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.
Buildings tumble, people crumble, nothing seems to last.
Once you held your head until those feelings passed.
And I tried to call you. I tried to stall you. I guess you got there first:
to that place where anger takes whatever hurts.
Well what if one day everything you used to think you knew
turned around and turned the doorknob and just walked right out without you?
Could you stand to just start over? Would it really be so bad?
I asked my mom, she told me, "go and ask your dad."
Because like the cure for cancer, if there's an answer, no one lets it out
because the cost of treatment makes the world go around.
And it's like all these fears through all these years were rings inside a tree
and it you were cut open, they'd be there to see.
Well I see inside you're insisting that nobody really cares.
Well, fuck that. Tell yourself you're beautiful and meet me on the stairs.
We've got a million different feelings that we need to hammer out
so by the morning we'll have walked beyond the shadow of a doubt
and into the sun and then back into the shade again.
The leaves are on the branches and the cars that pass us can't see in to find us.
"Me and someone else" don't make an "us."
So start over if you must,
but I refuse to let it end this way.
Once you held your head until those feelings passed.
And I tried to call you. I tried to stall you. I guess you got there first:
to that place where anger takes whatever hurts.
Well what if one day everything you used to think you knew
turned around and turned the doorknob and just walked right out without you?
Could you stand to just start over? Would it really be so bad?
I asked my mom, she told me, "go and ask your dad."
Because like the cure for cancer, if there's an answer, no one lets it out
because the cost of treatment makes the world go around.
And it's like all these fears through all these years were rings inside a tree
and it you were cut open, they'd be there to see.
Well I see inside you're insisting that nobody really cares.
Well, fuck that. Tell yourself you're beautiful and meet me on the stairs.
We've got a million different feelings that we need to hammer out
so by the morning we'll have walked beyond the shadow of a doubt
and into the sun and then back into the shade again.
The leaves are on the branches and the cars that pass us can't see in to find us.
"Me and someone else" don't make an "us."
So start over if you must,
but I refuse to let it end this way.
Lyrics submitted by DakotaFloyd
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