Hard Sun (Indio cover)

This is an excerpt from an interview with Gordon Peterson a.k.a Indio

Where does the environmental awareness come from?

My grandfather had a farm in Northern Ontario where I picked tobacco every summer from the time I was 15, which is even worse that picking cotton because you get covered with this sticky brown stuff. But, when you're out on the land every day laboring, you can't help but develop a respect and a love for it.

Is that what's behind "Hard Sun"?

That's a very interesting song, because some people don't quite get it. It's written in the guise of a relationship between a man and a woman. The woman represents Mother Earth and she's slipping away from him -- and it's about how one person can completely throw off the whole balance. Yet, there are lots of people who just don't get the metaphor.

For me this song is a spiritual song about the meaning and the decision you take in life. A life in compliance with society's ideals (self confidence and happiness through money, consumption and status) vs. a life according to your own personal goals and values. The sun is your inner voice, which guides you in order to become who you really want to be.

When I walk beside her I am the better man when i look to leave her I always stagger back again

When you're life is aligned with your feelings, your real desire and guided by your inner voice, your "heart" or gut, you will be happy. You can try to silence the voice but it will always be there and come up in certain moments, questioning if you're really doing what you want to do.

Once I built an ivory tower so I could worship from above when I climb down to be set free she took me in again

The ivory tower is a life or a career which might pay a lot or guarantees you a great status in society..the tower was built to worship from above, e.g. power or money to find meaning in life and to silence the voice. When you climb down the tower, setting yourself free of your plain, meaningless everyday life, you feel that you're back on the right track.

There’s a big a big hard sun beating on the big people in the big hard world

The big people are ruthless or maybe even mindless people with lots of power and money and the big hard world is today's society (kind of like the matrix, where everyone tries to build his ivory tower) telling everyone how to live their life in order to become happy. If you live your life by the rules of the big hard world, your inner voice will constantly remember you that you did not suceed in this or that, so you're a loser.

When she comes to greet me she is mercy at my feet I see her inner charm she just throws it back at me

But when you life accoring to your own rules, values and goals everything becomes easy as you don't care any more about the big people in the big hard world.

Once I dug an early grave to find a better land she just smiled and laughed at me and took her rules back again

Maybe you were thinking about suicide because life has no meaning, but then, the inner voice comes back reminding you that this is not your path, but only the path others have chosen for you.

Once I stood to lose her and I saw what i had done bowed down and threw away the hours of her garden and her sun

So I tried to want her I turned to see her weep 40 days and 40 nights and its still coming down on me

The last two paragraphs describe the feeling when he tried to get back into the "matrix" but then realized what he has done and that he was on the wrong path.

The song “Hard Sun” was sent to me as a gift... For me personally, a new acquaintance reached out to me for help during a desperate time in his life. I admit that I hesitated for a minute to get involved, because it's a delicate dance to help someone who might be suicidal...a serious responsibility and commitment to get involved, you know? Because what if they chose to leave this world anyway, you could be left with guilt and loss... I was apprehensive, but I listened to my intuition, took a deep breath, and tried to help him…I didn’t give up on him. As the months have passed, we have helped each other really....we have become the best of friends and he seems to be doing better. I don’t know what the future holds for him, but I will always cherish our friendship. My friend recently sent me the song “Hard Sun” (without me knowing anything about the song’s connection to the movie “Into The Wild”). He only hinted that I was the woman who was “comfort at his side”. As I listened to it, he made me realize that he felt I was his “hard sun” in the best sense…like a bright light of hope and help and unconditional love like the Sun was to Mother Earth. I just cried and cried listening to it. I will always interpret it that way…

I believe it's about nature. You think you're controlling it somehow, yet it surrounds you and grows back. You fell helpless when you're alone, yet it is it that created and raised humankind for centuries and centuries. Nature is both charming and terrible and I believe this song is about that. There is something very special about nature for you cannot "have" it nor can it have you. The sun is beating on the big, rich, "important" people who do not feel one with the nature anymore.

I agree with Abrupto, I think this song is about nature. I think the reference to "her" is mother nature. I believe the song represents a relationship between everyone and nature, and how its a marriage of sorts when you're alive.

From What I gather after seeing the movie Into the Wild, this song relates to the man vs. nature struggle of Christopher McCandless. His search for a better land (Alaska) his search to rid himself of people and how the Earth took him sadly away. His crossing of the river and inability to get back and his eventual death is a sad but heroic story of this true life story. Sleep well Christopher you touched my lifesir. It is a big hard Sun in a Big hard World. And beautifully written.

this is about human desire to find what makes you happy and having the drive and will power to achieve it.

