With Jesus Christ
You will get right up
From that chalk outline
And you'll get dolled up
And you'll dress in white
All to take your place
In his chorus line

And then in you'll come with those marching drums
In a saintly compromise
No more whisky slurs, no more blonde haired girls
For your whole eternal life
And you'll do the dance that was choreographed
At the very dawn of time
See, I told you son
The day would come

You will die, you die, you die, you die
You will die, you die, you die, you die
You will die, you die, you die, you die
You will die, you die, you die

To the deepest part of the human heart
The fear of death expands
Until we crack the code we have always known
But could never understand
On a circuit board we will soon be born

Again and again and again and again
And again and again and again and again
And again and again and again and again
And again and again and again and again
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81 Meanings

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Cover art for Arc of Time (Time Code) lyrics by Bright Eyes

"arc of time" is about finding the one thing in life that is worth depending on. .. or maybe the fact that nothing in life is worth depending on.

make sense? allow me to explain.....

TIME-

time is inaccurate. there was this experiment where they sent people really fast in airplanes and blah blah blah - they discovered that time was WRONG. it was inaccurate. but... we, as a society, depend on time. in society, time is looked at as a constant.. though, in reality, it is not completely accurate. our lives revolve around time. everything we do is at a certain time. we plan around the clock. we depend our lives on something that is not dependable.

the second aspect of time recognized in the song is how we plan for the future, though we plan what will happen later in life - we have no way of telling what will happen between then and now that will change our plans. you can make your plans, and believe they will happen .. but the future will always remain a mystery.

We are searching for something in life to depend on... for something to be constant. we thought we found it in time, but, in fact... time will not suffice.

He also suggests that people can try to find the constant in LOVE, MUSIC, and ACTION/MOVEMENT and DEATH.

RELIGION -

it's not clear whether conor is trying to promote or mock religion - but that's not important to the meaning of the song, anyway. it's simply the presentation of an idea. christians claim that God is THE constant. that when everything else fails, (time, music, death, the future, the present, EVERYTHING) you will meet with god.. the only thing/person who stayed the same through everything. you can choose to either look at the song one way or the other (that's the beauty of conor's writing.). conor can either be saying that there IS no constant in life and that there is nothing worth depending on ... or that god is the constant in life, and that he's the ONLY thing worth depending on.

Go back and read the first line of my comment. Make anymore sense?


you guys keep calling conor a genius... but don't give him enough credit with your 'song-evalutations.' this song is so much deeper, in my opinion, than you guys see. conor is a genius. extremely bright. and has the ability to take the most complex things.. and make them simple. he is amazing. so.. look a little deeper into his songs?

Cover art for Arc of Time (Time Code) lyrics by Bright Eyes

mm, really beautiful. this is one of my faves off digital ash.

Cover art for Arc of Time (Time Code) lyrics by Bright Eyes

beautiful...this CD is so amazing i can't stand it.

Cover art for Arc of Time (Time Code) lyrics by Bright Eyes

yeah this is a great song. but i didnt think the CD was out yet? how are you hearing it

Cover art for Arc of Time (Time Code) lyrics by Bright Eyes

it was leaked a few weeks ago with the other cd due out in jan. - "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning". it's available on lots of bittorrent websites and etc.

Cover art for Arc of Time (Time Code) lyrics by Bright Eyes

okay i have no idea what bittorrent websites are...but im gonna try my best.

Cover art for Arc of Time (Time Code) lyrics by Bright Eyes

?? This is a very "pop-py" song... I'm surprised. I'm not sure if I like it...

Cover art for Arc of Time (Time Code) lyrics by Bright Eyes

mmm..but i think thats kinda what he was going for on digital ash...

Cover art for Arc of Time (Time Code) lyrics by Bright Eyes

"you can choose the high, or the lower row, "

it's "road" instead of "row"

Cover art for Arc of Time (Time Code) lyrics by Bright Eyes

makes me wanna dance. its good.