Too Many Birds

this song is gorgeous.

The song is about too many birds sitting on one tree (which of course is a metaphor for too many people in one place fighting for the same thing). In the end there is no place for the one black bird and he has to go and sleep on a stone, which gives him no real rest. Each day he keeps return to the tree but only finds it full and has to return to the stone.

I'm not sure what the last bit means but I think "If you could only stop your heart beat for one heart beat. " is describing the birds desire to rest, he wishing that his heart could rest just for an instant.

two things; the last line, as it unfolds, is about the heart skipping a beat maybe, like when you fall in love - i read that in a review.

given time, i think the song is about thoughts crowding the mind, similar to 'all thoughts...' on the same record, and that the stopping of the heartbeat is about escaping thought - the whole record talks to me of somebody stuck between existential emptiness and heartbreak at the beauty of nature and life.

It seems as something is happening, ....THEN one more bird ....one last black bird.... What is the difference for this last black bird?

if you could only stop your heart beat - maybe he needs a rest from his feelings?

The birds are thoughts. Pretty sure this is a song about anxiety, perhaps in the form of ocd.

The ending sounds: If you could die for love?

I think is about trying to return to a feeling that you knew and realize that it doesn´t exist anymore, and wanting to avoid the pain by stopping the heart beat.

This song is about finding out his girl cheated on him . Many cultures refer to male parts as birds . Then there was another bird in the tree , then there was the last bird , the bird that broke him and he had to fly away , leave , and sleep on stone , cause without her love everything was cold and hard , and that wasn't the last place he found rest . In his pain he wanted to stop his heartbeat , to die , to escape the pain , and rest . At least this is how I see the song play out in my mind .

This is a poetic piece that uses an economy of words. It is plaintive and beautiful. “Too many birds in one tree” paints a picture of seeking to belong, but of always being on the margins. It speaks of being the outsider, one for whom no one is willing to be hospitable. The birds seem to share an alikeness, yet the one black bird cannot find home, security or acceptance with the others. And thus, the unwelcome one goes through great lengths to attempt to return to some place of peace, the last place they knew rest. Alas, the search is futile (“you fly all night to sleep on stone”). This lost creature can neither find peace it once knew nor enjoy a peace where they are. The song ends in a deliberate plea, a cry of appeal to the human condition. If we could only cease to be selfish and strive to be a human collective, seeing ourselves in others, unified, sharing in suffering, and responsible to one another. A collective heartbeat (“if you could not stop your heartbeat for one heartbeat”). Having a sense of the common good would result in no bird ever being turned away from the tree where it has come to for peace and community.

i really like the ending, don't really understand it though :S