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.
Look at this, it's me, walking away
Look at you drowning, on display
Every time I've dropped by, I've tried to say
The water is rising
You don't wanna stay
It's that sinking feeling
You know what it's bringing on
You might as well say it
I see it, I feel it
This town is going wrong
It's turning away
You wanted me to be someone that I could never be
My new friends are offering things I've never dreamed
It's beautiful
I'd like for them to take me on
The track-mall gang went off
On the Tennessee goth
A lunar moth, you chrysalis and flail
The water is rising, you try to rappel
A rousing cheer for the boy in the well
It's that sinking feeling
You know what it's bringing on
You might as well say it
I see it, I feel it
This town is going wrong
It's turning away
You wanted me to be someone that I could never be
My new friends are offering things I've never dreamed
It's beautiful
I'd like for them to take me on
Here is where I look back
Here is where you fell
This is where I got up
Shaking off my tail
This is where your rope trick
Started to look stale
A greyhound pass for the boy in the well
It's that sinking feeling
You know what it's bringing on
I might as well say it
I see it, I feel it
This town is going wrong
It's turning away
You wanted me to be someone that I could never be
My new friends are offering things I've never dreamed
It's beautiful
I'd like for them to take me on
You wanted me to be someone that I could never be
My new friends are offering things I've never dreamed
It's beautiful
I'd like for them to take me on
Look at you drowning, on display
Every time I've dropped by, I've tried to say
The water is rising
You don't wanna stay
It's that sinking feeling
You know what it's bringing on
You might as well say it
I see it, I feel it
This town is going wrong
It's turning away
You wanted me to be someone that I could never be
My new friends are offering things I've never dreamed
It's beautiful
I'd like for them to take me on
The track-mall gang went off
On the Tennessee goth
A lunar moth, you chrysalis and flail
The water is rising, you try to rappel
A rousing cheer for the boy in the well
It's that sinking feeling
You know what it's bringing on
You might as well say it
I see it, I feel it
This town is going wrong
It's turning away
You wanted me to be someone that I could never be
My new friends are offering things I've never dreamed
It's beautiful
I'd like for them to take me on
Here is where I look back
Here is where you fell
This is where I got up
Shaking off my tail
This is where your rope trick
Started to look stale
A greyhound pass for the boy in the well
It's that sinking feeling
You know what it's bringing on
I might as well say it
I see it, I feel it
This town is going wrong
It's turning away
You wanted me to be someone that I could never be
My new friends are offering things I've never dreamed
It's beautiful
I'd like for them to take me on
You wanted me to be someone that I could never be
My new friends are offering things I've never dreamed
It's beautiful
I'd like for them to take me on
Lyrics submitted by ikhabaat_crane
Boy in the Well Lyrics as written by Mike Mills Peter Buck
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Not a bad song from Around the Sun IMHO.
Seems to be about leaving a lover, someone who is a public tragedy to all their friends, hence the 'boy in the well' metaphor - the big disaster everyone knows about (makes me think of that episode of the Simpsons where Bart gets trapped down a well).
Also draws a broader metaphor between the failing relationship and a failing society - "this town is going wrong".
Lucky for Stipey he's made some shiny happy new friends, so the ex-lover will be left to sink or swim on their own, and he's trying to warn them of this fact.
I agree.
Why hasn't anyone commented on this song? This song is fantastic. I love it.
Nice Simpsons reference, caitsith01, that what I thought of too.
can someone explain this song in details plz. i understand the meaning but id really like to know the details. i love the words but dont get all of it. its a beautiful song, and im going through a very similar situation and god i cry so much when i hear it!
Leaving someone/something
"You wanted me to be someone that I could never be" Leaving a person who has/had unreal expectations My new friends are offering things I've never dreamed It's beautiful I'd like for them to take me on" Making new friends
'Look at this - it's me, walking away' He's not used to abandoning someone/being assertive.
I believe that this song is about abuse by parents.
Having enough, and walking our the door.
"Look at this, it's me, walking away"
And the new friends that embrace him: "My new friends are offering things I've never dreamed It's beautiful I'd like for them to take me on"
perhaps it is a referance to drugs.
"Boy in the well" could be a metaphorical referance to depression.
"You wanted me to be someone that i could never be" - His parents could be dissapointed, angry, that he did not take the right career, he wasn't what they considered to be "normal", might have been shunned.
Just my thoughts on this mysterious and great song.
I like tiagre's note; still, I have just read an interview in the Guardian, and I feel here something else: he is picturing a person who just became famous and is not able to deal with her/his old friends who look "unsexy". (S)he feels they bring her/him down, and has this strange and awkward "triumph" over them.
"You wanted me to be someone that i could never be" – i.e. a son, a boyfriend, a schoolmate... and me, I am so much more... etc.
To me it's about a person belonging to something, like a religion. At one point in his life, he understands that he needs to get away from it, and he leaves the ones who made him belong (which I think is his parents) to grief or disappointment.
"You wanted me to be something that I could never be. And my new friends are offering the things I've never dreamed" makes it pretty clear that he can't go on being religious like his parents want him to be, but he get to hear from his friends that it's good that he is moving away from it for his own sake. So it's like you're taking a move and becomes who you are. You look back at where you have fallen before, and what has drawed you back, but you're now new and improved and more close to be yourself.
I agree with Tiagre, in fact the first verse seems to be the character "beating his chest"; proud of themselves for getting out of this relationship/religion/etc. Also, it suggests that he tried to tell at least one other person of the imminent danger but they didn't listen.
Finally the line "I'd like for them to take me on" suggests he wants to be tested again by his new "crowd".