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.
We started looking for you
In the darker caves
We had a lot of love
We thought would light the way
We saw the wrecks of buildings
And ships that sank in starlight
We saw the ghosts of angels
That spoke of falls from tremendous heights
[Chorus]
Don't you leave us in the dark [Repeat: x4]
We saw your old flames
And some were burning yet
It made us smile to see
Just how well tended each was kept
But other fires were burning too
And I saw the battlefields
The dying Light Brigade
Stretched out upon the wheel
[Chorus]
Every heart is much the same
We tell ourselves down here
The same chambers fed by veins
The same maze of love and fear
We thought you were a saint
But the halo was an eye
It's hard to see how there could be
So much dark inside the light
[Chorus]
In the darker caves
We had a lot of love
We thought would light the way
We saw the wrecks of buildings
And ships that sank in starlight
We saw the ghosts of angels
That spoke of falls from tremendous heights
[Chorus]
Don't you leave us in the dark [Repeat: x4]
We saw your old flames
And some were burning yet
It made us smile to see
Just how well tended each was kept
But other fires were burning too
And I saw the battlefields
The dying Light Brigade
Stretched out upon the wheel
[Chorus]
Every heart is much the same
We tell ourselves down here
The same chambers fed by veins
The same maze of love and fear
We thought you were a saint
But the halo was an eye
It's hard to see how there could be
So much dark inside the light
[Chorus]
Lyrics submitted by EffulgentEnnui
In the Dark Lyrics as written by William H Challis Bix Beiderbecke
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Songtrust Ave
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This song seems to me to be a lament about the 9/11 attack... the obvious allusions "wreck of buildings"; "flames" and "burning", "falls from tremendous heights. The "ghosts of angels" are the tragic victims who haunt our memories.
"We started looking for you in the darker caves" - meaning the hunt for the evil OBL hiding in his cave. We had a lot of love / We thought we light the way" - meaning the overwhelming sympathy and support from the world in the aftermath of the attack.
"Other fires were burning too... Battlefields" reference the war in Iraq. "The dying Light Brigade" is the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War, where brave soldiers were sent to their unnecessary deaths by a foolish commander - a reference criticizing the disastrous Iraq war.
"Don't you leave us in the dark" is a plea that things will turn out alright in the end, that there is a light of hope to emerge from the dark. Or it could be a plea for the troops to come home - that we must not leave them in the dark i.e. in death.
That's my 2 cents :)
this is beautiful. i had always thought of it as a love song between two people not a love song for the nation. excellent.
Totally. I agree. In fact, my very first impression was that the song was written from the lost followers of Bin Laden:<br /> <br /> We started looking for you<br /> In the darker caves<br /> We had a lot of love<br /> We thought would light the way <br /> <br /> Then:<br /> We thought you were a saint<br /> But the halo was an eye<br /> It's hard to see how there could be<br /> So much dark inside the light<br /> <br /> As if the followers - those lost and hurt men and women who desperately wanted to believe in something, desperately lost in love and fear, were led astray. Bin Laden couldn't live up to his word, just a faded halo...:<br /> <br /> We tell ourselves down here<br /> The same chambers fed by veins<br /> The same maze of love and fear <br /> <br /> The followers also live in the dark chambers, hidden from being caught, perhaps literally also in the caves along with other Al Queda, cant' distinguish the difference between love and fear, the love of a leader, the fear of what they thought the Americans were 'doing' to them. <br /> <br /> Then, when Bin Laden went further into hiding, the followers cried 'Don't leave us in the dark', in the caves literally without light, and metaphorically without the light of a leader, who went astray and who now only offered darkness...<br /> <br /> Powerful.