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.
What can you do
When the curtain falls
What will you do
When the curtain falls
You'll
Left, right
When the curtain falls
What will you do
When the curtain falls
You'll
Left, right
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The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Does he say, "Left, Right" AND, "That's Right?" Also, isn't his mumbling reminiscent of Rufus Wainwright and Thom Yorke?
I think of it as a song about the inevitable, and our inevitable decisions. If you think about it this way, when the curtain falls, there are only two things you can do--you can either exit left or exit right. It's sort of like a "what path will you take?" question, or the fork in the road. You are faced with a timely decision and you have to decide right then and there. whichever you choose will bring you somewhere different for the moment, but ultimately the same--you will have exited and it will have been your choice which way to go.
the best part is when the applause comes in, and then the synth or whatever that is, up high - it's striking somehow. euphoric is what comes to mind when i hear this song. also, i really like the cold war interpretation, although it seems that a whooole lot is assumed there. good, though.
this song is soooooooooooo magical!!!!!!
i think taht this song is so pretty! i don't rely know what it means tho... it could mean nothing i dont know... but it makes me happy as do most of their songs.
To me. Given Beirut's fascination with Easter European music, there many references to Europe and the cold war the curtain mentioned is deffinatley the iron curtain seperating the east and the west during the cold war.
To me it's asking questions about the state of the world after the supposed end of the cold war. It deffinatley is a very broad question. However this makes me think of the way that all governments use fear as the catalyst to drive their policies. During the cold war they had the fear created by the soviet union. Now they have the fear created by terrorism.
If I was saying these lines I would be asking whether we will ever change. Wether we will stop reacting fearfully and choose rather to risk some of our own self rightious pride and have a more open and embracing foreign policy.
And will the Eastern Europe ever become something more than the left side of the iron curtain? Will the right side overcome the stereotype?
Ah...Cold War, interesting explanation.
The feeling of pure elation and ecstasy present in this song suggests the fall of the curtain is not only a new begining, but the beginning of something magical.
Go to Berlin and you can see the results written on the walls.
So does anyone else see the correlation between this song and Scenic World, not only in music arrangement but lryics to??