"when I walk beside her, I am the better man. when I go to leave her, I always stagger back again" meaning when he has that drive for success he is the better man for it and there is always a portion of that drive in him that he never fully loses.

" there's a big a big hard sun beaten on the big people in the big hard world" this is a metaphor that you cannot escape from life on this earth, that everyone alive has struggles

"when she comes to greet me she is mercy at my feet" is saying that his desire for happiness is only a benefit to him and will never do him harm or wrongdoing and he is the only one that can benefit from it.

"once I sought an early grave to find a better land she just smiled and laughed at me and took her blues back again" refers to a dark time when he was thinking of suicide but his will to live took over and took the bad feelings away

"when I go to cross that river she is comfort by my side when I try to understand she just opens up her hands" this is saying that this is what gets him through tough times and why he desires to change for the better, and although he doesn't fully understand where its coming from, its always with him to help him

"once I stood to lose her when I saw what I had done bound down and flew away the hours of her garden and her sun" is saying he almost had given up on himself at time and lost all hope and had to work twice as hard to be a good person and make the right decisions

"so I tried to warn her i'll turn to see her weep 40 days and 40 nights and it's still coming down on me" ignoring your inner good and making a decision that you know is wrong and hurtful can have severe consequences and the guilt can last a very long time

To me this song is about a guy who leads a hard life of bad choices. But he has someone who always accepts him and helps him through it.

One time he does something unknowingly to hurt her, and before he can fix it, the damage is done and there is nothing he can do.

I think that its about life in general, to sort of agree with sixofspades, that life itself is hard, we live in a big world with a big hard sun, but if we have someone to walk with us, someone who cares and understands us, its that much easier

This is a song about truth.

when I walk beside her i am the better man

When he accepts no lies and lives life by his own personal truth it makes him a better man.

when I look to leave her I always stagger back again

Lies can never last for long once you are aware of the truth even if someone tries to deceive you.

once I built an ivory tower so I could worship from above

The ivory tower is a temple or a church. It is built in honour of the truth but it is not necessary and becomes a trap that imprisons him in lies.

and when I climbed down to be set free she took me in again

He must climb down from the temple and the truth will reveal itself once again and take him in.

there's a big a big hard sun beaten on the big people in the big hard world

The chorus is the description of truth - LIGHT. It is within us. It helps us in the big hard worldwhen we become big people.

when she comes to greet me she is mercy at my feet

Mercy (meaning):1 a kind or forgiving attitude towards sb that you have power to harm or right to punish; 2 an event or a situation to be grateful for, usually because it stops something unpleasant.

Truth has power. it can destroy us if we betray it. but if it comes to greet us it usually stops something unpleasant if we accept it

when I see her pin her charm she just throws it back at me

The charm of the truth is in it's mercy and although it can appear pinned sometimes and not moving toward us, it throws itself or her mercy back at our feet. It never leaves us no matter how hard things might seem. Truth can never be fully stopped. If we see it that way it is a lie, an illusion and we suffer because of it.

once I sought an early grave to find a better land

He was considering suicide

she just smiled and laughed at me and took her blues back again

But truth smiled at him and took the blues away. Her blues can mean that maybe the truth was the unbearable burden that made him consider suicide.

when I go to cross that river she is comfort by my side

Truth gives us comfort during the hardships in life and helps us to push on through.

when I try to understand she just opens up her hands

If we only try to understand the truth it will reveal it's secrets to us.

once I stood to lose her when I saw what I had done

This is about forgiveness. He did something that made him feel like he was betraying the truth.

bound down and flew away the hours of her garden and her sun

He did things not guided by truth but lies and wasted time. That concealed the beauty of the truth which is represented by the garden and her sun.

so I tried to warn her i'll turn to see her weep

So he did some severe damage to the truth (or so he believes) and tried to correct it but too late.

40 days and 40 nights and it's still coming down on me

After a very long time it is still weeping and he's feeling the consequences

This is one of my favorite songs ever. It took me a long time to figure out exactly what it was about. All the previous commenters could also be correct in their interpretation, but... something just didn't fit for me.

Anyway this is what it means to me. And the music sounds so epic or anthemic, it really backs up all the emotion in the lyrics.

Amazing song!