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Speaker For The Dead Lyrics
Beaches make the sand white
Make the sand all romantic and shit.
Palm trees, branches, imagine them
Green light and shining with pride
Oh arrogant island being buried in humility
Like the beaches were buried in ash.
Who will remember you now?
Billows and billows see the smoke rise
Smoke stack for every sin
But did they believe that
At the center of the island was a volcano? Oh no.
Oh no
Who will remember you now?
You're dead and gone.
We came here on a plane,
Just a couple of scientists
Among the ruins and remains
This island could have been saved,
But some people just choose death
And can't see a way out
Till their bones are all that's left,
Their chests were hollowed out
But some people never know,
Too caught up in the beautiful
But their heart's a volcano.
Make the sand all romantic and shit.
Palm trees, branches, imagine them
Green light and shining with pride
Oh arrogant island being buried in humility
Like the beaches were buried in ash.
Billows and billows see the smoke rise
Smoke stack for every sin
But did they believe that
At the center of the island was a volcano? Oh no.
Oh no
Who will remember you now?
You're dead and gone.
Just a couple of scientists
Among the ruins and remains
This island could have been saved,
And can't see a way out
Till their bones are all that's left,
Their chests were hollowed out
But some people never know,
Too caught up in the beautiful
But their heart's a volcano.
Song Info
Submitted by
constant On Mar 28, 2005
More Gatsbys American Dream
Fable
Shhhhhh! I'm Listening To Reason
Where Shadows Lie
A Mind of Metal and Wheels
The Guilt Engine
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GAD definitely likes using literary allusion. The title of this song is from a novel with the same title, authored by Orson Scott Card. It's a frickin' awesome book, and it's really cool how this song uses the idea developed in the book of a speaker for the dead.
Orson Scott Card, who wrote the book Ender's Game also wrote this book which is part of the Ender's series.
Speaker for the Dead is a science fiction novel by Orson Scott Card... "We came here on a plane, Just a couple of scientists, Among the ruins and remains This island could have been saved"
Two biologists die from the descoloda virus, which is the virus that keeps the natives alive... their daughter calls Ender, who is the SPEAKER OF THE DEAD to speak on her parents behalf... I am sure there is more meaning than just that...
.. i havn't really tried to figure out what this song is about.. though it has some lyrical similarities to 'fable' ..
i know this title is also a book in the enders game series.. but i havn't read that in forever so i forgot what it was about.
I think this song is, like alot of the others on this album, about Pompeii. From what i read the band was really interest in the idea that the people of Pompeii were so arrogant that they wouldn't leave their beautiful city despite living beneath a volcano that was acting up.... "Oh arrogant island being buried in humility Like the beaches were buried in ash." The fact that it talked about scientists finding them and " their chests hollowed out " follows the Pompeii thing too, where the bodies of the citizens of Pompeii were encased in ash, eventually decomposing and leaving hollowed out spaces inside the hardened ash.
Am I the only one who hears "green light" and thinks of The Great Gatsby itself?
wow sparty thats really interesting. thanks for that bit of information it answers a lot of questions i had
The song could obviously be referencing a couple of books... with similarites to "Fable", it could be talking about the end of Lord of the Flies. The green light indeed is a reference to Jay Gatsby, but what it has to do with LotF or even Pompeii is anyone's guess.
"We came here on a plane, Just a couple of scientists Among the ruins and remains This island could have been saved"
Thats a reference to Jurassic Park, most definitely.
But isn't there the fact that pompeii wasn't an island or am I just stupid?