Fox's Dream of the Log Flume

This is straight from the lyrics book all punctuation is how they wrote it in the book. All I did was add spaces between the animals. I'd have added stanzas but it may have changed the meaning from the original intent, so here is it clean from the paper. :)

FOX: Provisionally 'I' practically alive mistook signs for signified and so since have often tried to run them off a cliff like Gadarene swine and tied my thought-ropes in anchor bends wondering whether we were someone better then, or maybe just better able to pretend (and what better means to our inevitable end!)

BEAR: No, I don't know if I know, though some with certainty insist 'no certainty exists' well I'm certain enough of this: In the past 14 years, there's only one girl I've kissed in the blistering heat of the Asbury pier we sat quiet as monks on the Ferris wheel until looking down at the waltzer and out at the sea I asked her 'do you ever have that recurring fantasy where you push little kids from the tops of the rides?' She shook her head no I said 'Oh, neither do I' and with my grandmother's ring I went down on one knee and the subsequent catastrophe has since haunted me like a fiberglass ghost in the attic my inconveniently selective memory as provisionally 'You' mercifully withdrew all the bearing points we thought we knew day's run day's set plot our compass shot we sailed waywardly on singing our midnight archer songs until well past dawn it's still dark on the deck of our boats haphazardly blown broken bows our aimless arrow-words don't mean a thing so by now I think it's pretty obvious that there's no God and there's definitely a God

FOX: I dreamt of the rocks on the Asbury dunes, and that you jumped from the top of the Log Flume, and they gather like wolves on the boardwalk below and they're howling for answers no wolf can know - I charged at the waves with a glass in my hand, and was tossed like a ball at the bottle stand & landed beside your remains on the stones where your cold fingers wrapped round my ankle bone while maybe ten feet away was a star thousands of times the size of our sun exploding like tiny balloons you'd throw darts at

BEAR: I slept until our chest was full of yarn we spun from Shetland wool in socks from where the Dorset grows sheared & scoured hours before the rooster crows

FOX: The price of German silver fell threw disused thalers down the superstition well

A thaler is a coin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaler

For goodness sakes, everyone's posting the lyrics but nobody's posting an interpretation! Geesh...

"And so since I’ve often cried/tried? To run them off a cliff like Gadarene swine"

refers to the location where the passage in Mark 5:1-13 took place when Jesus expels demons from a possessed man and the demons beg to be cast into a nearby herd of pigs. The pigs then ran off a cliff. The location in some versions is written "Gerasenes" and in others, "Gadarene."

I'm pretty sure its:

"You're looking down at the water, out at the sea. I asked her, '___ have a reoccuring fantasy where you push little kids from the tops of the rides?'"

"They're howling for answers no wolf can know."

I've been gnawing at this for 4 days now, "tailor" is the one thing that just doesn't make sense...

Provisionally I, practically alive Mistook sign for signified And so since I’ve often cried To run them off a cliff like Gadarene swine Inside my wardrobe seem anchor bent, wondering whether we were somewhat better than or maybe just better able to pretend and what better means to our inevitable end? you know, I don't know if I know though some, with certainty insist no certainty exists! well I'm certain of this, in the past 14 years, there's only one girl I've kissed!

In the blistering heat of the Asbury pier we sat quiet as monks on the Ferris wheel looking down at the water down at the sea I asked her, “did it ever occur to you a fantasy where you pushed little kids from the tops of the ride?” Then she shook her head no and I said “oh, neither do I” and with my grandma's ring I went down on one knee and the subsequent catastrophe has since haunted me (like a fiberglass ghost) asking of my inconveniently selective memory

Provisionally you mercifully withdrew all the bearing points we thought we knew Days run, days set clock, our calm is shot one common shot we sailed waywardly on singing our midnight archer's songs until well past dawn it's still dark in the deck of our boat haphazardly blown, broken bows

our aimless arrow words don't mean a thing to whether I think it's pretty obvious that there's no God and there's definitely a God!

I dreamt of the rocks at the Asbury dunes that you jumped from the top of the log flume and they gathered like wolves on the boardwalk below they're addling for answers no wolf could know

I charged at the waves With a glass in my hand I was tossed like a ball at the bottle stand and I landed beside your remains on the stones where you cold fingers wrapped around my ankle bones

maybe ten feet away was a star thousands of times the size of our sun exploding like the carny balloons you throw darts at

we slept until our chest was full of yarn we’d spun from Shetland wool socks from where the Dorset grows sheared and scoured hours before the rooster crows

the price of German silver fell Through this huge tailor? down the superstition well

"wondering whether we were somewhat better then or maybe just better able to pretend and what better means to our inevitable end? you know, I don't know if I know" - He's wondering whether he was a "better" person or just better at putting up a front, and then asking what does "better" mean in their finite existence as humans, and that he's not sure of anything.

"maybe ten feet away was a star thousands of times the size of our sun exploding like the carny balloons" referring to God.

