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Keeping The Wolves From The Door Lyrics
This is how it was meant to be,
I was meant to go on hoping,
Even though there's really no hope,
In this land or on the sea.
Becoming familiar with an illusion,
Becoming familiar with lapses of joy,
Illusion.
Something is abiding,
something believes unceasing,
In keeping the wolves from the door.
I wonder when you're older,
You'll find there was a disappearance,
Disappearance of the meaning that you had, that you had, that you, oh.
The very inner of my being,
It is infinite trouble,
You'll always on the outside of it, of it, of it, oh.
Oh, oh, oh.
Ah, ah, oh, oh.
Something is abiding,
something believes unceasing,
In keeping the wolves from the door.
I wonder if you hear thunder like I do, like I do,
If you know living like I do,
Feels the same, if it is as sweet as.
Something is abiding,
something believes unceasing,
In keeping the wolves from the door.
I was meant to go on hoping,
Even though there's really no hope,
In this land or on the sea.
Becoming familiar with lapses of joy,
Illusion.
something believes unceasing,
In keeping the wolves from the door.
You'll find there was a disappearance,
Disappearance of the meaning that you had, that you had, that you, oh.
It is infinite trouble,
You'll always on the outside of it, of it, of it, oh.
Ah, ah, oh, oh.
something believes unceasing,
In keeping the wolves from the door.
If you know living like I do,
Feels the same, if it is as sweet as.
something believes unceasing,
In keeping the wolves from the door.
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I love the way she pronounces "door"
I believe she is singing about clinging to personal identity. Thefreedictionary.com gives one definition of "keeping the wolves from the door" as, "to maintain oneself at a minimal level; to keep from starving, freezing, etc."
Taking this literally, she is singing about maintain her SELF but at the back of her mind she knows it is not real but still feels driven to cling to it. That is why she sings,
"I was meant to go on hoping, Even though there's really no hope,"
The references are to illusion are obviously evocative of Buddhism's teaching of no-self.
And yet there is "something" maintaining the belief.
The next verse,
"I wonder when you're older, You'll find there was a disappearance, Disappearance of the meaning that you had, that you had, that you, oh."
Is plainly describing the time in a persons life around the college years when they begin to realize that all the foundational concepts that gave meaning to their life are breaking down.
The other lyrics I can't say precisely what they mean, but they definitely can go along with this interpretation.
I get a sense from the overall song of the uncomfortable ambivalence of recognizing the trouble caused by clinging to fear, not wanting to maintain the illusion of 'other', yet also realizing there are things outside of you that should be feared. Otherwise you end up going down some destructive paths. This is how I interpret the lyric about "thunder" ( a common childhood and animal fear of the unknown danger) and the "inner of my being" that you are always outside of (inside and outside create always necessitate each other), being infinite trouble. ...
I just realized that the only other comment on here, which I slightly mentally scoffed at as I began to write this "serious" interpretation, was in fact my own from two years ago. There are so many levels of irony that this happened with this song in particular.