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.
I follow through the atmosphere as the guitar's feedback climbed
The pegs were gold, the band was old, they played in half time
Now every dream gets whittled down just like every fool gets wise
You'll never reap of any seed deprived of sunlight
So I have become the middleman
The gray areas are mine
The in-between, the absentee
Is a beautiful disguise
So I keep my footlights shining bright
Just like I keep my exits wide
Because I never know when it's time to go, it's too crowded now inside
And the dead can hide beneath the ground and the birds can always fly
But the rest of us do what we must in constant compromise
So I have become the middleman
The gray areas are mine
The "I don't know," the "maybe so"
Is the only real, it's the only true
It's the only real reply
The pegs were gold, the band was old, they played in half time
Now every dream gets whittled down just like every fool gets wise
You'll never reap of any seed deprived of sunlight
So I have become the middleman
The gray areas are mine
The in-between, the absentee
Is a beautiful disguise
So I keep my footlights shining bright
Just like I keep my exits wide
Because I never know when it's time to go, it's too crowded now inside
And the dead can hide beneath the ground and the birds can always fly
But the rest of us do what we must in constant compromise
So I have become the middleman
The gray areas are mine
The "I don't know," the "maybe so"
Is the only real, it's the only true
It's the only real reply
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"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"
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"Some and now none of you"
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"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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i think this song is somewhat self-critical. he's aware that with many things, he's settled with compromise. His dreams, opinions have been whittled down. the gray area may be the only 'truth' because its hard to side completely with one belief or another, but conner accepts this regretfully. it is somewhat like settling or giving up.
To me this song is, like many by the band, weaves in between two levels. I think the "band" concept of watching/being the band on stage in a crowded room is the most valid surface interpretation, especially since a theme of alienation and agoraphobia run throughout Oberst's lyrics.
However, I'd like to refer to the album's title for the meaning of the chorus and title. Cassadaga is a spritualist community in Florida, referenced by the female speaker in the opening track. It's home or destination to a large number of psychics and mediums, and I think it's mediumship that's referenced here.
Oberst is comparing the life of a lyricist/performer to that of the medium. The opening line is analogous to the spiritual transcendance of a seance- the performer must bring his audience something "from the ether" for entertainment and enlightenment, just as the medium is called upon to "commune with the dead", to borrow a line from "Four Winds".
The last two lines in the first verse point out the hook of the song- that is, just as the reluctant messiah Donald Shimoda does in Richard Bach's Illusions, the narrator has grown tired of the constant demand of the audience. The fool that gets wise in the third line is the narrator after realizing the demand to perform is depriving his "seed", his creativity, of "sunlight", or inspiration.
The chorus is where the narrator begins to feel that his stage persona is now just that- a persona, and not a true reflection of his person. He's reduced to "I don't knows" and "maybe sos" to answer the demand, no longer capable of offering substance or real insight. His audience is oblivious, and his popularity grows, evident in the second line of the second verse.
The climax of the song is the narrator's acceptance of his plight though still in admiration of the dead and the birds, both capable of escaping the crowds and the demand.
Interesting song, and if I've left any loose ends, comment back and I'll tie up what I can.
Favorite song off Cassadaga
such a good song.
finally someone put the lyrics up!! my english isn't so good so i dind't dare to ;) i love this song! it is even much much better live!! it is also my favourite off casadaga.
sorry i missed an s there. and by the was: i love love love "the dead can hide beneath the ground and the birds can always fly but the rest of us do what we must in constant compromise"
"The dead can hide beneath the ground "
people don't usually refer to the dead as hiding, i like it.
and what is that man speaking in teh background saying?
I love the phrase "every dream gets whittled down just like every fool gets wise", perhaps meaning that one experience may change a person's outlook; a fool becoming wise because of age and experience, and likewise a dream being whittled away because a comment someone made or an experience they had. It becomes a fact of life, and as he later states, "the rest of us do what we must in constant compromise." So really, I think this song is about taking the bad with the good and accepting what you can't change. Eloquently stated, Conor.
This is my favorite song off the new album :] Can't quite bring the meaning for me to words. Something along the lines of ceruleanbliss and jaytkendall's.
The pegs were gold, the band was old, they played in half time Now every dream gets whittled down just like every fool gets wise You will never reap of any seed deprived of sunlight
I believe Connor is commenting again on his majpr theme of the evils of big franchise. "half time" referring to big time legends reduced to playing the super bowl. "You will never reap of any seed deprived of sunlight" without over exposure the industry fails to fully profit, a warning to naive artists in it solely for the music?