The Spine Song

I don't really think CBB songs are meant to be interpreted, but in keeping with the theme of this site... ... it reminds me of someone who's always going out to clubs, getting gradually burntout and always waking up hungover, and going out again the next night. Then perhaps one day (a family occasion like a birthday) they take it easy, very peaceful and pure and relaxing with the innocent comfort of a kiss on the head. They get sucked into the old cycle again, but realise they've waited to long and are stuck in the same soulless existence. They hope someone else will look at them and realise there is a better, less ugly, life.

i love this song. and ive been trying to figure out what it really means... but when it says "when i die will you take my spine.."that whole part, for some reason it makes me mad. makes me thinks of a person who i could picture taking the last thing that holds me up in life, ( my spine), and using it for what he wants to do. taking my last part of confidence when im dead...i dont know..?

I absolutely love this song!! I have two very different interpretations of what it could mean:

1. My first interpretation is similar to contrary_mary's. I think that the speaker is talking about a girl that gets stuck in this rut of a fast lifestyle. I think that the "silly little girl" goes out in search of something and she never finds it but keeps looking in the same places. Personally, I think she's looking for love. It seems that she dances with all these men and is scared to give herself away to them but that she does anyway for that temporary fix even though it always leads to a headache in the end. And she feels spineless in that she gives in so easily. I think that each birthday is a reminder to her that she is just getting older and is still waking up alone just finding some solace in reading a book.

So she just keeps going to these places and she doesn't like it but she feels like she has to go their to find what she's looking for, and to keep her mind off of the fact that she's just getting older. So she feels stuck in this cycle and she can't escape now because her bones are creaking and her birthdays that represent more years of falling deeper into the habit are preventing her from being able to run (they steal her shoes) and she feels like she's been completely devoured (her birthdays have brought her to "the caverns of their teeth").

I think that the speaker is the only thing keeping the silly girl at least somewhat grounded and that's what the last two verses are about. I think that the speaker's only role in this girl's life anymore has become as her backbone and the strength that she needs to keep going as she gets engulfed in this sad cycle. She wonders what will happen to her silly girlfriend if she ever dies and concludes that the girl will ignore all the advice she's given and simply keep looking for places to get her temporary highs.

2. On the other hand, this song might also be about drug addiction. Maybe she keeps going out looking for a high. And maybe that’s what gives her the headaches. And maybe the day that her and the speaker say they will rejoice about is the day that she dies because they are already slowly killing themselves and that day might be the only way they see out of this cycle of addiction. It could be that the needles in her fingers are literal and that she’s taking drugs at home on her birthday since she can’t go out due to the snow. She is literally chasing her next high even though she doesn’t really want to go to those places. So she inhales the smells and gets high and exhilarated off of it. She can’t say goodbye to her lifestyle because with each birthday (each year that passes) she just itches more and more for her next fix. I think that in this case the speaker may be involved in the same cycle and they are both just waiting to see who will die first. She must be apologizing for introducing her to drugs but her friend must not forgive her. She seems to think that her silly friend won’t mourn her death at all but will rather continue to search for more drugs. The girl will merely “use [her] spine to swing from tree to tree in search of places pleasing to the eye”.

I've always heard "you will steal all the smells that cut through your nose and excite all your cells".

i love this. a lot.

Such a pretty song.

i love that all her songs sound so pretty, but when you really really listen they are slightly twisted and dark. i think that's the mass appeal.

My sister came up with an interesting meaning for this song. She thinks it might be about a young girl being sacrificed to a god. I think it kind of works. Interesting...

This is somehow cute.