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.
Starling you were right I am the jealous kind
Whoever would have guessed
Starling now I am shut out and confined
Even within my nest
What, what does it take to make it through another day
If a feather lined with his words becomes a blade
Starling when he screams he screams in black and white
Just like the magpie
Shattered night then I woke
Not to a lonely lark but to a raven's cry
If a feather lined with his words becomes a blade
Then what, what will it take to make it through another day
So when they play, play the song
Sing along
It may be your turn to shine
If you know the lines
Hey what's that you say
"You can find, find him online
Most of the time these days"
"Is that right," I say.
You were right Starling
Whoever would have guessed
Starling now I am shut out and confined
Even within my nest
What, what does it take to make it through another day
If a feather lined with his words becomes a blade
Starling when he screams he screams in black and white
Just like the magpie
Shattered night then I woke
Not to a lonely lark but to a raven's cry
If a feather lined with his words becomes a blade
Then what, what will it take to make it through another day
So when they play, play the song
Sing along
It may be your turn to shine
If you know the lines
Hey what's that you say
"You can find, find him online
Most of the time these days"
"Is that right," I say.
You were right Starling
Lyrics submitted by stentorian
Starling Lyrics as written by Tori Ellen Amos
Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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"
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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,
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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.
What, no comment junior?
I'm going to take a stab at this and say that this is a song about being jealous of your offspring when it comes to your mate. (example: a wife living seperate from her family being jealous of a daughter when it comes to spending more time with the husband or father)
Your offspring may feel this jealousy immediatly, and may even call you out on it. You deny it, but then you realize perhaps they are right. When you ask them what they are doing all day long they respond, "Well, you he's online most of the time these days"...."Is that right?" I say.
Tori seems to imply in few places (Digital Ghost) how Mark is always online on the computer. I'm thinking this song was written while Tash was living in England with Mark and Tori was "shut out and confined even within her nest" or, at her Florida home.
Birds symbolism!
"If a feather lined with his word becomes a blade" to me means, feathers can just fall out or off and they seem harmless. They seem like soft, insignifigant nothings, however, if they are lined with a meaning and you see that meaning, it can become as hurtful as a blade.
The bridge to this song is great, I think. Most people hate it, however, it is necessary to show the sudden optomism or sarcasm of optomism...then it slows back down when that mood is over.
"So, when they play, sing along sing the song" (pick yourself up with optomism, like a bird, or like Tori herself as a performer)
It's like play acting ("if you know the lines"). Act like everything is ok - go through your life day by day and do what you have to in order to feel better.
Then she is brought back to reality at the end.
"You can find, find him online most of the time these days" "Is that right," I say.
A Starling is a bird that has many song types that it sings. It is very gregarious. They have very complex vocalings, and are known to imbed their surrounding sounds into their own calls. For example, they will be singing a song, and suddenly start singing a song they heard - like a car alarm sound, or human speech patterns.
A magpie has a loud plain call. This explains the line, "When he screams, he screams in black and white just like the magpie"
A Lark has melodious songs - more elaborate than most birds. They have a willingness to expand into anthroponegenic habitats, so long as they are not too managed.
A Raven has a very distinct, crow like caw.
If you came up with that you are a genius lol