I'm tearing up, across your face
Move dust through the light
To find your name
It’s something faint
This is not a place
Not yet awake, I’m raised to make
Still alive who you love
Still alive who you love
Still alive who you love
In a matter of a month
From forests, for the soft
Gotta know been lead aloft
So I'm rid of all your stories
What I know, what it is, is boring, wire it up
You're breaking new ground
Move dust through the light
To find your name
It’s something faint
This is not a place
Not yet awake, I’m raised to make
Still alive who you love
Still alive who you love
From forests, for the soft
Gotta know been lead aloft
So I'm rid of all your stories
What I know, what it is, is boring, wire it up
You're breaking new ground
Song Info
Copyright
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Writer
Justin Deyarmond Edison Vernon
Duration
4:22
Submitted by
thuglifeforevs On May 17, 2011
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
These lyrics posted here are completely incorrect. Below are the official lyrics and I've seen the band 5 times and he is definitely sayings "still alive who you love"
Iʼm tearing up, acrost your face move dust through the light to fide your name it’s something fane this is not a place not yet awake, I’m raised of make
still alive who you love still alive who you love still alive who you love
in a mother, out a moth furling forests for the soft gotta know been lead aloft so I’m ridding all your stories what I know, what it is, is pouring — wire it up!
you’re breaking your ground
Beautiful song to start off a beautiful album! I remember listening to a radio interview where Justin explained that he was with a friend of Heath Ledger's when Heath died. It was a really hard thing for his friend, and Justin spent time with him when he was grieving, and he wrote this song during that time. So "still alive who you love" I think is just saying that if you love someone, they're still alive with you even after they die. He also said in the interview that Perth was like birth for him, like a messy beginning. He just got out of the US and to Australia, so it was like a new start for him away from everything. All together, to me the song feels like coming out of chaos to something new, something you need to be better, like "you're breaking your ground" on a new life.
I've listened to this song over 100 times. The first ten seconds of the song you can hear a clanging sound of metal on metal. I spent 5 years in the United States Marine Corps and the first time I heard this song it immediately brought me back to the sound of the US flag clanging against the flagpole.
@killoranusmc The flag observation is very poignant. Taking into account the bit about Heath Ledger's death having some influence on the song. Perhaps the moment, the 'not a place' from the fifth line of stanza one, that this song refers is the moment where loved ones are looking for closure or peace. Maybe at a flag raising in memoriam of the since deceased.
@killoranusmc The flag observation is very poignant. Taking into account the bit about Heath Ledger's death having some influence on the song. Perhaps the moment, the 'not a place' from the fifth line of stanza one, that this song refers is the moment where loved ones are looking for closure or peace. Maybe at a flag raising in memoriam of the since deceased.
If we project lines like 'tearing up acrost your face, onto the one left grieving we can take it to mean that the griever is barely making it: 'raised of make' could mean that the one grieving...
If we project lines like 'tearing up acrost your face, onto the one left grieving we can take it to mean that the griever is barely making it: 'raised of make' could mean that the one grieving is 'raised' or standing vertical/alive but only just. Conversely, the line could mean that one is fashioned out of what one creates for oneself. Perhaps it is a bit of both. Since the next stanza, the cutting stanza 'Still alive who you love' offers up elevated positive emotion: a loved one is lost but still alive in memory.
From the dust moves the light (see stanza one, line two) in processing the grief there is chance of rebirth... 'in a mother, out a moth.' The choice to use the word 'furling,' in the line 'furling forest for the soft,' seems to be used purposely to denote more flag imagery. 'Furling' meaning "to gather into a compact roll and bind securely, as a sail against a spar or a flag against its staff," seams to me like the griever is yet again struggling, and perhaps in disbelief. The next line, 'Gotta know been lead aloft,' could be used to describe coming to terms with a loved one now being 'aloft' or in other words,"in the rigging overhead." See all the flag imagery now?!
