I Feel Weird

Jack's sister died and then his cousin was killed Iraq shortly after--"Then the planes hit the towers Then she died, then he died" His cousin would not have been in Iraq if not for 9/11.

The part about the girl he's mourning though she's still alive is a reference to getting over ScarJo, I think, and the girl who has not yet been "crushed by the world" would, in my opinion, be his way of saying that his new relationship doesn't have the strain on it that the one with ScarJo probably would have, what with her being a celebrity and all.

Saw them at Recher in Towson, MD on Sunday...fantastic live show, as usual.

i feel like he's trying to say at least three things with this song. the first time i listened to it i instantly thought it was about 9/11 and it obviously is, but he also uses that as a metaphor for something else completely. jack dated scarlett all through high school, or so he says, until 2002. they were 18 years old at the time of the break up, i think. and probably were still together during the 9/11

"a fire burns and it is mine" - he is angry/upset/possibly lost after what happened

but five years he spent mourning over the girl and why? because she was still alive and it didn't make sense. when they broke up i figure it all added up to his loss, making it that much worse and making him that much more bitter and vulnerable. it was probably easier to blame her for literally everything than actually paying attention to what he was doing to himself "You take the years, you keep it all" - basically those years of his life were lost because he never quite moved on and he was literally fucked up in more ways than one. But now he's finally letting it all go:

"And I got this girl, not yet crushed by the world I'll count the freckles on her face one, two, three hundred times a day"

he dated alia shawkat, and she has so many freaking freckles that it's crazy. so i do believe this might have been about her. she was 18 when they began dating, and she obviously sees things differently than he does now, and she might even see things and act differently than the other girl did, despite her young age and despite the fact that she's also in contact with fame. although the whole NOT YET CRUSHED BY THE WORLD makes me believe he can't help but think that eventually she'll follow the same path as the girl before.

"So deep inside me, hot in this frozen cave Her fire burns, her fire burns, her fire burns and it is brave"

he was afraid of falling in love again, of giving all of himself and trusting someone else. but her love burns and it's brave, it probably means she's helping him break down his walls, she's bringing light and fire to his 'frozen cave'. she's giving him hope that everything will be just fine. you can see it very clearly when he mentions how everything was alive when he was her age(18) but when the plane hit the towers a fire was burning million up in the sky, he let it all go. he's not as brave as she is and he could easily do it all over again.

then it shows he's accepting the fact that things can and have changed, and now there's a new fire burning in the sky and it's all her and all for her, this new girl. the one who gave him love again, who made him come alive.

SORRY this is so long.

the songs about how jack is finally getting over his relationship with scarlett johansson after five years of grieving over it which is why this cd sounds much less depressing then his earlier cd (which is sick by the way)

its definitely about getting over that relationship, but i think leaving it at that is a little too focused. its about coming out on the other side of a really dark time to find something better than what you thought you lost. about letting go of what you've been carrying with you and embracing what it is that you have, not what you lost. I think this song is something really special, because it really spells out the pieces that have framed this album (and their last album). and to see jack play it, its just so cathartic.

hmm, i don't know much about jack's personal life, but when i first heard this i assumed it related to 9/11, with the obvious implications. maybe you're right, and he's just using that more metaphorically? but the theme of death is definitely apparent, with how he says '6 feet in the ground' and 'a million miles in the sky', like heaven or whatever.

of course, when you break up with someone, it can feel like someone in your life has died, and a part of you died with them. so... i don't know, i guess.

i saw them play for the second time just the other night..... so incredible. and jack's so sweet.

Yeah, I thought of 9/11 as well, but I didn't get that feeling from any other song on the CD, so that doesn't seem to fit.

What I read somewhere is that, like omgniki said, his sister died in 911 and his cousin died in the war. Also, that his girl scarlett left him because he just couldn't get over his depression and it was holding her back and whatnot...I don't know shes a bia and this is a great song.