3 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A
Virginia Lyrics
virginia i had a dream that you invited us over
you still lived on the street where you laid down for good
we all sat on the floor as my kids swam around us
you smoked cigarettes like i knew you would
we were worried about your personal salvation
was it heaven or hell that you saw when your eyes closed
you smiled at us floating high above the question
like you knew something we didn’t know
virginia i had a dream we were closer than brothers
singing pictures of you crashing cars skipping school
we drove all over town as the days blurred around us
we wore out your cassettes we were nobody’s fool
they were worried about our high school graduation
they read us a poem oh the places you’ll go
you smiled it off floating high above the question
like you knew something they didn’t know
you still lived on the street where you laid down for good
we all sat on the floor as my kids swam around us
you smoked cigarettes like i knew you would
we were worried about your personal salvation
was it heaven or hell that you saw when your eyes closed
you smiled at us floating high above the question
like you knew something we didn’t know
virginia i had a dream we were closer than brothers
singing pictures of you crashing cars skipping school
we drove all over town as the days blurred around us
we wore out your cassettes we were nobody’s fool
they were worried about our high school graduation
they read us a poem oh the places you’ll go
you smiled it off floating high above the question
like you knew something they didn’t know
Song Info
Submitted by
ccgascity On Apr 21, 2011
More David Bazan
Backwoods Nation
Curse Your Branches
Cold Beer and Cigarettes
Forest Fires
Hard To Be
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
I saw Bazan play this song at a house show in Austin recently, and this song was the highlight of the evening. It's absolutely perfect. Best song on the new album. We asked who it was about, and he said it was about a friend who died really young. It was actually a guy who's nickname was Virginia.
Also, I can't remember if Bazan said he got killed or if he killed himself. But I do know that the person's family was worried about whether or not he was a Christian when he died, so they went to all of his friends to try to get confirmation. I suppose the "You smiled at us/it off" lines were intended to be vague, but give the impression of a smirk.
Also, I can't remember if Bazan said he got killed or if he killed himself. But I do know that the person's family was worried about whether or not he was a Christian when he died, so they went to all of his friends to try to get confirmation. I suppose the "You smiled at us/it off" lines were intended to be vague, but give the impression of a smirk.
I asked David what this song was about when I attended a house show, and he told me it is about a friend of his that died of a brain aneurysm at age 27. Virginia is a name that David would have used to make fun of this friend, and he used the name Virginia to add meaning to the song and to keep the parents of this person from hearing the song and reliving the heartbreak of losing their son. David said that this friend would have liked the fact that he was being called a name throughout the song.
I asked David what this song was about when I attended a house show, and he told me it is about a friend of his that died of a brain aneurysm at age 27. Virginia is a name that David would have used to make fun of this friend, and he used the name Virginia to add meaning to the song and to keep the parents of this person from hearing the song and reliving the heartbreak of losing their son. David said that this friend would have liked the fact that he was being called a name throughout the song.
@austinnormancore When I saw Bazan, he said they named it Virginia because they made fun of this friend because he smoked Virginia Slims (a cigarette normally smoked by older women)
@austinnormancore When I saw Bazan, he said they named it Virginia because they made fun of this friend because he smoked Virginia Slims (a cigarette normally smoked by older women)
I can't help but feel horrible and cry to this song, it's Bazan's voice and the simple (as usual) lyrics. First two lines especially, because they can apply to anyone. But the last two make it more. And I guess it is that I know it will apply to me someday, maybe not to the same circumstances, but people die, and you will miss them.
I do want to know what his friend knew that Bazan didn't. That is the one thing I don't get.
I don't think it means something specific; the way I hear it, Bazan doesn't know either, it's a feeling you'd get when you looked at him. Ever met some people that had a way with life, seemed somehow to "get it", whatever "it" is? I could imagine it being that.
I don't think it means something specific; the way I hear it, Bazan doesn't know either, it's a feeling you'd get when you looked at him. Ever met some people that had a way with life, seemed somehow to "get it", whatever "it" is? I could imagine it being that.
As far as my own interpretation, I think the song really gets a lot of power from the lyric "floating high above the question," which succeeded the line asking "Was it heaven or hell that you saw when your eyes closed?" To me it means that Virgina is high above that question. He transcends that question. It doesn't matter if he is in heaven or hell, it only matters what he did and what he means to David or anyone else in that person's life. Maybe I am thinking too little or too much about this line, but this is what I take away from it. I had a friend who passed away when he was seventeen, and I used to wonder stuff about the afterlife and what happened. I think about how it really doesn't matter and what matters is how he has affected my life. Who he was will matter to the people around me, no matter who they are, if they knew him or not.