Sold my cold knot
A heavy stone
Sold my red horse for a venture home
To vanish on the bow --
Settling slow
Fit it all, fit it in the doldrums
(Or so the story goes)
Color the era
Film it's historical
My mile could not
Pump the plumb
In my arbor 'till my ardor
Trumped every inner inertia
Lump sum
All at once
Rushing from the sub-pump
(Or so the story goes)
Balance we won't know
We will see when it gets warm
A heavy stone
Sold my red horse for a venture home
To vanish on the bow --
Settling slow
(Or so the story goes)
Color the era
Film it's historical
Pump the plumb
In my arbor 'till my ardor
Trumped every inner inertia
Lump sum
Rushing from the sub-pump
(Or so the story goes)
Balance we won't know
We will see when it gets warm
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Okay, I think I've got all the metaphors down. And there's a lot but the song means so much more when you know them (posting in reply)
Okay, I might be reading into this too much and maybe he didn't mean half of this but here it is:
Okay, I might be reading into this too much and maybe he didn't mean half of this but here it is:
// Sold my cold knot A heavy stone //
// Sold my cold knot A heavy stone //
I am pretty sure this refers to a wedding ring. "Knot" means making the promise, and his commitment's gone cold. "Heavy stone" further affirms this; a diamond stone.
I am pretty sure this refers to a wedding ring. "Knot" means making the promise, and his commitment's gone cold. "Heavy stone" further affirms this; a diamond stone.
// Sold my red horse for a venture home //
// Sold my red horse for a venture home //
A red horse I believe refers to car. Venture home = he's moving, trying something new.
A red horse I believe refers to car. Venture home = he's moving, trying something new.
// To vanish on the bow -- //
// To vanish on the bow -- //
Vanishing off the main scene, away from people's sight.
Vanishing off the main scene, away from people's sight.
// Settling slow //
// Settling slow //
...
Settling in, calming down.
// Fit it all, fit it in the doldrums //
Fitting everything, all his emotions, into the time he has alone, the time where he's inactive and everything is still. Quite a symbolic line if you think about it.
// (Or so the story goes) //
This sounds like, he's been told what to believe, and what his trip to his cabin would do for him, and he's deciding that he'll try get all his emotions out and fit them in the doldrums, and it's still apparent and he's not quite sure of it yet.
// Color the era //
Beautiful, just beautiful. He realizes how great his time is, and he's going to put color and life back into it.
// Film it, it's historical //
More to the last, he's making his own little write of history.
// My mile could not Pump the plumb //
This is a bit cryptic and hard to decipher. I believe he's saying he couldn't get everything out where he was. He couldn't "pump the plumb" (often means to unclog, clean out, and that further adds to his description of how bad things were for him). He can't do it where he is and moves.
// In my arbor 'till my ardor Trumped every inner inertia //
I believe he's saying he enjoyed his little arbor, his place of relaxation, and this is where things weren't going well for him. So he moved away until his excitement won over all the inertia that was holding him back.
// Lump sum //
I feel like he's talking about money and nothing but money, that it was holding him back so much and caused him so much grief.
// All at once Rushing from the sub-pump //
Everything all at once comes out, rushing from underneath him. The idea of a sub pump also compliments the prior metaphor/analogy of "pump the plumb"
// (Or so the story goes) //
Again, his idea of what SHOULD happen, what he's been believing will happen.
// Balance we won't know We will see when it gets warm //
He doesn't know how or who he'll be when all is finished, but he'll see once summer comes.
I think it's about his retreat he took to his cabin in Wisconsin when he wrote this album. He's talking about how he traded his every day life for the life of living by himself in a cabin (Lump Sum: Refers to taxes, A settlement option where the beneficiary receives the entire proceeds of a policy at once rather than in installments) . I think the metaphors are a bit broad and tricky to know exactly what he means but he hopes to find his home by "trading his red horse". Justin said he wanted to "hibernate". The ending line "We will see when it gets warm" is sort of like "we'll see if this was a good idea or not after Winter, when I go back home".
I think "cold knot" and "heavy stone" refers to an engagement ring. Thoughts?
When my worries seem to drown me under water, this song keeps my head afloat.
I definitely don't understand all the lines, but it seems to be about shedding off his ties to his present situation and putting then setting out into an unknown future for himself.
his ardor to leave overcomes his inner inertia, a lump sum of forces (or a net sum) that leads him to decide to leave after weighing all the options.
He stated in an interview that this was his first song he wrote, when he just arrived at the cabin. I think the lyrics are more or less a collection of moments on his way there. First he had to sell some stuff or so, to get the money to survive for three months. (sold my red horse for a venture home) Also the lines : all at once, rushing from the sub-pump, can be taken quiet literaly. Rushing from the pump as he fills up his pickup or sth and then he nicely finishes it of with : We will see when it gets warm...so as I said, leaving from home to his cabin, not knowing what to expect or when it will get better
Was one of my least favorite songs on the album...mainly because I couldn't understand what he was saying/all the metaphors seemed to heavy to decipher. It took a lot of looking up words in the dictionary (ahh embarrassing!) for me to truly "understand" what he was trying to say.
After all of my head work and word/metaphor searching, this song is now one of my favorite songs on the album!
Initially, I believed the whole album to be a long narrative; the songs were purposefully in the order they were because he was telling a chronological story. I NO LONGER BELIEVE THAT...and understanding this song/learning from BraveNewWorld that this was the first song he wrote it now makes much more sense!
"Sold my cold knot A heavy stone" ...I think he is referring to his getting rid of a complicated problem that was weighing him down for far too long.
"In my arbor 'till my ardor Trumped every inner inertia" ...this is such an optimistic thing for him to say - really beautiful. Essentially he is showing his devotion to "recovering" from the mess he found himself to be in. He's looking at the cabin as his only option to overcome his heartache.
"Balance we won't know We will see when it gets warm" ...Yes, this is very literal. The first line suggests that he's taking a chance because he can't live the way he is living and he's sick of the "coulda, shoulda, woulda" lifestyle he's living. The last line (the literal one) is him being hopeful the by the end of his journey (when winter/the cold is over) he will become liberated.
It always sounded to me like: 'every inner inch/of lump sum'. I really can't hear inertia in there at all
It always sounded to me like: 'every inner inch/of lump sum'. I really can't hear inertia in there at all
i agree, the music also reflects the shift from the inner inertia to the venture home
well put Silver. his ardor finally forces him to fight what tells him is comfortable (his inner inertia) and to begin changing things. at one point this was my least favorite song on the album...i don't really know why. i love it..maybe the most of any of the songs.
i always thought that
Rushing from the sub-pump
was motion from the sub-con.