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Two By Two Lyrics
Wake before the sun comes, you’re going where you must
Where fire is born and dust returns to dust
Light in your eyes boy, dirt beneath your nails
And in your heart belief that love prevails
That girl so fair with ankles bare
You lost her to the wind
She sleeps below so down you go
An end, now, to begin
All you love commit to the ash
All you worked for gone in a flash
You can’t look forward while you’re looking back
Where come the lyre, boy, that led you here today
Now it seems she hasn’t much to say
But no need for further talk, let’s say you’re understood
You’ll have your chance to take her back for good
Just mind the rules, the devil’s tools
Business first at pleasure’s cost
If you should chance one backward glance
All will be lost
All you love commit to the ash
All you worked for gone in a flash
You can’t look forward while you’re looking back
There’ll be no good-byes, boy, that boat won’t slow for you
You tried and failed, it’s more than most would do
So dream a dream of going to by two
Dream a dream of going two by two
Where fire is born and dust returns to dust
Light in your eyes boy, dirt beneath your nails
And in your heart belief that love prevails
You lost her to the wind
She sleeps below so down you go
An end, now, to begin
All you worked for gone in a flash
You can’t look forward while you’re looking back
Now it seems she hasn’t much to say
But no need for further talk, let’s say you’re understood
You’ll have your chance to take her back for good
Business first at pleasure’s cost
If you should chance one backward glance
All will be lost
All you worked for gone in a flash
You can’t look forward while you’re looking back
You tried and failed, it’s more than most would do
So dream a dream of going to by two
Dream a dream of going two by two
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This song is about Orpheus, and the loss of his wife Eurydice because he couldn't "mind the rules" and "chanced one backward glance".
"TWO BY TWO is the eighth song on AN UNWAVERING BAND OF LIGHT. This song was created after drum tracking for the album had already been completed. Dan wanted to write a couple more songs to have in the running for final album track list selection, but we wrote within the parameters of not being able to record any more drum kit. As a result there’s a lot of pots and pans and slinky percussion. I always think of this song as a serpent, the same way I think about Joni Mitchell’s “The Jungle Line.”
I wrote the chorus lyrics first:
All you love commit to the ash All you worked for gone in a flash You can’t look forward while you’re looking back
…and originally worked on two sets of verses that each followed a different theme. Set 1 explored human volcano sacrifice, which has haunted me since I first saw it in an animated Garfield holiday special when I was 7 or 8. Set 2, which ultimately became the final lyrics, follows the grieving Orpheus down into Hades as he tries to recover the lost Eurydice.
When I was a kid my mom worked across the street from the county library and some days during summer break I’d just hang out there from 9 to 5, reading anything and everything. Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology got under my skin early and stayed for good. "
-Jenny Owen Youngs on "Two by Two"