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.
Someone right now is leaving their apartment
Looking down at the street and wondering where their car went
Someone in a car is sitting at a signal
In front of a restaurant staring through the window at
Someone right now with their finger in their teeth
Who could use a little floss, right across the street
There's somebody on the curb who really needs a jacket
But spent half the rent at a bar getting plastered
Now he's gotta walk fourteen blocks
Just to work at a shop where he's about to get fired
Someone right now is looking pretty tired
Staring at a laptop trying to get inspired
As somebody living right across the street
Just wrote the best thing that she's written all week
But her best friend's coughing up blood in the sink
He can't even think what happened, feeling so confused
And he knows it looks bad but nothing he can do
I wonder what it's like to be right there in his shoes but...
Yo, I'm just taking it in
Out the window of a hotel bedroom again
Tomorrow I'll be gone, I don't know when I'll be back
But in this world everything can change just like that...
Somebody right now is dropping his vote
Inside a box trying to not get shot in his throat
For the act of freedom, right now somebody's stuck in Iraq
Hoping that he gets shipped back breathing
In a war but he's not really sure the reasons
So we show our support when the press mislead him
Though we mourn, remain proud, salute the troops
Get some, I know you boys got some work to do
Meanwhile, right now someone's 25-to-life-ing
Standing on a corner with their thumb up hitchhiking
Scratching off a lotto ticket hoping for a real winner
Sneaking through the border just to work and eat a real dinner
Right now someone wishes they were you and I
Instead of second-guessing fatal thoughts of quiet suicide
But right now I'm staring out the window at a fiend
With holes in his arm and holes in his jeans
He pulled out a cigarette and sparked a light
And walked right around the corner just out of my sight but...
I'm just taking it in
From a second storey hotel window again
The TV's on and my bags are packed
But in this world everything can change just like that
Yeah, right now somebody's sittin' in the darkness
Tryin' to figure how to put some heat in their apartment
But they got a little mattress, little carpet
And they appreciate it 'cause some people on a park bench
You see 'em rushing to get to the office
Wife ride by 'em when she up from the market
Right now somebody comin' out the pocket
Tryin' to dump that rock they runnin' round the block with
Same time the cops is raisin' the glock
With aim to fill your legs and your back with some hot shit
Right now somebody's struggling to stop this man
That's kicking and punching and cussing at the doctors
Down the hall a child is takin' its first breath
The doctors ain't even passed him to the nurse yet
Yo, I wonder of he understand what it's worth yet
Life, the time spent while we here on the earth yet
The answers to the questions we all seek
Can be found, it depend on how free y'all think
Right now, it's somebody who ain't eat all week
That would kill for the shit you throw away in the street
I guess one man's trash is a next man's treasure
One man's pain is a next man's pleasure
One says infinity the next say forever
Right now everybody got to get it together man
I'm just taking it in
In another strange hotel lobby again
With my luggage on my back, I don't know where I'm at
I'm in a world where it all changes just like that
Like that
Yo, I'm just taking it in
Out the window of a hotel bedroom again
Tomorrow I'll be gone, I don't know when I'll be back
But in this world everything can change just like that
Looking down at the street and wondering where their car went
Someone in a car is sitting at a signal
In front of a restaurant staring through the window at
Someone right now with their finger in their teeth
Who could use a little floss, right across the street
There's somebody on the curb who really needs a jacket
But spent half the rent at a bar getting plastered
Now he's gotta walk fourteen blocks
Just to work at a shop where he's about to get fired
Someone right now is looking pretty tired
Staring at a laptop trying to get inspired
As somebody living right across the street
Just wrote the best thing that she's written all week
But her best friend's coughing up blood in the sink
He can't even think what happened, feeling so confused
And he knows it looks bad but nothing he can do
I wonder what it's like to be right there in his shoes but...
Yo, I'm just taking it in
Out the window of a hotel bedroom again
Tomorrow I'll be gone, I don't know when I'll be back
But in this world everything can change just like that...
Somebody right now is dropping his vote
Inside a box trying to not get shot in his throat
For the act of freedom, right now somebody's stuck in Iraq
Hoping that he gets shipped back breathing
In a war but he's not really sure the reasons
So we show our support when the press mislead him
Though we mourn, remain proud, salute the troops
Get some, I know you boys got some work to do
Meanwhile, right now someone's 25-to-life-ing
Standing on a corner with their thumb up hitchhiking
Scratching off a lotto ticket hoping for a real winner
Sneaking through the border just to work and eat a real dinner
Right now someone wishes they were you and I
Instead of second-guessing fatal thoughts of quiet suicide
But right now I'm staring out the window at a fiend
With holes in his arm and holes in his jeans
He pulled out a cigarette and sparked a light
And walked right around the corner just out of my sight but...
I'm just taking it in
From a second storey hotel window again
The TV's on and my bags are packed
But in this world everything can change just like that
Yeah, right now somebody's sittin' in the darkness
Tryin' to figure how to put some heat in their apartment
But they got a little mattress, little carpet
And they appreciate it 'cause some people on a park bench
You see 'em rushing to get to the office
Wife ride by 'em when she up from the market
Right now somebody comin' out the pocket
Tryin' to dump that rock they runnin' round the block with
Same time the cops is raisin' the glock
With aim to fill your legs and your back with some hot shit
Right now somebody's struggling to stop this man
That's kicking and punching and cussing at the doctors
Down the hall a child is takin' its first breath
The doctors ain't even passed him to the nurse yet
Yo, I wonder of he understand what it's worth yet
Life, the time spent while we here on the earth yet
The answers to the questions we all seek
Can be found, it depend on how free y'all think
Right now, it's somebody who ain't eat all week
That would kill for the shit you throw away in the street
I guess one man's trash is a next man's treasure
One man's pain is a next man's pleasure
One says infinity the next say forever
Right now everybody got to get it together man
I'm just taking it in
In another strange hotel lobby again
With my luggage on my back, I don't know where I'm at
I'm in a world where it all changes just like that
Like that
Yo, I'm just taking it in
Out the window of a hotel bedroom again
Tomorrow I'll be gone, I don't know when I'll be back
But in this world everything can change just like that
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Great version of a great song,
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