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All Thoughts Are Prey to Some Beast Lyrics
The leafless tree looked like a brain
The birds within were all the thoughts and desires within me
Hoppin' around from branch to branch
Or snug in their nests listenin' in
An eagle came over the horizon
And shook the branches with its sight
The softer thoughts: starlings, finches, and wrens
The softer thoughts, they all took flight
The eagle looked clear through the brain tree
Emptying thoughts saved for me
Maybe I'll make this one my home, consolidate the nests of the tiny
Raise a family of might like me
Then something struck him, wings of bone
Sweet desires and soft thoughts were all gone
The eagle shrieked,
"I'm alone"
Well it was time to flee the tree
The eagle snuck up on the wind one talon at a time
Being Sky King of the sky
What did he have to fear?
All thoughts are prey to some beast
All thoughts are prey to some beast
All thoughts are prey to some beast
All thoughts are prey to some beast
All thoughts are prey to some beast
All thoughts are prey to some beast
Sweet desire and soft thoughts, return to me
Sweet desire and soft thoughts, return to me
Sweet desire and soft thoughts, return to me
Sweet desire and soft thoughts, return to me
Sweet desire and soft thoughts, return to me
Sweet desire and soft thoughts, return to me
Sweet desire and soft thoughts, return to me
Sweet desire and soft thoughts, return to me
The birds within were all the thoughts and desires within me
Hoppin' around from branch to branch
Or snug in their nests listenin' in
And shook the branches with its sight
The softer thoughts: starlings, finches, and wrens
The softer thoughts, they all took flight
Emptying thoughts saved for me
Maybe I'll make this one my home, consolidate the nests of the tiny
Raise a family of might like me
Sweet desires and soft thoughts were all gone
The eagle shrieked,
"I'm alone"
The eagle snuck up on the wind one talon at a time
Being Sky King of the sky
What did he have to fear?
All thoughts are prey to some beast
All thoughts are prey to some beast
All thoughts are prey to some beast
All thoughts are prey to some beast
All thoughts are prey to some beast
Sweet desire and soft thoughts, return to me
Sweet desire and soft thoughts, return to me
Sweet desire and soft thoughts, return to me
Sweet desire and soft thoughts, return to me
Sweet desire and soft thoughts, return to me
Sweet desire and soft thoughts, return to me
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I think the beast is dependent on the thought. The wind is the beast to the eagle. The eagle could be depression, or perhaps existential angst, and how it drives away the sweet thoughts shows how it can consume a person. Deep stuff, this Bill Callahan ...
C'mon guys. This is just like a lot of his other songs. The whole thing is a metaphor for the feelings one experiences in a relationship. This is the very same premise he covers in No Dancing. At first he's warm and happy with his soft thoughts until the Eagle (infidelity, jealousy and the need to be free) comes in and takes over the soft feelings.
Bill breaks horses, he doesn't tend to them,
This song makes me think of depression, and how it can eliminate all thoughts of happinness, or become so overbearing that you forget about everything, and it's a call for it to leave and everything else to come back. Love this album.
who's the beast?
The eagle is the king of the sky, means the lord of the place, but is alone.
'Emptying thoughts saved for me' should be "Empty" he thought "save for me"
I don't think there's a specific beast. There's that idea in the animal kingdom all predators are prey to something. So the thought/desire/ideal which is as dominating to 'lesser' thoughts [lesser in what way?] As an Eagle is to a wren is not infallible. This could be interpreted any number of ways. No thoughts are ultimately dominant, it's easy to be distracted regardless of intent, an external psychological item deemed to be of the utmost importance may not be to some minds, concentrating solely on one thing can cause the other inhabitants. Of you mind to give way...
I intended to add to this, a thought I'd neglected to mention, regarding the relation to the eagle of this track and that of the albums title. In the interim I happened uponan interview featuring the following:
I intended to add to this, a thought I'd neglected to mention, regarding the relation to the eagle of this track and that of the albums title. In the interim I happened uponan interview featuring the following:
"All Thoughts Are Prey” is quite an interesting song, lyrically: an empty tree resembling a brain with small creatures referred to as “softer thoughts” being chased away by an eagle who bemoans his loneliness. What does this eagle represent to you? What is it that chases these softer thoughts away and brings loneliness, and why would you wish we become whatever this eagle...
"All Thoughts Are Prey” is quite an interesting song, lyrically: an empty tree resembling a brain with small creatures referred to as “softer thoughts” being chased away by an eagle who bemoans his loneliness. What does this eagle represent to you? What is it that chases these softer thoughts away and brings loneliness, and why would you wish we become whatever this eagle is?'
'The eagle in this story is something that obliterates all other things; that is where the loneliness comes in. But if two people could be one eagle, then things would be alright. It is what we strive for. To be an eagle alone is hard to bear, but it may be the plight of some.'
The interview also featured the following "All thoughts..." related consideration:
"What's with trees? There's only a couple Eagle songs that do not directly involve them, and some are very blatant in their depiction: “too many birds,” “eagles,” an empty tree depicted as a brain, “how much of a tree bends in the wind.” What do trees and birds represent to you?"
"Trees. Well, ain't they a wonderful thing. Each one seems to speak its own history. "All Thoughts are Prey to Some Beast" was a poem I had around. I've only written two poems in my life. That and "Dress Sexy at My Funeral." I had"Dress Sexy" in a drawer for years and what do you do with one poem? I decided to just repeat the title as the chorus and turn it into a song. The same for "All Thoughts..." I just added a couple lines to repeat once I realized that it would fit into the tree and birds theme of the songs I was writing for the album. Birds are another story. They live a separate life that runs parallel to ours. I like the idea of the tree bending in the wind being the brain tree."
Full interview @ http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/bill-callahan
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The original post was supposed to end "... inhabitants of your mind to give way." Forgive my orthographical blunders; I'm typing all this on a phone."
The original post was supposed to end "... inhabitants of your mind to give way." Forgive my orthographical blunders; I'm typing all this on a phone."
...Sweet desires and soft thoughts, all gone...
The death of hope in 7 words; wonderful
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Like in the first song, Jim Cain, a new start with present minded thoughts brought him lightness and freshness of thought, maybe like looking at each thought and issue as fresh. With the empty tree of thought, space came for thought like an eagle…
The eagle represents strength and is considered to be the chief among all winged creatures. It also represents a symbol of power. It also symbolizes dawn, renewed life, and spring’s direction.
In the song my Friend is the Big Thought, the eagle, explained as empathy and fight for the weak (so notations there), being partly a dream or vision, as indicated the title of whole album: Sometimes i wish we were an eagle. But being it a dream to shepperd all sheep, like all his thoughts, he could still do his best, creating room for his friends, also on the inside of his mind, the soft (emphatatic) thoughts that he can give space to understand and nurture what is fragile.
As an eagle is also a preditor, it can represent his strenght or force, he seems to want to apply the strenght he has to defend the weak.
The eagle is his rational part, what he deeply believes in, his “mind”, the beast.The sweet desire and soft thoughts are his emotions, his “heart”, the prey. When the mind takes over the heart then he feels lonely. He needs his heart to be complete.