The second to last stanza, which reads "So I'm ridding all your stories What I know, what it is, is pouring – wire it up!," is so powerful. Now that the one grieving has had time to process the loss of their loved one, they can now ride on memories, a pouring of memories and emotions. And 'wire it up,' seems to me like another use of flag imagery, like raise the flag to my amazing friend. I can grow for this experience, hence the closing line: 'Your'e breaking your ground,' be it Heath be the one in the ground, this loss will not take all of Heath's brilliance, creativity, and love because it is now stronger and more motivating than ever.
@killoranusmc The flag observation is very poignant. Taking into account the bit about Heath Ledger's death having some influence on the song, perhaps the moment, the 'not a place' from the fifth line of stanza one, that this song refers is the moment where loved ones are looking for closure or peace. Maybe at a flag raising in memoriam of the since deceased.
@killoranusmc The flag observation is very poignant. Taking into account the bit about Heath Ledger's death having some influence on the song, perhaps the moment, the 'not a place' from the fifth line of stanza one, that this song refers is the moment where loved ones are looking for closure or peace. Maybe at a flag raising in memoriam of the since deceased.
If we project lines like 'tearing up acrost your face, onto the one left grieving we can take it to mean that the griever is barely making it: 'raised of make' could mean that the one grieving...
If we project lines like 'tearing up acrost your face, onto the one left grieving we can take it to mean that the griever is barely making it: 'raised of make' could mean that the one grieving is 'raised' or standing vertical/alive but only just. Conversely, the line could mean that one is fashioned out of what one creates for oneself. Perhaps it is a bit of both since the next stanza, the cutting stanza 'Still alive who you love' offers up elevated positive emotion: a loved one is lost but still alive in memory.
From the dust moves the light (see stanza one, line two) in processing the grief there is chance of rebirth... 'in a mother, out a moth.' The choice to use the word 'furling,' in the line 'furling forest for the soft,' seems to be used purposely to denote more flag imagery. 'Furling' meaning "to gather into a compact roll and bind securely, as a sail against a spar or a flag against its staff," seams to me like the griever is yet again struggling, and perhaps in disbelief. The next line, 'Gotta know been lead aloft,' could be used to describe coming to terms with a loved one now being 'aloft' or in other words,"in the rigging overhead." See all the flag imagery now?!
The second to last stanza, which reads "So I'm ridding all your stories What I know, what it is, is pouring – wire it up!," is so powerful. Now that the one grieving has had time to process the loss of their loved one, they can now ride on memories, a pouring of memories and emotions. And 'wire it up,' seems to me like another use of flag imagery, like raise the flag to my amazing friend. I can grow for this experience, hence the closing line: 'Your'e breaking your ground,' be it Heath be the one in the ground, this loss will not take all of Heath's brilliance, creativity, and love because it is now stronger and more motivating than ever.
@killoranusmc The flag observation is very poignant. Taking into account the bit about Heath Ledger's death having some influence on the song, perhaps the moment, the 'not a place' from the fifth line of stanza one, that this song refers is the moment where loved ones are looking for closure or peace. Maybe at a flag raising in memoriam of the since deceased.
@killoranusmc The flag observation is very poignant. Taking into account the bit about Heath Ledger's death having some influence on the song, perhaps the moment, the 'not a place' from the fifth line of stanza one, that this song refers is the moment where loved ones are looking for closure or peace. Maybe at a flag raising in memoriam of the since deceased.
If we project lines like 'tearing up acrost your face,' onto the one left grieving we can take it to mean that the griever is barely making it: 'raised of make' could mean that the one grieving...
If we project lines like 'tearing up acrost your face,' onto the one left grieving we can take it to mean that the griever is barely making it: 'raised of make' could mean that the one grieving is 'raised' or standing vertical/alive but only just. Conversely, the line could mean that one is fashioned out of what one creates for oneself. Perhaps it is a bit of both since the next stanza, the cutting stanza 'Still alive who you love' offers up elevated positive emotion: a loved one is lost but still alive in memory.
From the dust moves the light (see stanza one, line two) in processing the grief there is chance of rebirth... 'in a mother, out a moth.' The choice to use the word 'furling,' in the line 'furling forest for the soft,' seems to be used purposely to denote more flag imagery. 'Furling' meaning "to gather into a compact roll and bind securely, as a sail against a spar or a flag against its staff," seams to me like the griever is yet again struggling, and perhaps in disbelief. The next line, 'Gotta know been lead aloft,' could be used to describe coming to terms with a loved one now being 'aloft' or in other words,"in the rigging overhead." See all the flag imagery now?!
