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No Longer There Lyrics
And though you’d like to hear a song
That sings everything’s alright
The temperature is warm
The fire horses sleep
So gently comes the night
Now close your eyes and stare
The ground they’re on is bare
But once it was as deep
And wild as giants' dreams
It’s no longer there
And all of our desires
Could mirror skies with flames
And smoke out heaven’s halls
Who was that you called?
They're no longer there
Here it goes again
Here it goes again
Here it goes again
What would you leave behind when all your fields are dead?
When your territories are dried out and your cities drowned and swept?
What would you leave behind when those who bear your name are born in that place that you wrecked?
What would you leave behind when you're no longer there?
Would you sail to distant shores
And hide within the haze?
Softly close your doors
Pretend the world was saved
And wait for heaven’s call
Or would you turn and face the sea
And calm decide you care?
There’s chance but if you dare
And swift as honour's steeds
Before it’s no longer there
Here it goes again
Here it goes agaaain
Here it goes aga-ain!
What would you leave behind when all your fields are dead?
When your territories are dried out and your cities drowned and swept?
What would you leave behind when those who bear your name are born in that place that you wrecked?
What would you leave behind when you're no longer there?
To deny or to despair
They're really just the same
And everything between
It means we have to change
Cos when a one forgets
Their world begins to fade
And all the shapes and shades
That made their colours see
Well it suddenly turned grey
Then they're no longer there
That sings everything’s alright
The temperature is warm
The fire horses sleep
So gently comes the night
Now close your eyes and stare
The ground they’re on is bare
But once it was as deep
And wild as giants' dreams
It’s no longer there
And all of our desires
Could mirror skies with flames
And smoke out heaven’s halls
Who was that you called?
They're no longer there
Here it goes again
Here it goes again
When your territories are dried out and your cities drowned and swept?
What would you leave behind when those who bear your name are born in that place that you wrecked?
What would you leave behind when you're no longer there?
And hide within the haze?
Softly close your doors
Pretend the world was saved
And wait for heaven’s call
Or would you turn and face the sea
And calm decide you care?
There’s chance but if you dare
And swift as honour's steeds
Before it’s no longer there
Here it goes agaaain
Here it goes aga-ain!
When your territories are dried out and your cities drowned and swept?
What would you leave behind when those who bear your name are born in that place that you wrecked?
What would you leave behind when you're no longer there?
They're really just the same
And everything between
It means we have to change
Cos when a one forgets
Their world begins to fade
And all the shapes and shades
That made their colours see
Well it suddenly turned grey
Then they're no longer there
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This song hasnt been released yet but i have listened to it so many times on TCE's myspace. its awesome. its like poetry. apparently its about climate change and how we have to do something about it before its too later. :)
this song is so beautiful, ive always though they were both awesome lyricists but this is almost beyond them. like poetry, yeah! its cool how theyre completely retaining their classic style when theyre putting across such a true message, and managing to make it sound so lovely. mind you, TCE could make anything sound lovely.
This song is in a class of it's own I love it. It's so true. Here it goes again? Everyone saying something has to change but then slowly returning back to the monotonous everyday destroying the world? But whatever, it sounds right.
I was at a cat empire concert recently and they said it was written about climate change and how we all can make a difference. The lyrics are golden...especially the bit about what will you do when the crises happen.
Aww i love it.
It almost sounds as if its about suicide, i know its abit of a dark conclusion to jump to but it could e, well to me it is anyway, though proabbly not written about that :]
Yes rachy_cool is right, it is about global warming and what could/will happen if we don't do anything. Brilliant song, it has a very solemn feel to it.
