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"
I whisper the tongue like an old friend
I cherish my time, here - alone
I wait in the eyes of the passing night
To help me laugh brushfires again
By the swallow's sleeve, I'm a new hand
Cutting out the shapes that burn me
I can touch the mouths of these child gods
And these true minds that hurt man
And the will will go up
To the crashing sails
And the crushing wails of my old pen
This wind screams while I'm asleep
And dreams that these white eyes will smile again
And the will will go up
To the crashing sails
And the crushing wails of my old pen
This wind screams while I'm asleep
And dreams that these white eyes will smile again
I take to the road like an old man
I cherish my time here alone
I process the lines of the passing lights
Losing myself, I change my plans
By the western walls I'm a cursed hand
By the eastern seas I'm hardly wrong
I can swing myself down from these trees
When I crave a glimpse of weary sands
I whisper the tongue like an old friend
I cherish my time here alone
I swing myself down from these trees
To help me laugh brushfires again
I cherish my time, here - alone
I wait in the eyes of the passing night
To help me laugh brushfires again
By the swallow's sleeve, I'm a new hand
Cutting out the shapes that burn me
I can touch the mouths of these child gods
And these true minds that hurt man
And the will will go up
To the crashing sails
And the crushing wails of my old pen
This wind screams while I'm asleep
And dreams that these white eyes will smile again
And the will will go up
To the crashing sails
And the crushing wails of my old pen
This wind screams while I'm asleep
And dreams that these white eyes will smile again
I take to the road like an old man
I cherish my time here alone
I process the lines of the passing lights
Losing myself, I change my plans
By the western walls I'm a cursed hand
By the eastern seas I'm hardly wrong
I can swing myself down from these trees
When I crave a glimpse of weary sands
I whisper the tongue like an old friend
I cherish my time here alone
I swing myself down from these trees
To help me laugh brushfires again
Lyrics submitted by 2008_forever
Old Friend Lyrics as written by Samuel Thompson Herring John Gerrit Welmers
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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oh, no. especially following a song called Pangea, and this one focusing on Pan, it seems to be about escaping the lack of the modern world, externally embodied by the death of nature (my old pan), internally by the loss of youth, irrationality, passion ('i can touch the mouths of these child gods/and these true minds that hurt man').
homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Pan.html
long story short, pan is the god of wild nature. he chased his love until she turned into the reeds, and he was left with only the sound of the wind blowing through the marsh. he made a pipe out of the reeds and wind is kind of the embodiment of his raging wild passion.
"and the will will go up to the crashing sails and the crushing wails of my old pan this wind screams while i'm asleep and dreams that these white eyes will smile again"
the death of pan was announced after a voyage when the sea turned calm, christianity was discovered ('i'm a cursed hand'), reason overtook madness ('western walls')....it's a song mourning the taming of nature, the death of the ('weary sands' of) the past. he's retreating into the forest and going wild again.
it's about somebody you haven't seen in a long time.
it's about somebody you haven't seen in a long time.
I have no idea what this is about. Any help?
It seems pretty obviously about divorce. "Taken out with the trash," "take the ring," "broken dreams"....it's clearly about a breakup, and the repeated ring references support it being about marriage. I think Future Islands' lyrics are somewhat poetically encoded but they're never nonsense.
Seems like these lyrics got overwritten with Flicker & Flutter. They used to be correct.
i whisper the tongue like an old friend i cherish my time here alone i wait in the eyes of the passing nights, to help me laugh brushfires again by the swallows sleeve, i'm a new hand cutting out the shapes that burn me i can touch the mouths of these child gods and these true minds that hurt man
and the will will go up to the crashing sails and the crushing wails of my old pan this wind screams while i'm asleep and dreams that these white eyes will smile again
and the will will go up to the crashing sails and the crushing wails of my old pan this wind screams while i'm asleep and dreams that these white eyes will smile again
i take to the road like an old man i cherish my time here alone i process the lines of the passing lights losing myself, i change my plans
by the western walls, i'm a cursed hand by the eastern seas, i'm hardly wrong i can swing myself down from these trees when i crave a glimpse of weary sands
i whisper the tongue like an old friend i cherish my time here alone i swing myself down from these trees to help me laugh brushfires again
come on man, it's Future Islands- it probably doesn't mean much of anything.
wonderful tune nonetheless
all their lyrics have meanings dude, you need to think harder