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.
And we go a day, not believing god
The gray skies fell, we felt the pressure drop
And we were feeling down
Some eyes were looking down at us
The souls that made the call
The judge what when they spoke said, not at all
The words that came made not a sound
A mouth said, not a sound at all
What sheldon said, we wrote a book
And rearranged the size and forms to look like something understood
Like something we had seen before
And waiting pent, save, sad, and look
Up to the stars and counting all the suns and all the moons
How sad it was that we could not believe
And everyone who believes
And everyone who believes
And they said,
We all said hallelujah
We all said hallelujah
And everyone moves around with ease
And everyone who with ease around and then
We all said hallelujah
We all want answers anyway
Still we could not conceive the call
The midnight fell, we felt the measure fall
And we were feeling down
Some eyes were looking down at us
And waiting pent, save, sad, and look
Up to the stars and counting all the suns and all the moons
How sad it was that we could not believe
And everyone who believes
And everyone who believes
And they said,
We all said hallelujah
We all said hallelujah
And everyone moves around with ease
And everyone fell right to their knees and then,
We all said hallelujah
We all want answers anyway
We all want answers anyway
The gray skies fell, we felt the pressure drop
And we were feeling down
Some eyes were looking down at us
The souls that made the call
The judge what when they spoke said, not at all
The words that came made not a sound
A mouth said, not a sound at all
What sheldon said, we wrote a book
And rearranged the size and forms to look like something understood
Like something we had seen before
And waiting pent, save, sad, and look
Up to the stars and counting all the suns and all the moons
How sad it was that we could not believe
And everyone who believes
And everyone who believes
And they said,
We all said hallelujah
We all said hallelujah
And everyone moves around with ease
And everyone who with ease around and then
We all said hallelujah
We all want answers anyway
Still we could not conceive the call
The midnight fell, we felt the measure fall
And we were feeling down
Some eyes were looking down at us
And waiting pent, save, sad, and look
Up to the stars and counting all the suns and all the moons
How sad it was that we could not believe
And everyone who believes
And everyone who believes
And they said,
We all said hallelujah
We all said hallelujah
And everyone moves around with ease
And everyone fell right to their knees and then,
We all said hallelujah
We all want answers anyway
We all want answers anyway
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This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
im sorry to the folks here that think that this song is advocating having a religious view of life, but its not. i talked to brandon after a show in chicago il at lincoln hall and asked him specifically about this song, since it is my favorite song from this album. they were touring on the release of negotiations. he told me that while he was happy that the song was being interpreted in different ways that he wrote it from the point of view of "someone who wishes they could be religious but knows better". think of the work hes done with modest mouse, a staunchly atheist band. look at these lyrics in particular:
What surely said, "We wrote a book" And rearranged the signs and forms to look like something understood Like something we had seen before
these lyrics suggest that people wrote the bible and other holy texts in order to give themselves meaning rather than face an unknowable existence. this song is not in support of a religious view, but rather the lack thereof. open your eyes please.
@bombsmrh I got the sense it's about not being able to believe in religion and the simultaneous freedom and longing that causes. Looking in on those groups that can believe in god gives a nonbeliever some sense of personal displacement, sadness that we don't have such community.<br /> <br /> It's not strictly true that atheists feel this way. I think back to the self-reinforcing, brainwashy community I had as a kid, and I both miss the people and am so glad I escaped. I've found a new community among technologists, scientists, and engineers, for a while even adopted the idea that science and philosophy can be a direct substitute for religion. But, although I think we can embrace community outside, it's not quite the same, not as close-knit. And though science and philosophy have much wisdom to give us, believing that anything is infallible can be troublesome, so they can not provide the same kind of assurance as blind faith.<br /> <br /> But people are prone to blind faith everywhere, even in this new community. We want that assurance. But when people have the wrong ideas, they do the wrong things, regardless of where those ideas come from. I'm particularly concerned that science, despite recent failures (e.g. suggesting genital cutting is positive or suggesting fats are worse than sugars and that exercise can cure obesity) is increasingly given license to do whatever it wants in our world, because people don't understand that it can still go awry due to interpersonal politics, biases, or human shortcomings.<br /> <br /> In the end, I'm left feeling like I'm hurling through space, constantly in existential crisis, secure in nothing and always grasping for something I can never reach. This song well-characterizes the sort of empty, ambivalent feeling a true skeptic carries with him everywhere.