ok im might be a bit high, but i think this song is about 2012, and is predicting great interplanetary disaster will cause earth to be nearly, or totally destroyed. I heard on the news that some where in the E.U. they are making huge under ground seed banks with their own air supplies and food and stuff."Hiding in the hills" The earths temperature could also drastically heat up to higher tempreture caused by, something like a Solar storms hitting the earth and causing violent reactions within the earths tectonic plates and atmosphere, and perhaps gvt weather modification plans? The very first line says very obviously says its not a happy song, "And though you'd like to hear a song That sings everything's alright" these guys just saying the straight skinny. so obvious that some of us cant see it cos...i dunno. The chorus could be talking about how perhaps the earths few elites will flee the planet and leave the majority of the population to fend for them selves... also i think there's a bit about weather modification tatics with chemtrails and stuff, i know it might sound crazy but the gvt could be controlling the weather for their own unjustified gains, "What would you leave behind when all your fields are dead? When your territories are dried out and your cities drowned and swept?" and that 'here it goes again' part kinda makes it sound like its some kinda cycle that the earth has gonna a few times before? thats where it gets intune with the 2012 stuff and ancient civilizations saying the earth has been destroyed many times before... and the last the lines "to deny or despair They're really just the same ..." sounds like some Buddhist philosophy or something... but then i again i maybe totally stoned outta my skull and just writing total utter nonsense??? 42 ???
It could be a simple as climate change, But I like to think it runs deeper.
It could be a simple as climate change, But I like to think it runs deeper.
Consider the idea of a more generalized legacy, a more personalized message of perpetuity. The idea that we are forever, dispite our meager finite intentions, that our induviduality is merely a vice and life persists. We can strive for the ideals of our own life, or we can become ideals for the future, or we can do both, but not without courage and acceptance of our own mortalities and moral obligations.
Consider the idea of a more generalized legacy, a more personalized message of perpetuity. The idea that we are forever, dispite our meager finite intentions, that our induviduality is merely a vice and life persists. We can strive for the ideals of our own life, or we can become ideals for the future, or we can do both, but not without courage and acceptance of our own mortalities and moral obligations.
So easy is it to monger the good life and become captive to...
So easy is it to monger the good life and become captive to its soft distractions while harshness and desolation cast it's shadows across vast expanses of the world where we fail to shine our light for lack of interest and an overabundance of reward stimuli available for the repeted behavior of avoidance.
We are trained to behave, and we repeat behaviours that are perceived as rewarding to ourselves while we exist. "here it goes again, here it goes again, here it goes again"
Now, this song is also misrepresented lyrically. I think the line oft quoted "swift as honor steeds" is actually "swift as honest deeds" But I could be mistaken.
"To deny or to despair is really just the same" begs to consider HD Thoreaus quote: "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation"
We are avoidant creatures, ever deluding ourselves, projecting our will upon reality to reaffirm the passivity of our awareness of doing just that. We are wracked with guilt for desires and intentions we do not entertain, and we reassign our system of morality to accept ourselves from the ones we do. Often we devote our personal divine focus on a deity and hele to their power like children, calling for their forgiveness, and then perceiving ourselves failed in their mighty eye, we lose our perception of connection and feel ourselves forsaken. Consider the passage "all of our desires would mirror the skies with flames and smoke out heavens halls, who was that you called? there no longer there"
This is common enough to be the legacy of humanity, if we were to cease existance, and future sentience were to gleam our essence from the evidance in our archetecture, literature, music, bones, and environmental impact. I believe an unbiased understanding would reflect a very neurotic, ever-self-limiting society of perpetual children, hanging tenaciously onto captivity in a paradoxical quest for personal freedom, failing to acheive empathy with the collective, and therefore never reaching it's ultimate potential. That may be what you leave behind when your no longer there.
I have no desire to leave a name to remember, merely a legacy to persist in the benefit of the world. But what could it be? and how?
This type of thinking makes a song like this mean very personal and spiritual things in contrast to conclusions one might make that tie into popular and timely media topics. I'm not saying they aren't valid, but rather, put into a quality of disconnection from our own senses of personal impact and identity. They become far away, like across the sea, while we hide within the haze, softly close our door, pretend the world was saved, and wait for heavens call. The impossable premise of virtue in the face of outrageous obstical stands a idol upon an epoch, and we, it's denizens and stewards, similtaneosly it's resourse and slaves, must chose to risk it all against the sea to have a better life, or to perceive the same life better. That is the horizon, for we are mortal. When we become mortal in our own eyes, we become disposable. so what then? What WOULD you leave behind, when your no longer there?
Overall, I get the impression that it's asking, What is your legacy? When everything that you've worked to build throughout your life is gone, When all your corporations and businesses have fallen, and your crops and fields burned, what have you contributed to society?
More specifically, it's saying that even though you want to be told that everything is alright, and that you've done so much for the world, you need to ask yourself, what have I really left behind?