Let the River In

here's an explanation from Ben "Let The River In is kind of a coming of age story. First, as a little kid, it's about growing up, and getting over fears (monsters beneath the bed, etc) and losing imaginary friends (Don't scare me off now; I'm your only friend ... this section is from the imaginary friend's viewpoint -- I take a lot of liberties with that stuff). Later it's about moving beyond the problems you're born into, particularly with family and in the end deciding to text whether blood really means anything. You can probably discern the rest from the lyrics."

Sometimes people have their parents' faults follow them around. Say someones father was some sort of criminal, or the mother was a drunk: at times, the children of these people are automatically grouped in with the people who have those problems. "Oh, well, Timmy's dad was into hard drugs you know, it would be wise to stay away from him Mary, you never know." things like that happen all to often. Of course, this is just my interpretation. But if you look at the lyrics, you can kind of see where I am coming from: "I closed my eyes and saw my father's sins They covered me like a second skin I peeled them off, and sure I bled a bit But now I'm free to sink my own damn ship I cut my branch down from my family tree To start a fire in the living room Now the house is just ash, this time it's sink or swim"

So basically he is saying that he's broken the mold that his family has made for him. That 'second skin' covered him- it followed him everywhere. He's 'cut a branch off from his family tree' and burned it down (it sort of sounds like he let go of his family...?) but it's time to sink or swim, he is on his own and is fending for himself.

beautiful.

Fathers, ghosts, blood. Something about lineage? Childhood? Anyone?

This is a really pretty song, but I just can't make out what it's about!

I closed my eyes and saw my father's sins They covered me like a second skin I peeled them off, and sure I bled a bit But now I'm free to sink my own damn ship

To me this means he's seen the mistakes his father has made and he's learned from them, but he's still going to make his own mistakes in life.

Let the river in If blood is thicker than water Then let the river in We might drift a ways, but we'll find our way again

Basically let life come at us, bad things may happen but they'll never steer us too far off our path

it seems to me to be about a boy who was very unhappy in his home and at first he hid away and ignored it. As he got older he wasn't able to stand it any more (this is the part in the song where the music changes)

i think now he is saying that he is covered in all the wrong that his father has done so he peels it off and blends it into his own so that people won't see him for what his dad did .'I peeled them off and sure I bled it in' now he is able to live his own life make his own decisions and mistakes and start afresh. 'But now I'm free to sink my own damn ship'

then he breaks away from his family and destroys all his memories.'I cut the bridge down from my family tree To start a fire in the middle Now the house is just ash this time, sink or swim'

Let the river in If blood is thicker than water Then let the river in We might drift away, but we've got thick skin

the phrase is blood is thicker than water meaning family will always be closer then a friend.So i think this is him trying to dilute his family into any person he would meet on the street. i think the last line means they may be a bit upset not to be in contact with their son but they are strong so they would get over it.