In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Tell me the story of the boy who lived in hell
Trapped in silence
No-one there to keep him sane
Clandestine pain
Total absence
Coming back from the dead
Into a world of sorrow
Making no sense
Hear the voices in his head, see through his eyes
pass through the gate of the banished citadel
No turning backwards
Pray for mercy, to be free, an unchained soul
Disembodied
When are you coming home?
You've been away too long
Too far you've wandered
Through the shadows and the dark depths of your mind
I'm still breathing , my heart's still beating
I'm still breathing , my heart's still beating
I'm still breathing , my heart's still beating
I'm still breathing , my heart's still beating
Beneath the arches of a cold and distant sky
Held in rapture
Infinite number , I am left to wonder why
Forever after
Through the darkest days of doubt
Your soul denied these warnings
Took no notice
Disbelieving with the end in clearest sight
I'm still breathing , my heart's still beating
I'm still breathing , my heart's still beating
Trapped in silence
No-one there to keep him sane
Clandestine pain
Total absence
Coming back from the dead
Into a world of sorrow
Making no sense
Hear the voices in his head, see through his eyes
pass through the gate of the banished citadel
No turning backwards
Pray for mercy, to be free, an unchained soul
Disembodied
When are you coming home?
You've been away too long
Too far you've wandered
Through the shadows and the dark depths of your mind
I'm still breathing , my heart's still beating
I'm still breathing , my heart's still beating
I'm still breathing , my heart's still beating
I'm still breathing , my heart's still beating
Beneath the arches of a cold and distant sky
Held in rapture
Infinite number , I am left to wonder why
Forever after
Through the darkest days of doubt
Your soul denied these warnings
Took no notice
Disbelieving with the end in clearest sight
I'm still breathing , my heart's still beating
I'm still breathing , my heart's still beating
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not a single comment? this songs epic. the band switched the title to twilight of the innocents at the last minute - before that it was called the boy who lived in hell, they should have left it as that i think.
theyre using it as the last song they do on their tours and i cannot wait to see em do it in norwich - its not the greatest song in the world but its still ok aint it?
OK??? It's fucking amazing. Personally I think it's one of the greatest things Ash have ever written.
Breathtaking live as well, wow.
I'll second that, this song is amazing live, it loses something on the album. Still fantastic lyrically though, and easily my fave on the album.
As I see it, it's about a person who has been "living in hell" his whole life, unnoticed and tortured and eventually looking for the easy way out... "the banished citadel" through suicide. And even then nobody notices his despair... "your soul denied these warnings, took no notice, disbelieving".
And all this person wants is for someone to notice they exist, hence the "I'm still breathing, my heart's still beating..." repeat. At the very end of the song Tim starts chanting "Incoming, incoming..." and I think this is to symbolize that the guy has done it, killed himself, and is "incoming" to heaven or hell or whatever afterlife you choose to believe in.
Bits of it seem to be a bit religious, I imagine "When are you coming home? You've been away too long, too far you've wandered" to be God speaking to him, saying it's okay to give up, to come back to him.
And then you have the one odd line, the "I am left to wonder why, forever after". That maybe everybody has a person who will miss them and wonder, that no man is an island, no matter what they think.
It's a beautiful, tragic song. I adore it.