The High Road

It's too late to change your mind - let loss be your guide.

You live your life. Things happen. Unfair things, your toys get taken. Painful things, accidents. Lustful things. Confusing things. People lost. People ending their lives on purpose. Brief beauty. Disappearing into the mist, then emerging, and on down the road you go. Life is non stop. There's no trying to turn around and change what has happened. You keep walking. Learn from loss and keep going. Finding the high road is hard. But you learn through loss. It becomes your guide. What worked? What didn't. And down the road you go.

For a long time I was wondering what the lyrics of this song meant, the lyrics are so spread out in terms of subject matter that it's hard to tell exactly what they mean, until just now when I listened to it. Here's what I'm thinking: I'm thinking the band says exactly what they mean within the song, when there's the repeated line of "It's too late to change your mind/you let loss be your guide," and all throughout the song there are references of everyone within the song trying to escape from pain. There's a lot of references to suicide and yeah, a bit of drug use in there, and someone mentioned that drug use could be a metaphor for something else, and I think it is, I think it's a metaphor for escapism in general, which only comes about because people want to get away from all the pain and the hurt within their own lives, only to find that in escaping, either they are hurt just as badly if not moreso, and/or they hurt others by escaping, both of which fit within the song. That's just my educated guess, it's a hard song to get through and it's definitely not straightforward, but it's a great one and I can't get enough of it.

I think, from watching the music video, the song is about coping with the apparent meaningless in life. The band members are wandering through the night with flashlights, like how people wander through life without being able to see (understand) things clearly. People distract themselves from the foreboding thought of pointlessness in many ways, which are represented throughout the video. Taking advantage of others (the stealing of the toy car), tragedy (the car wreck), entertainment (the kids watching the fire on the screen, which seems to be a subtle reference to the fact that fires are sometimes called "outdoor TVs" because of their tendency to hold our gaze), sex (the dancer), and, perhaps, religion (the white horse, a common symbol in various spiritual groups throughout history) are all seen as possible ways to fulfill us. The drug references in the lyrics also fit this pattern. All of these paths to fulfillment have a binding effect, that is, it's easy for us to get stuck in them ("It's too late to change your mind"). I have more thoughts, but I feel I've typed too much already. I have no idea what the woman who has dropped her things means, though...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWBG1j_flrg

Dear all,

know it's a bit late to reply to this subject, but we all need to take our time.

Obviously, everyone here is stuck in reality and seems to have no other possible interpretation than the literality of the words.

Some efforts were made, though, by very clever ancd courageous people.

Anyway, the "soldier" should not be seen as a "man involved in a conflict" or "fighting for his nation under a flag" ...

The "soldier" in this song is a human being.

Everyone is struggling, yeah fighting, for life.

Furthermore, the One who's trying to find the High Road is a Soldier.

That One is surrounded by an army.

The Army will try to help the soldier to fight, but may also lead him to death, as it is the basic rule once you have accepted the game.

What is the game?

You may find the high road, and the high road may be a road to happiness.

Or not.

It's a song about enlightenment, defintely.

.

[Edit: .]

This song is about fixed spirituality, life, death, and convenient distractions that divert physical actuality from proper spiritual autonomy. Spiritual autonomy is the subjective discernment that considers decency [pathos, ethos, and logos] in a moral life context. In short, the “High Road” is found independently from convenient distraction, duty, and blind emotional overloads that divert good intentions to the extent of harmful existences, as followers in mass (symbolic) armies.

The overdose at the borderlines represents fear and loss guiding any collective (status) mass into overdoses of preemptive actions that have no personal meaning other than obedience to directives, outside of the autonomy necessary of life’s “High Road.” The minimum is the extent of knowledge it takes to justify following directives and living easily enough to get by as a unit.

The “garden” is life’s origin (Eden). The simple fact that we neither plan life, nor do we control it, is universal (“… they know and so do I…”). This only leaves room to ponder birth, life, and death as humans (“to each his own”). The divergent sects (religions) from Eden (Great African Rift Valley) have conveniently inserted their own interpretations of these fixed unknown(s); which historically loop back to support any convenient, collective existence absent of “The High Road’s” pursuit. If we do not make up our own minds instead of being consumed by said collective diversions, it will be “too late to change our minds,” after the Grand Finalé (death) which is implied by the wreck at the beginning.

Insert your own interpretation here regarding the suicide of the soldier, avoiding his “duty” as part of the collective and bailing out (not wanting to kill anyone else). The last dead entity to speak clearly with a live, witnessed, written Record (“I don’t know if the dead can talk, to anyone”) was Jesus to Paul.

The dawn to end all nights is each soul’s life after death. Sleep can be associated with being non-conscious and resurrected daily except upon death of the body. The final “dawn” is the light associated with the soul’s eternal journey if the “High Road” was observed in life. “Say goodbye to all your friends,” they are still alive, and once you’re dead it’s too late to change your mind. If you had found the “High Road” in life, you had already told “all of your friends goodbye,” via the “detour” out of the masses.

These are very complex social/philosophical issues that a genius has managed to get into an excellent, relatively short, song. Bravo!

best explanation i heard, and that makes sense to me, is that the song is about the conflict, and isloation, associated with decisions, forks in the road of life, the challenge presented in decision making to "find the high road" - to live life true to the best of your potential, the "right" path, or, conversely do you "sell out" take what's there to be taken now, settle for what you can get, or are told you can have? are you motivated to make life's choices on the basis of what could be? or does the sense of what you might lose, or have already lost, guide you?

