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.
And when our mouths are filled with uninvited tongues of others
And the strays are pining for their unrequited mothers
Milk that sours is promptly spat, light will fill our eyes like cats
And they shall enter from the back
With spears and scepters and squirming sacks
Scribs and tangles between their ears
Faceless scrumbled charcoal smears, oh dear
Through the coppice and the chaparral
The thickets thick with mold
The bracken and the brier
Catch weed into the fold
When our mouths are filled with uninvited tongues of others
And the strays are pining for their unrequited mothers
Milk that sours is promptly spat, light will fill our eyes like cats
Light will fill our eyes like cats, cataracts
And the strays are pining for their unrequited mothers
Milk that sours is promptly spat, light will fill our eyes like cats
And they shall enter from the back
With spears and scepters and squirming sacks
Scribs and tangles between their ears
Faceless scrumbled charcoal smears, oh dear
Through the coppice and the chaparral
The thickets thick with mold
The bracken and the brier
Catch weed into the fold
When our mouths are filled with uninvited tongues of others
And the strays are pining for their unrequited mothers
Milk that sours is promptly spat, light will fill our eyes like cats
Light will fill our eyes like cats, cataracts
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Does anyone else feel like there is something sexual about this verse - particularly the first two lines:
And they shall enter from the back With spears and scepters and squirming sacks Scribs and tangles between their ears Faceless scrumbled charcoal smears
He makes up so many words, it's hard to tell if there is meaning in the words or not. Maybe it's all about the sound of them, not the meaning. Except for in odd obscure urban slang, the words 'scribs' and 'scrumbled' have no real meaning. ('Scrumbled' has a couple of sexual meanings according to the slang dictionary, which could support my feeling of the sexual nature of this verse - but probably this is a coincidence).
Maybe I'm just in a special frame of mind at the moment, but actually, alot of these lyrics could have sexual connotations (tongues of others, the sour milk that's spat might not be milk at all, [yeah, I know my mind is in the gutter], the light from the eyes and the cataracts could be about the dazed vision during coupling or how people's eyes light up when they look upon their loved ones, or even to how love is blind and when in love we see the other person as if through a veil - or cataracts)
There are also so many nature references and weeds and plants named: coppice, chaparral, thickets, mold, bracken, brier, catchweed. I wonder if this has any greater significance?
I'd love to know what others think of my wild imaginings here.
I just looked this song up on songmeanings because I wondered if anyone else thought the lyrics were particularly sexual. <br /> I thought the cataracts part was about how being involved physically with others too often or without whole-hardheartedness could make someone or, what it seems like his fear is, everyone, blinded to the actual feeling of love. <br /> Maybe the references to plants are there to describe wildness. All of the plants mentioned grow quickly and obnoxiously. <br /> As for, "milk that sours is promptly spat..." I totally agree. I'm always asking, "How on earth can so few people think of more interesting songs to write about sex?"<br /> Leave it to Andrew Bird.