Believe you me the price is clear
A child born the mother near
To death and life as hand in hand
A failed life exposed the man
Who led her off into the flame
To cast her back to hell again
But hear you me the break of dawn
Will wash away the sins thereof
Unto the lake beyond the tree
The child waits alone is he
The flame is gone the fire remains
The flame is gone the fire remains
The flame is gone the fire remains
The flame is gone the fire remains
The flame is gone the fire remains
The flame is gone the fire remains
A child born the mother near
To death and life as hand in hand
A failed life exposed the man
Who led her off into the flame
To cast her back to hell again
But hear you me the break of dawn
Will wash away the sins thereof
Unto the lake beyond the tree
The child waits alone is he
The flame is gone the fire remains
The flame is gone the fire remains
The flame is gone the fire remains
The flame is gone the fire remains
The flame is gone the fire remains
The flame is gone the fire remains
Lyrics submitted by K_TrAiN
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The Dear Hunter is a story of a boy, from his creation to his untimely end, the beautifully rapturous to the truly tragic. Set at the dawn of the 20th century, the debut EP, "I: The Lake South The River North" gives birth to a story, and makes sense of the future by explaining the past. Simply put, The Dear Hunter sings of something to which we can all relate–Â lust, deceit, greed, and hunting.
Here's what he said about the flame/fire:
its symbolic of the different events in the boy's life. how there are life changing events that dont seem like much, and he forgets them quick, and moves on, but the effects of the initial spark grow to an overwhelming degree. so, the flame is the birth of the fire
THIS SONG IS AMAZING: it highlights a situation rich with substance:
She's close to death because of this life. So the ability to be in a fatal physical state while physically close to a new life is fairly ironic.
Then there is the contradiction repeated in the end, yes it is suggestive of the passion of sex that nearly put out her fire and killed her, but also sparked a new fire that saves her (her son is essentially her salvation from her situation, that is the beautiful conclusion of the song). Salvation in the sense that she then leaves all the "sins" of her past life to the Lake, and the fact that she has something to live for. The importance of this is in the pressure of the father as he wishes to cast her into "hell", referring to the irony of being in a Church/Brothel giving us the first glimpse of an important theme in all of Dear Hunter: the contradiction of judgement.
So the dick that spawned the child with his dick is being a dick by trying to condemn her as a failure for going through the action of birthing the child instead of coat hangering the infant. Combined with the contradiction that he is in public casting her out to hell (probably in public): double contradiction (unless I'm overspeculating)
In addition, there are two lyrics that have little to do with the situation, the image of the "tree", beyond the tree? Consider the family tree and not knowing your roots (aka the mystery of his birth), that kinda sucks. Not to mention, the tree coming from these roots is a symbol for the story beginning: this song the roots. I say this because every Act features a faintly burning tree on the front, so this combines the ambiguous contradiction repeated in the end of the song with the image of the tree. The fiercly fiery genesis represented in the burning wood of the tree is suggestive of his conception inflamed with the sad lust that characterizes prostitution. This in turn is suggestive of his life, (Evicted: "if you need a little cash, you sell yourself to everything" [not literally as a prostitute]) as he will be prostituted to the world.
So who is saying all of this? Well the story, as far as i can tell is very Greek if ya know what i mean. This really reminds me of the alternate use of the chorus someone mentions intuitively above. I'd say that Crezendo is the narrator, not the boy. So what of the first phrase? "Believe you me, the price is clear" is this Crezendo recognizing the magnitude of the project he has taken up? Is this the Dime that it cost to bang a ho? Is this Ms. Terri and her knowledge of this risk?
Dunno, can't answer that part.
this makes me think also of a birth of a child, but the parents have divorced. thus their flame is gone. ... but the fire remains.
"a failed life exposed the man" his mother .. ms. terri, is a hooker, a failed life.
in this, the flame seems more to be the streets, and then changes. because "who led her off into the flame, to cast her back to hell again" meaning she is proceeding to have to go back to the streets, ... prostitution
then it continues to say "the break of dawn will wash away the sins thereof"... so dawn breaks and she's not prostituting.. obviously.
and due to her workin the streets at night.. she sleeps during the day... and the boy is left to play with himself, no mother... no father.. alone is he.