The second to last stanza, which reads "So I'm ridding all your stories What I know, what it is, is pouring – wire it up!," is so powerful. Now that the one grieving has had time to process the loss of their loved one, they can now ride on memories, a pouring of memories and emotions. And 'wire it up,' seems to me like another use of flag imagery, like raise the flag to my amazing friend. I can grow for this experience, hence the closing line: 'Your'e breaking your ground,' be it Heath be the one in the ground, this loss will not take all of Heath's brilliance, creativity, and love because it is now stronger and more motivating than ever.
@killoranusmc The flag observation is very poignant. Taking into account the bit about Heath Ledger's death having some influence on the song, perhaps the moment, the 'not a place' from the fifth line of stanza one, that this song refers is the moment where loved ones are looking for closure or peace. Maybe at a flag raising in memoriam of the since deceased.
@killoranusmc The flag observation is very poignant. Taking into account the bit about Heath Ledger's death having some influence on the song, perhaps the moment, the 'not a place' from the fifth line of stanza one, that this song refers is the moment where loved ones are looking for closure or peace. Maybe at a flag raising in memoriam of the since deceased.
If we project lines like 'tearing up acrost your face,' onto the one left grieving, then we can take it to mean that the griever is barely making it: 'raised of make' could mean that the one...
If we project lines like 'tearing up acrost your face,' onto the one left grieving, then we can take it to mean that the griever is barely making it: 'raised of make' could mean that the one grieving is 'raised' or standing vertical/alive but only just. Conversely, the line could mean that one is fashioned out of what one creates for oneself. Perhaps it is a bit of both since the next stanza, the cutting stanza 'Still alive who you love' offers up elevated positive emotion: a loved one is lost but still alive in memory.
From the dust moves the light (see stanza one, line two) in processing the grief there is chance of rebirth... 'in a mother, out a moth.' The choice to use the word 'furling,' in the line 'furling forest for the soft,' seems to be used purposely to denote more flag imagery. 'Furling' meaning "to gather into a compact roll and bind securely, as a sail against a spar or a flag against its staff," seams to me like the griever is yet again struggling, and perhaps in disbelief. The next line, 'Gotta know been lead aloft,' could be used to describe coming to terms with a loved one now being 'aloft' or in other words,"in the rigging overhead." See all the flag imagery now?!
The second to last stanza, which reads "So I'm ridding all your stories What I know, what it is, is pouring – wire it up!," is so powerful. Now that the one grieving has had time to process the loss of their loved one, they can now ride on memories, a pouring of memories and emotions. And 'wire it up,' seems to me like another use of flag imagery, like raise the flag to my amazing friend. I can grow for this experience, hence the closing line: 'Your'e breaking your ground,' be it Heath be the one in the ground, this loss will not take all of Heath's brilliance, creativity, and love because it is now stronger and more motivating than ever.
@killoranusmc The flag observation is very poignant. Taking into account the bit about Heath Ledger's death having some influence on the song, perhaps the moment, the 'not a place' from the fifth line of stanza one, that this song refers is the moment where loved ones are looking for closure or peace. Maybe at a flag raising in memoriam of the since deceased.
@killoranusmc The flag observation is very poignant. Taking into account the bit about Heath Ledger's death having some influence on the song, perhaps the moment, the 'not a place' from the fifth line of stanza one, that this song refers is the moment where loved ones are looking for closure or peace. Maybe at a flag raising in memoriam of the since deceased.
If we project lines like 'tearing up acrost your face,' onto the one left grieving, then we can take it to mean that the griever is barely making it: 'raised of make' could mean that the one...
If we project lines like 'tearing up acrost your face,' onto the one left grieving, then we can take it to mean that the griever is barely making it: 'raised of make' could mean that the one grieving is 'raised' or standing vertical/alive but only just. Conversely, the line could mean that one is fashioned out of what one creates for oneself. Perhaps it is a bit of both since the next stanza, the cutting stanza 'Still alive who you love' offers up elevated positive emotion: a loved one is lost but still alive in memory.