"we slept until our chest was full of yarn we’d spun from Shetland wool socks from where the Dorset grows sheared and scoured hours before the rooster crows" - Shetland and Dorset are both different breeds of sheep. Earlier, he mentions wolves. At first I thought maybe it was an allusion to Matthew 10:16 but upon further inspection, I realized, William Blake has a line in The Marginalia that says, "who writes what he should tell, and dares not tell what he writes, is either like a wolf in sheep's clothing, or like a sheep in a wolf's skin. Some cannot tell what they can write tho they dare." This is all very vague research but it's interesting to see how Aaron integrates history and art with personal experiences and christian existentialism.

Corrections from lyric booklet

Provisionally 'I' practically alive Mistook signs for signified And so since I’ve often tried To run them off a cliff like Gadarene swine and tied my thought-ropes in anchor bends wondering whether we were someone better then, or maybe just better able to pretend (and what better means to our inevitable end!) Bear: No, I don't know if I know though some, with certainty insist 'no certainty exists' well I'm certain enough of this: in the past 14 years, there's only one girl I've kissed In the blistering heat of the Asbury pier we sat quiet as monks on the Ferris wheel Until looking down at the waltzer and out at the sea I asked her, “did it ever have that recurring fantasy where you push little kids from the tops of the ride?” she shook her head no I said “oh, neither do I” and with my grandmother's ring I went down on one knee and the subsequent catastrophe has since haunted me like a fiberglass ghost in the attic my inconveniently selective memory as provisionally 'You' mercifully withdrew all the bearing points we thought we knew Day's run, days set plot our compass shot
we sailed waywardly on singing out midnight archer songs until well past dawn it's still dark in the deck of our boat haphazardly blown broken bows our aimless arrow-words don't mean a thing so by now I think it's pretty obvious that there's no God and there's definitely a God!

Fox: I dreamt of the rocks at the Asbury dunes, and that you jumped from the top of the Log Flume, and they gather like wolves on the boardwalk below and they're howling for answers no wolf can know

I charged at the waves With a glass in my hand I was tossed like a ball at the bottle stand and landed beside your remains on the stones where you cold fingers wrapped around my ankle bone while maybe ten feet away was a star thousands of times the size of our sun exploding like the tiny balloons you'd throw darts at

Bear: I slept until our chest was full of yarn we spun from Shetland wool in socks from where the Dorset grows sheared and scoured hours before the rooster crows

Fox: the price of German silver fell threw this disused thalers down the superstition well

I love this song. Haley Williams sounds beautiful though faintly in the back. It was said that i have read about Aaron Weiss proposing to his sister Amanda with his grandmothers ring. Also about the swines.. i just read this in Matthew 8:31. Those are the obvious i suppose:

But personally when i read this my own personal interpretation falls upon the daily struggle one has in faith that is devised by daily life. Pursuing things of the heart and materializing in the flesh.. though what you think is right turns out to be humiliating and wrong. How though you can believe so much you can and mostly like will always fall short of His grace.. and even in that there is His glory and mercy.

Just my opinion. I will be purchasing this.. i heard they used their own money to fund so please contribute. God Bless.

"I dreamt of the rocks at the Asbury dunes, and that you jumped from the top of the Log Flume,"

So bear kills himself...

"...and they gather like wolves on the boardwalk below and they're howling for answers no wolf can know"

And everyone gathers around his body, and is trying to figure out why he would do such a thing.

"I charged at the waves with a glass in my hand, and was tossed like a ball at the bottle stand"

This line is utterly brilliant. Remember in A Glass Can Only Spill What It Contains, and the Nice and Blue songs, the imagery of having a glass and filling it up. Also the common motif of Water being what cleanses you of your sins. So the sea is God and his Kingdom

So he charges at the sea with a glass in his hand. This has to mean that he sees this endless expanse of God and he tried to run into it for answers with the idea of filling up his cup and bringing it back, but what he encountered shook up his understanding of everything and then tossed him back into the world where he lands next to the corpse of his friend

"...and landed beside your remains on the stones where your cold fingers wrapped round my ankle bone"

His friends death is what causes him to run into the ocean, but God puts him right back next to him after throwing him around. His friend comes back to life which I interpret to mean that Bear has given up his old life for a new one with God. Bear grabs Fox, more or less telling him that he is one of the dead now after experiencing God. Fox was trying intellectually relate to his salvation to his Worldly self at the beginning of the song, but now realizes that its not about making your worldly self better, but about letting it die. So Bear kills off his old self, and then Fox realizes that the ocean has killed him too,

"while maybe ten feet away was a star thousands of times the size of our sun exploding like tiny balloons you'd throw darts at"

Clearly another metaphor for God, but this time one that's made of fire and explosions and therefore light. I picture Fox being grabbed by the "Dead" bear, coming to the realization that he is indeed dead as well, and therefore a fellow member of the kingdom, and he turns around and sees this gigantic, magestic, scary, explosive, unfathomably large ball of Light (another biblical metaphor for God.)

"BEAR: I slept until our chest was full of yarn we spun from Shetland wool in socks from where the Dorset grows sheared