Well I know that you know
That you've become the target of this hand
With never even asking
Well I know that you know
That you're the only thing that I can stand
So how could your hair
Have the nerve to dance around like that, blowing?
And how could the air
Have the nerve to blow your hair around like that?
I'm waiting for a ninety-mile water wall
To take me out of your home view
I'm looking for a trap door trigger
To drop me out of your home view
Yes I'm listening, I'm listening
I can tell that you are serious
Your looking for that hurt look around my mouth
The look of a steep fall
Oh, well, that's how Hersey put it
So you can make another claim
Well go ahead and make it
So you can make another claim
Well go ahead and make it
I'm just waiting for a ninety-mile water wall
To take me out of your home view
I'm praying for a trap door trigger
I'm just waiting for a ninety-mile water wall
To take me out of your home view
I'm praying for a trap door trigger
Yes I'm listening
I can tell you're serious
That you've become the target of this hand
With never even asking
Well I know that you know
That you're the only thing that I can stand
So how could your hair
Have the nerve to dance around like that, blowing?
And how could the air
Have the nerve to blow your hair around like that?
I'm waiting for a ninety-mile water wall
To take me out of your home view
I'm looking for a trap door trigger
To drop me out of your home view
Yes I'm listening, I'm listening
I can tell that you are serious
Your looking for that hurt look around my mouth
The look of a steep fall
Oh, well, that's how Hersey put it
So you can make another claim
Well go ahead and make it
So you can make another claim
Well go ahead and make it
I'm just waiting for a ninety-mile water wall
To take me out of your home view
I'm praying for a trap door trigger
I'm just waiting for a ninety-mile water wall
To take me out of your home view
I'm praying for a trap door trigger
Yes I'm listening
I can tell you're serious
Lyrics submitted by SomethingClever
90-Mile Water Wall Lyrics as written by Matthew Berninger Aaron Dessner
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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"You've become the target of this hand with never even asking", I think it means that she didn't do anything to make him like her, but she has become his "target".
And when it says "So how could your hair
have the nerve to dance around like that, blowing" I think it means that he likes that her hair does that, but that it shouldn't because it "tempting" him and he can't be with her... so he's waiting for a "90-mile water wall" and a "trap door trigger" to take him out of her view, so that he doesn't have to look at her hair blowing temptingly at him. And it says "90-mile water wall" because it's something impossible, something that it's not going to happen and he know that it's not going to happen so he's not going to stop looking at her and her hair.
An I think the rest of the song is about him telling her how he feels, and the conversation that goes with that, like in the "Yes I'm listening I'm listening, I can tell that you are serious", they are argueing about it.
Sorry if that was a bit long, but this is my favorite song of that album and this is what I think the lyrics mean :P.
I can't place "target of this hand," possibly violence. Harsh to speculate on that, but also because it's a harsh idea, it could understandably be worded vague and obscure.
Infidelity may be impled by "you're the only thing that I can stand" where he professes his ultimate loyalty to her.
There's a breakdown of communication ("I know that you know" as part of a circular argument going nowhhere).
And he's painfully (maybe ambivalently?) attracted to her, positively worshiping her hair, twice. I wonder if there's more than poetic significance to the inward and outward directions of her attractiveness: both her hair and the air are blamed.
(Point of order, we all agree that dissection of a song and profaning poetry by interpretation can be consistent with deep admiration and deeper appreciation, right? That to distract one from a song's fierce effects, one might seek relief in clinical analysis. Especially when no tidal wave is handy.)
some (like me) are seeing the speaker to be the one in love, the girl the one who does not love back. others consider the speaker the one who cannot love the girl back. looking at the lyrics neither of the theories can be contradicted... interesting... we might just see it the way we've last - or strongest - experienced it
and this also reminds of how non-mutual love can be a tough thing for both persons involved... (not only for the person who does love)
well, thats my version of it, and it strikes me as quite a sad song really, but i really like this.
Lots of pent up feelings are behind this song, and the smallest thing can annoy you, such as her hair moving in the wind- somthing she can't control.
I don't believe he loves himself. And if you can't love yourself, how can anybody love you? he's pushing her away, hurting the one he loves, she's the target of his hand.
He knows it's over, she's serious. And he knows it his fault, because of who he is.