The Ghost of You Lingers

Corrected lyrics from the album:

If you were here would you calm me down or settle the score? The feelings I fight (I'm a stranger in town) Burn so bright (but if you were here) The feelings I fight (would you ease my mind?) (Come on!)

The sleep fled from my eyes And I, I know that I need some Give a thought to the one that you know

Oh would you calm me down When the breath gets shallow and fast?

We put on the clinic (if you were here) It felt good to me (would you calm me down) Can't you see I'm losing it (or settle the score?) Must I set up the scene?

(Not sure what he's saying here and it's not on the lyrics sheet. I think it's something about a scene backup. The next part is not all on the lyrics sheet either.)

Put on a clinic but now I need you right

Oh, would you ease my mind? Yeah

(The ghost of you lingers) Put on a clinic till we hit the wall (It lingers) Just like a sailor with his wounds being salted Come on

I had a nightmare nothing could be put back together

Would you settle the score?

If you were here Would you calm me down?

The ghost of you lingers It lingers And I always think about it

Oh, would you calm me down?

From the eMusic interview with Britt Daniel:

http://www.emusic.com/features/spotlight/293_200707-ata-spoon.html

On “The Ghost of You Lingers”: The story behind this song is that we were about to start recording and all of a sudden I started feeling like “Holy shit, we are not ready.” So instead of going down to Austin to record, I rented this house in the middle of nowhere in Oregon, somewhere there’d be no internet and you had to drive like 20 minutes to get to a town. It was a pretty creepy place, and that’s where I came up with this one.

It was our choice to make this the first song leaked to the blogs. When there’s a band that’s been around for a while and I hear them doing something I’ve never heard them do before, that kind of excites me. It gets me way more intrigued than, say, hearing a song that sounds exactly like the record before. That was the thinking here: put something out there that will make even people that know us say, “Hey, this is exciting.” The problem is that the very next day, the whole album leaked, so that kind of killed that plan.

That main riff is not just a piano — there’s a lot of instruments in there playing the same chord at the same time. On the demo it was just piano, but when we started doing it we tried it about 15 different ways, pulling different sounds in and out each time. We just kept doing that till we found the way that sounded coolest.

I know it’s not going to be everybody’s favorite song, but it’s probably my favorite song on the record. Not because it’s weird, but because it has the most creepy and most emotional feeling. Being that emotionally direct — it’s not as hard for me as it used to be. It used to not feel natural to me at all, but as I grew up I realized, “I like it when other people do that, so why not open up a little?” It’s OK to express vulnerability, you know? That was not something foremost in my mind when this band started. Back then, it was more about being tough — it was such a façade. I admire people who are able to be so vulnerable at such a young age. I’m amazed when somebody like Conor [Oberst] can do it really well.

The other side of the coin is that when you go out there with guns blazing, crying about everything, “woe is me,” you become a bit like the boy who cried wolf. Unfortunately, that’s what I think of most really “expressive” younger songwriters.

So it's about a guy having a panic attack because he misses someone.

D'oh! Some of those

-Give a thought to the one that you know -And I always think about it

aren't in the lyrics sheet but they sounded close enough until the next correction.

this song is fucking amazing!!!!

Wow, this song is powerful. The way the music forms together, and the way they can make a full formed songs with nothing but a few voices and a repetitive piano track.

Woo, this song is beautiful.

this song reminds of the feelings i had after a breakup of a long relationship. I had a constant mix of feelings of anger, longing, anxiety, agony, love, despair... this song reminds of that. the dissonance of the chords is the perfect accompaniment to the lyrics. needless to say this song is really hard for me to listen to. it's a great song though!!

Hawkeye, sometimes when you end a long relationship the feelings are still present in your body. It's like a drug, an addiction. I like the idea of a panic attack occurring. That's what it feels like to me.

This song is marvelous. So sad, so emotional, so powerful.

For what it's worth, the graphic novel Watchmen features an advertisement for the perfume Nostalgia, with the slogan: "Oh, how the ghost of you lingers." It may have been a subconscious borrowing and doesn't seem related to the song, but it's a long turn of phrase to be entirely coincidental.

Interesting .. when I first heard this song, it instantly made me sad and like chorp I started thinking about "the one that got away". I just assumed it was a breakup song.

Then I looked at the lyrics on paper. And as time went by, I formed the opinion that this was about drug addiction. The bit about "would you settle the score" and the clinic references were only part of it. The other part was the music itself, which is really so masterful. The jolty piano rhythm, the "ooh oooh" vocals that just go right into the heart of you and give me the heebie jeebies ..

I've never been into drugs but can only imagine what withdrawal symptoms must feel like.

Now, several months later, I see that this is about addiction and withdrawal, and that he's likely comparing the experience of a past (or present) relationship to a bad addiction. So like a lot of great songs, the lyrics are layered and it's about both - or whatever the listener wants it to be about, to be more precise. At least, that's how I feel about it - certainly not an expert on Spoon lyrics, just my two cents.

I usually skip this song when I have the cd on because while I think it's the best one, I don't always want to hear it, if you know what I mean. Gotta be in the right mood for that one ..