In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
I've got a hollow inside my stomach
That I can't seem to fill
With all the things
That I believe
I fill it with meat and I fill it with bread
And I fill it with drink on a
Saturday evening
'Til Sunday morning
But I'm still hungry
For something to fill me
Ah, make me whole again
So I won't be hungry anymore
Anymore
My own neighbor knew wood and skin
He was good with his hands always
Heavy with drinking
My own neighbor
My own neighbor's wife came home
In the early morning
She grabbed the little girl and
She took off in the half-light
To the Best Western
Now he's looking for
Something to fill his time
True, give his heavy hands
Something to fold, oh
Fill his time
True, give his heavy hands
Something to fold, oh
But if you're
If you're coming back
To me blindly
But if you're coming home
Cold and hungry
I'm gonna die
You're needing form
Youth from a baby
For your whole life
Form a lovely
For your figure, oh
That I can't seem to fill
With all the things
That I believe
I fill it with meat and I fill it with bread
And I fill it with drink on a
Saturday evening
'Til Sunday morning
But I'm still hungry
For something to fill me
Ah, make me whole again
So I won't be hungry anymore
Anymore
My own neighbor knew wood and skin
He was good with his hands always
Heavy with drinking
My own neighbor
My own neighbor's wife came home
In the early morning
She grabbed the little girl and
She took off in the half-light
To the Best Western
Now he's looking for
Something to fill his time
True, give his heavy hands
Something to fold, oh
Fill his time
True, give his heavy hands
Something to fold, oh
But if you're
If you're coming back
To me blindly
But if you're coming home
Cold and hungry
I'm gonna die
You're needing form
Youth from a baby
For your whole life
Form a lovely
For your figure, oh
Lyrics submitted by videojames
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I had this really amazing revelation about this song when I was literally moments from falling asleep, and it completely woke me up. These lyrics are beautiful and painfully underrated. The lyric that shook me was: "Ah, make me whole again..." and only at that point did I realize that the the hunger the song speaks of is referencing the feeling of not wanting to feel empty anymore... "I've got a hollow inside my stomach that I can't seem to fill..." What a poetic song.
This song to me is The Middle East best, the "hunger" that this song is about is Spiritual or Existential hunger, it's about a desire to fill the void inside, to become whole again. The song begins as a mediation on the condition of spiritual hunger,
I've got a hollow inside my stomach That I can't seem to fill With all the things That I believe
I fill it with meat and I fill it with bread And I fill it with drink on a Saturday evening 'Til Sunday morning
But I'm still hungry For something to fill me Ah, make me whole again So I won't be hungry anymore Anymore
I fill myself intellectually with abstractions (beliefs, ideologies) I fill myself psychically with food and drink, with partying all night, but I'm still hungry, still wanting more, still looking out there to fill me, make me whole again, when what this personal should be doing is looking inward to become whole again. This is a basic tenant of Zen Buddhism, that the ego, the idea of self, separates us from the cosmos, it causes suffering also known as desire also know as hunger for anything to make us whole, so we look externally for something to fill our time, to fill the void. But if you took time to realize that the ego and that sense of self is actually an illusion and that you are one with everything, that wholeness can return. You can become whole again.
The rest of the song is about a man who abuses his wife and little girl, a man who fills his spiritual hunger with drinking and violence. Who's wife comes home in the early morning grabs her little girl and takes off. The man now devoid of his outlet to express his frustrations, his demons, now is left with silence, is now alone to try and find a away to "fill his time" to find something for his "hands to fold on" then comes to realization about what his lost and now wants it back.