A Day In The Graveyard II

i get the idea that the speaker is the one who died. the rose petal bed makes me think of him lying in a coffin with flowers all over it. when he says theres helicopters overhead its because hes lying in the coffin looking up at the sky and the only thing he sees when he looks down is his own shoes with the sun shining on them. the rest of the song confuses me tho. i have no interpretation other than this girl who he loved just wasn't there for him.his own funeral represents something terrible that has happened to him and she didnt even go to it. she had something more important and it showed him that she doesnt care about the relationship like he does

I feel fairly certain this song is actually addressed to the futility or existing-but-absent nature of G-d, a theme Krug has touched upon in other songs such as "Dear Sons & Daughters of Hungry Ghosts" ("G-d doesn't have the best goddamned plans, does he?").

Anyway, I think "the conductor" is G-d, and the "I won't blame you" part is between the speaker and the dead, leaving it at the feet of the "conductor."

I also think it's possible (though this might be a stretch) that the "you" is shifting in the previous verse. "If you (G-d) could make another one of you (the deceased) then you (G-d) wouldn't give the other one (the deceased) to me." Maybe? Yeah, I dunno.

The "you" at the end of the song again may be G-d, "doing something else that day" meaning on the day the person in the graveyard died, G-d was nowhere to be found to stop it.

Just a theory, of course. In any event, even if I've missed the mark entirely, I really love this song. One of their best, and sadly, least known tracks.

I'm going to agree with mtamney here.

In an Animal in Your Care, Spencer also talks about what a girl would do at his funeral... and also suggests that she wouldn't care. I think it's the same thing here... To me, it's pretty clear that it's his funeral because it's "I had a rose petal bed/I had the sun on my shoes" which gives a pretty clear image on him lying in a coffin. And when he "knew" and "could see" that she wouldn't give the other one to him that just meant that even at his funeral, she wasn't there.

I'm also agreeing with Heraclea that God is the conductor, but I don't think Spencer's saying that he will forgive god, but more like it's not either of their fault because the conductor, God, fucked up. He doesn't really seem mad at her for "doing something else" instead of going to his funeral, just sad that she doesn't care. He won't blame her for not caring if she doesn't blame him for dying.

the one line i'm not entirely clear about is the helicopter one. Is he talking about publicity? I don't really know.

But it's a Spencer song, so we'll never REALLY know, will we?

why your quite welcome lol

I think its about a guy who fell in love with a girl who passed away and hes at her funeral just thinking about things and he realizes that if she came back then he still wouldn't be able to have her.

thats just kinda how i think of it. probably wrong. whateeevveee.

was it really that necessary to bleep out the "o" in god

i mean come on...

hes talking about g-d not god... as in genital disease.

It's entirely possible that Heraclea is Jewish. Many Jewish people avoid writing the word "God" out of respect.

As to the song, I got a similar interpretation as MountWrocial. I took the line "if you could make another one of you then you wouldn't give the other one to me" as just an obtuse way of saying the narrator and the person he's singing to would not really work in a relationship.

Fuck I love this song.

Rose "petal."

great song well said clap your hands