From the dust moves the light (see stanza one, line two) in processing the grief there is chance of rebirth... 'in a mother, out a moth.' The choice to use the word 'furling,' in the line 'furling forest for the soft,' seems to be used purposely to denote more flag imagery. 'Furling' meaning "to gather into a compact roll and bind securely, as a sail against a spar or a flag against its staff," seams to me like the griever is yet again struggling, and perhaps in disbelief. The next line, 'Gotta know been lead aloft,' could be used to describe coming to terms with a loved one now being 'aloft' or in other words,"in the rigging overhead." See all the flag imagery now?!
The second to last stanza, which reads "So I'm ridding all your stories What I know, what it is, is pouring – wire it up!," is so powerful. Now that the one grieving has had time to process the loss of their loved one, they can now ride on memories, a pouring of memories and emotions. And 'wire it up,' seems to me like another use of flag imagery, like raise the flag to my amazing friend. I can grow for this experience, hence the closing line: 'Your'e breaking your ground,' be it Heath be the one in the ground, this loss will not take all of Heath's brilliance, creativity, and love because it is now stronger and more motivating than ever.
I'd say these are the official lyrics, as Vernon typed them up himself. If he saw fit to put in some errors to throw people off, that would be his prerogative but I'm not gonna try and correct this. In most cases the official lyrics sound more correct than what I heard in the songs before reading them.
As for meaning: One thing I noticed in the beginning stanza of the song is that the two words "fide" and "fane" look like abbreviations. Of course, fane could be spelled other ways for other meanings (fain or feign). But "confide" and "profane" sort of fit in the contexts. And another thing: this interpretation puts an extra emphasis on the parts that are taken out, "con" and "pro", which would add their own meaning.
Just some random musing.
Wow, that's a keen observation you've made there. I wouldn't be surprised if you are correct. Only a genius like Justin could write something on that level.
Wow, that's a keen observation you've made there. I wouldn't be surprised if you are correct. Only a genius like Justin could write something on that level.
i love the break-down in this song. so insanely genius.
Although I do love the interpretation of the lyrics that crow heart posted, these are in fact the correct ones. See http://boniver.org/#/albums/words/
Actually Justin wasn't friends with Heath. But its kind of about Heath and his death. Heres a excerpt about the song:
The first thing I worked on, the riff and the beginning melodies, was the first song on the record, 'Perth,'" Vernon says. "That was back in early 2008. The reason I called it that right away, is because I was with a guy that I didn't know very well, but basically, it's a long story, but in the three days we were supposed to spend together – he's a music video maker – in those three days, his best friend [Heath Ledger] died. And his best friend was from Perth. It just sort of became the beginning of the record. And Perth has such a feeling of isolation, and also it rhymes with birth, and every song I ended up making after that just sort of drifted towards that theme, tying themselves to places and trying to explain what places are and what places aren't.
what's the closest you can get to death without actually dying? perth, australia. perth is isolation, perth is transcedentalism. i'm still alive in australia if you need me.
This is about his friend mourning heath ledger's death in Perth.
@rabî66022 nah nah heath ledgers loved to ride horses in Perth :l that's where the perth title came from
@rabî66022 nah nah heath ledgers loved to ride horses in Perth :l that's where the perth title came from
This song is very expository; I live in Perth, Australia, and the line "this is a place / not yet awake" is very, very true. Perth is very sleepy and lazy. That line also seems to me like the time before the sunrises, and it feels like somewhat of a resolution. "furling forests for the soft" seems to me like Vernon looking out to rolling forests. I saw Bon Iver a few years back and he played up in the hills overlooking the city. This line fits the setting perfectly. The line "In a mother out a moth" is also intriguing; I can only read it as mother = giver of live and moth = full completion. I also love the confide / profane - con /pro ellipsis interpretation. In reviewing all of this I think it's half in part in exploring Perth, the place itself, and half about resolution or finding resolution there - becoming a moth, revealing a finality.