I read in the paper today
It's been a record year for rainfall
And you were leaning against the bathroom wall
In your lonely dress
Was your only dress
Stand accusing across
I've got a temper set for tender
And you were shrugging it off like a feather
Saying, "Oh, would you look at this weather?"
What's the use of all of this?
It's to remember you in the entire
Because I'm watching it slip away
And in the annals of the Empire
Did it look this gray?
Before the fall
Before the fall
So rake your thumbnail across
The stretch of the patina
Revealing a Proserpina
In a low recline
In a steep decline
What's the use of all of this?
It's to remember you in the entire
Because I'm watching it slip away
And in the annals of the Empire
Did it look this gray?
Does it look so gray?
Does it always look so gray?
Before the fall
Before the fall
It's been a record year for rainfall
And you were leaning against the bathroom wall
In your lonely dress
Was your only dress
Stand accusing across
I've got a temper set for tender
And you were shrugging it off like a feather
Saying, "Oh, would you look at this weather?"
What's the use of all of this?
It's to remember you in the entire
Because I'm watching it slip away
And in the annals of the Empire
Did it look this gray?
Before the fall
Before the fall
So rake your thumbnail across
The stretch of the patina
Revealing a Proserpina
In a low recline
In a steep decline
What's the use of all of this?
It's to remember you in the entire
Because I'm watching it slip away
And in the annals of the Empire
Did it look this gray?
Does it look so gray?
Does it always look so gray?
Before the fall
Before the fall
Lyrics submitted by OhNo789
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
This song tells the story about a girl and her boyfriend. Things in their relationship haven't been going very well, and their love for one another is beginning to fail. Colin (the lyricist) equates this girl to Proserpina who knows that it is time for this to end, and to go back to being single (the underworld). This girl is okay with this, but the guy isn't because all that he can see is the fall of something that was so very happy (the spring and summer). He is angry at her because she seems okay with the fact that it is time to go, and shrugs off everything with a simple "oh, would you look at this weather."
This girl (Proserpina) decides to look at all of the good times that they had, and to not be sad about an ending. Things had been so prosperous, after all it had been "a record year for rainfall." In order to answer her boyfriends questions she simply cleans off the surface of their relationship (the patina) to show him, and to tell him that she is as Proserpina, and it is simply time to go. He laments the fact that she has to leave, and wonders to himself what everything was for if it was always fated to end as spring and summer lead to fall and winter, and he wonders why it looked like everything was going to be so happy just before the end. (Like it was going to rain, and be prosperous like in the spring.)
This song is, basically, about how all things were meant to end, and how we should pay attention to the good things that happened and not the bad.
In Colin's own words he was comparing the crumbling of civilizations to the crumbling of relationships.
youtube.com/…
"...to remember you in the entire/because I'm watching it slip away" - pretty obvious
"And you were shrugging it off like a feather/Saying, "Oh, would you look at this weather?" - people with dementia/Alzheimer's sometimes lose track of the thread of a conversation or don't understand what is going on.
"In a low recline/In a steep decline" - person is in a hospital bed, reclining, but their health is declining fast
Who knows, maybe there's a connection, but this comes to mind when I listen to the song frequently.
the end.
suggesting an accusation that forced a divide in between to people. an argument that caused "the fall"
"so rake your thumbnail across the stretch of the patina revealing a proserpina in a low recline in a steep decline"
scrub away the outside shell and reveal a goddess dwindling
"it looks so grey"
the spark in the relationship is gone.
a sad and beautiful song. I wish i could write lyrics in this fashion.
My brain is strange.