4 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A

If I Were A Carp Lyrics

Heave ho, farewell to the quay! Merry sailors, sailors we!
The horizon is our proscenium! Our dead will come to know the sea
Our cook is a wanted man, 1000 thalers for each hand
Our captain lost his good sense, driven by a Lazarus' words

Have you not been told of Lazarus? He felt the icy grip
Brought back by a morphine drip, he told the captain this:

Tragedy, tragedy! Death has you fooled!
No throne of bone, no terranean pool!
No scythe, no cowl, no skeleton
His greatest trophy is this myth
Every sailor, salmon, every carp will follow rivers to the source
Only the dead will know the course, and furthermore...
Do you really want to know of the afterworld?
4 Meanings

Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.

Add your thoughts...
Cover art for If I Were A Carp lyrics by Owen Pallett

This song is based on the Necromancy School of Magic.

However, it is supposedly about Owen's harrowing experience of watching his grandfather slip in and out of death while on morphine.

Cover art for If I Were A Carp lyrics by Owen Pallett

Wow. Freaky stuff.

Cover art for If I Were A Carp lyrics by Owen Pallett

Parts of this song, e.g. around 1:10, remind me of Shostakovich. I don't think this is a coincidence, given the topic of death which was very central in Shostakovich's work. Well, Owen holds a degree in composition, after all, he surely knew what he was doing.

Cover art for If I Were A Carp lyrics by Owen Pallett

It refers to his god father slipping in and out of conciousness (or death?) Due to the morphine that was numbing the pain of cancer.

 
Questions and Answers

Ask specific questions and get answers to unlock more indepth meanings & facts.

Ask a question...