The Last Recluse

Really if you just take this song literally, it's depressing, but I think it's really just about someone who cares about their boyfriend/girlfriend, (we'll just say it's a guy who cares for a girl, but it works both ways), and she is so closed off to the guy, and really doesn't feed into the guy's efforts of affection.

I think the guy is saying that the girl he cares for is "The Last Recluse" because she's closed off to him, and he cares about her so much, he won't go through it again with anyone else, which is evident through the lines: "Who broke my heart from the start, Made me work, and work so hard to get where I am, to where I'd let you do it all again." This implies that it's happened before, and until now, there has been no ultimatum of leaving each other for good.

But just taking it literally, this song is about a girl who finally totally breaks off a relationship with a guy, and does not give a crap about his countless, drastic efforts to make things better: "I jumped on board, turned around to wave goodbye, you were already on your bike, riding with my bike by your side."

I can form an impression of the entirety of the song except for one part.

What's with the black canoe?

When Gord says "we rode hard for the boat, hard as we could" I think he is clearly talking about a relationship that he put as much as he had into but it just didn't work out. The reason the girl says "no tears" is because it's nothing they can be upset about anymore because they did all they could.

The crowd being born part kinda confuses me but this is what i think it means... Gord and his girl are both gunna try many times to find new people (the crowd) to be with, and each time they try to be with someone else it's going to fail "only born die" Him saying he doesnt' watch fir asign in the night or to watch a bomb go off in a young girl's life, i think this means he usually never particularly cares for a girl too much.

A reluse is a person who lives in seclusion or apart from society, often for religious meditation. So I'm thinking maybe the girl was a virgin which is rare these days.

When Gord talks about waving goodbye and getting on board, I think he means that he's saying goodbye to the life he's been living to be with this girl and she's alrwady on board cause she's choosing to be with him.

When he says who are you, you rode out of view, obviously she changed at somepoint and I'm guessing this is what tore them apart.

"Who broke my heart from the start Made me work, work so hard To get where I am To where I'd let you do it all again"

This is my favorite part of the song. I think Gord mmeans that from the start he knew it wasn't going to work because they were such opposities ( him the way he was and her being a good girl from the way it sounds) She made him change a lot of who he was to be with her but he doesn't have any regrets.

When he says who are you what do i do without you...like i said she obvioulsly changed and isnt the girl gord fell in love with and he just wants that girl back (what do i do without you)