Timber Timbre - Black Water Lyrics & Meanings

Cover art for Black Water lyrics by Timber Timbre

by voyeurbambi

14y ago

like JWB says, I think it's "you set the Viking ship ablaze"

also

"we reached the moon's false icy cauldron"

"where lay the bodies that had been claimed" makes more sense, even if he omits the "that", if he's referring to the white fish...it may also be "where later bodies had been claimed"

and it's my guess "we dove a third, a fourth, a fifth" "bane to the spirit that i craved"

and as he sings "black water", he is also singing "take me down, black water, take me down"

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by JWB

14y ago

It sounds to me like "you set that Viking ship ablaze"

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by shellderama

13y ago

why doesn't anybody comment about the MEANING of the song? Seriously, it's SONGMEANINGS.net. It's about obsession. He yearns for the good times and believes he can only get it from "the only spirit that he craves". creepy and catchy. shellder used withdraw!

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by idgy 13y ago

And only because of the tree line, I believe...Beyond...I can relate!

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by idgy 13y ago

No, no. Not even close. I already know and plan(ed) to attempt it...my true thoughts about a seafaring voyage of a barbaric peoples making their way west...the first of any kind...to ultimately meet their demise covered in Iceland. So obsession is obsolete in this one, I believe.

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by hustlerose 13y ago

I like the idea of that! It definitely has the feel of a tale of a journey..

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by lucyfur

12y ago

Life can get pretty dark and scary. Sometimes we even seek it out, but in the end we still hope for that ray of sunshine. It's our mother after all. Walking in the filth can be a cleansing experience. I've been in black water before.

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by brokentelephone78 8y ago

@lucyfur Great comment. :)

by statarama

13y ago

goldstyle said this: "my mom broughtï»¿ me here. but she just dropped me off. can anyone give me a ride home?"

the highest rated comment on the youtube video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsuQUP1lfDA what i believe he/she is talking about and what the song means is that we're here, born into a world with no certainty and no promise of an afterlife or god.

there are several funeral references in the song, "you set their viking ship ablaze" "a thousand whitefish floating belly up" "we threw ourselves right into it where lay the bodies had been claimed"

the "spirit" that he craves is an immortal spirit, a soul to move on to the afterlife, "deliverance from malaise."

however the problem with this is that he doesn't know how real the afterlife is going to be, he "needs some sunshine" to illuminate the "black water."

in my opinion black water represents death, "take me down" as voyeurbambi said. the siren is the warning of death, the alarm to tell you prepare, make funereal rites to make sure that when you die, you will be carried up towards the sunshine.

the image of the viking ship ablaze is very poignant for me, and definitely the first lyric that caught in my head which makes it hilarious that its been transcribed incorrectly here. unfortunately burning an entire ship for one man would have been quite wasteful for the vikings, but still, the symbolism is glorious! i see it as an admission that we must sink down into the "black water" all the parts of the viking chief are burnt up and sent back into the world from where they came. this differs greatly from traditions such as mummification or marble tombs and really has more in common with Mongolian open air burials. however the difference is still a blaze of glory, the vikings believed in valhalla, a glorious mead-hall of an afterlife and so still they needed that "sunshine" the divine power of fire and light to transform them like a phoenix from the water.

i think he is referring to setting his own viking ship ablaze, the people watching from the island as they reach "the moon's false icy cauldron" or the reflection of the moon in the water. the moon's light is itself only a reflection of the sun and so may tie in to the motif of an uncertain funeral rite, that may or may not give him "the spirit that he craves." the fact that he mentions "bane to the spirit that i crave" is also interesting as bane's root comes from the old Norse word for death bani. not sure if that was intentional on timber timbre's part.

the video also supports my hypothesis with the half-dead deep sea diver with the cracked face mask being raised up by the sea monsters, just like angels raising jesus to heaven. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Dosso_Dossi_022.jpg

maybe I'm crazy but that's what i think the song means and thats why i thumbs upped goldstyle and thumbs downed coolcatwbc, you're the one not listening to the song, it's not about where we came from, we all got dropped off by our mom, the question is how are we getting home?

Song Meaning

goldstyle said this: "my mom broughtï»¿ me here. but she just dropped me off. can anyone give me a ride home?"

the highest rated comment on the youtube video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsuQUP1lfDA what i believe he/she is talking about and what the song means is that we're here, born into a world with no certainty and no promise of an afterlife or god.

there are several funeral references in the song, 
"you set their viking ship ablaze" 
"a thousand whitefish floating belly up"
"we threw ourselves right into it
where lay the bodies had been claimed"

the "spirit" that he craves is an immortal spirit, a soul to move on to the afterlife, "deliverance from malaise."

however the problem with this is that he doesn't know how real the afterlife is going to be, he "needs some sunshine" to illuminate the "black water."

in my opinion black water represents death, "take me down" as voyeurbambi said. the siren is the warning of death, the alarm to tell you prepare, make funereal rites to make sure that when you die, you will be carried up towards the sunshine.

the image of the viking ship ablaze is very poignant for me, and definitely the first lyric that caught in my head which makes it hilarious that its been transcribed incorrectly here. unfortunately burning an entire ship for one man would have been quite wasteful for the vikings, but still, the symbolism is glorious! i see it as an admission that we must sink down into the "black water" all the parts of the viking chief are burnt up and sent back into the world from where they came. this differs greatly from traditions such as mummification or marble tombs and really has more in common with Mongolian open air burials. however the difference is still a blaze of glory, the vikings believed in valhalla, a glorious mead-hall of an afterlife and so still they needed that "sunshine" the divine power of fire and light to transform them like a phoenix from the water.

i think he is referring to setting his own viking ship ablaze, the people watching from the island as they reach "the moon's false icy cauldron" or the reflection of the moon in the water. the moon's light is itself only a reflection of the sun and so may tie in to the motif of an uncertain funeral rite, that may or may not give him "the spirit that he craves." the fact that he mentions "bane to the spirit that i crave" is also interesting as bane's root comes from the old Norse word for death bani. not sure if that was intentional on timber timbre's part.

the video also supports my hypothesis with the half-dead deep sea diver with the cracked face mask being raised up by the sea monsters, just like angels raising jesus to heaven.  http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Dosso_Dossi_022.jpg

maybe I'm crazy but that's what i think the song means and thats why i thumbs upped goldstyle and thumbs downed coolcatwbc, you're the one not listening to the song, it's not about where we came from, we all got dropped off by our mom, the question is how are we getting home?

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by Kamarie

7y ago

Here's the story in my mind: during the Viking explorations, the Vikings approached an island in a frigid area. The lyrics mention "Moon Falls" so perhaps near Lake Ontario (there are legends of Vikings exploring the Great Lakes). The island was inhabited with protector spirits that were willing to do what was necessary to purge the island of the invaders: set the ship afire, drown them, destroy their food source (fish), etc.

And this song is from the adoring perspective of one of the "worker" spirits that normally lived in the depths of the lake, who was called out to the surface by the Great Spirit that was orchestrating all of this to drive away the Vikings.

Someday the band is going to explain this and it will probably be nothing like what I envision, but I like my story anway.

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