I personally think this song is about the drug trade and the drug war, but I'm a huge believer that all songs are up for interpretation and everyone's view is valid.

(Some of the lyrics on this page are wrong, so in my interpretation some of the lyrics are different from what is on this page because I'm using what I believe are the lyrics).

Most people who think that this song is about drugs probably think that "the high road" is a reference to drugs, mainly because it says "high" in it; I believe that "the high road" in this song is used as the same way that this phrase is usually interpreted: taking the better way out of a bad situation.

That being said, let me start from the beginning of the song and work my way through:

"We're bound to wait all night She's bound to run amok Invested enough in it anyhow, To each his own..."

I think that this is talking about maybe a group of friends waiting with a girl who is waiting for a dealer to give her drugs for the first time. They feel like they're "bound to wait all night" and "she's bound to run amok" because she might be nervous about getting caught, but she's already risked enough and is "invested enough in it anyhow".

"The Garden needs sorting out She curls her lips on the bow And I don't know if I'm dead or not To anyone..."

The garden might be his or her life: it needs sorting out, it needs to be cleaned up and needs some TLC. She doesn't know if she's dead to society and she probably feels isolated.

"Come on and get the minimum Before you open up your eyes, This army has so many heads To analyze... Come on and get your overdose Collect it at the borderline And they want to get up in your head..."

This is the voice of the drug trade wanting you to "come on and get the minimum" that you need just to try drugs and get hooked, and try drugs "before you open up your eyes" that drugs are not the way out of your problems. The Army represents the police/those who fight against drugs, and the "so many heads to analyze" refers to the drug tests that cops use to convict people of felonies involving drugs and the many people that they try to convict. The drug traders "want to get up in your head" so that you'll get hooked on drugs and keep coming back for more, which means more money for them.

"Cause they know and so do I The high road is hard to find A detour to your new life Tell all of your friends goodbye"

The drug traders ("they") "know...the high road is hard to find" and that drugs are a "detour" or easy way to fix your problems, rather than struggling to reach the high road. But while you're using these hard drugs, you'll likely lose your friends and leave everything behind you.

"The dawn to end all nights That's all we hoped it was A break form the warfare in your house... A soldier is bailing out He curled his lips on the barrel And I don't know if the dead can talk To anyone..."

"The dawn" refers to drugs and "all nights" represents all troubles and pains in life. So you hoped that "the dawn to end all nights" would "end the warfare in your house" (that drugs would end your problems that you're facing "in your house" or family or life in general). The soldier bailing out may be someone who has lost everything and tried very hard to escape drugs but can't, and so he "curls his lips on the barrel" and takes his life.

"It's too late to change your mind You let loss be your guide..."

It's too late to escape from drugs or change your mind, because you let all of your problems push you to doing drugs as a means of escape, but now you're hooked and can't go back.

this song is beautifully sad

I think the meaning is a little broader than drugs, or soldiers, or home. Those are all correct, however, in my opinion. I think it is about our society, en masse; our need to conform and the ones who break away. There is the common theme of "... to each his own" after describing general events that can be shared among so many people.

The Garden needs sorting out. She curls her lips on the bow, And I don't know if I'm dead or not, To anyone... To me this suggests a life that needs some sorting out; it feels numb and empty. (A Fight Club kind of feeling)

Come on and get the minimum, Before you open up your eyes. This army has so many heads, To analyze...

Ah, our cultural habit of waiting until one feels they have enough, until they are comfortable, to pay attention to the things around them. There is so much going on in the world right now, and nothing is what is seems. To analyze one head you must analyze them all.

Come on and get your overdose. Collect it at the borderline, And they want to get up in your head...

I'm curious about this line. Is is about our tendency to medicate? "...collect it at the borderline..." could certainly refer to the physical borders, as we are strongly discouraged from buying pharmaceuticals from other countries. "And they want to get up in your head..." If it is prescribed by a doctor's office, there is a paper trail a mile long. They know all about your head.

Cause they know and so do I. The high road is hard to find. A detour to your new life. Tell all of your friends goodbye.

Conformity is easier. Doing the right thing isn't always as easy as going to college and finding a job. As you grow up, you find you have to remove people from your life. Sometimes it's in your children's best interest, sometimes yours. Sometimes the friend's.

The dawn to end all nights, That's all we hoped it was. A break from the warfare in your house, To each his own...

Making a life-altering choice to end fighting at home, perhaps? Much in the way some couples think a baby will settle marital conflict. Each home has their own conflict, and their own resolutions, and their own bad choices.

A soldier is bailing out. He curled his lips on the barrel. And I don't know if the dead can talk, To anyone...

I don't really have anything to ad to this. Maybe the soldier is metaphorical - we all soldier through every day.

This army has so many hands, Are you one of us?

Do you conform? Are you part of society?

It's too late to change your mind, You let loss be your guide.

Any loss. What you don't have now. What your neighbor has and you don't. What you think you should've achieved at this point in life but haven't. What you didn't have as a child. When the voids in you life take precedence over the positives, consumption takes priority over people. And a society built on conforming to numbness and consumption will blindly consume itself.