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Stubborn Beast Lyrics
Such a stubborn beast
Is best away from the flock
You've enough pride for all of us
As you wander your island
Unborn and unloved
You set fire to the bridges
That you were carried across
But those letters
They're all strewn across your bedroom floor
Such beautiful words
But you just can't remember who they're for
By your window there's a picture filled with strangers
Always looking down on you
Such a frightened fawn
Is best far from the road
No you wouldn't want to expose your flesh to your bones
But you can't help but notice
All those letters
Well they're all strewn across your bedroom floor
Such beautiful words
But you just can't remember who they're for
By your window sits a picture filled with strangers
Always looking down on you
Always sticking around for you
They were always looking around for you
But never able to find you
Is best away from the flock
You've enough pride for all of us
As you wander your island
Unborn and unloved
You set fire to the bridges
That you were carried across
But those letters
They're all strewn across your bedroom floor
Such beautiful words
But you just can't remember who they're for
By your window there's a picture filled with strangers
Always looking down on you
Is best far from the road
No you wouldn't want to expose your flesh to your bones
But you can't help but notice
All those letters
Well they're all strewn across your bedroom floor
Such beautiful words
But you just can't remember who they're for
By your window sits a picture filled with strangers
Always looking down on you
Always sticking around for you
They were always looking around for you
But never able to find you
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To me this song feels like a song written by a person with anxiety or depression who hates himself. They are missing who they used to be "Such beautiful words But you just can't remember who they're for" they wrote things or said things to people before but now they can't access those emotions.
"As you wander your island Unborn and unloved You set fire to the bridges That you were carried across"
shows that they have created this island isolation and then burned all of the bridges, something that I and many others have done while suffering with depression.
"By your window there's a picture filled with strangers Always looking down on you"
the strangers are people they once knew, family probably. They don't know them any more because of the isolation and the disease.
"Always sticking around for you They were always looking around for you But never able to find you"
is the most powerful part of the song. These strangers who you built an island to get away from and burnt all the bridges have always been there, they just couldn't find you because you were hiding in your disease. They have always loved you.
@tobiin I always pictured it (at least based on the chorus) about someone who has developed Alzheimer's disease, and that the "stubborn beast" is the disease itself.
@tobiin I always pictured it (at least based on the chorus) about someone who has developed Alzheimer's disease, and that the "stubborn beast" is the disease itself.
She's written all these letters to people she cares about before the onset of her disease, and reading them with her current condition, the connections she'd made with these apparently important people have vanished. She recognizes her own writing, but can't for the life of her remember who they're for.
She's written all these letters to people she cares about before the onset of her disease, and reading them with her current condition, the connections she'd made with these apparently important people have vanished. She recognizes her own writing, but can't for the life of her remember who they're for.
For the pictures filled with strangers, I imagined also her family, with meaningful expressions she feels like she recognizes in some...
For the pictures filled with strangers, I imagined also her family, with meaningful expressions she feels like she recognizes in some way, but doesn't. They way they're "always looking down" on her, she feels as if they blame her for this condition she can't control, and she has no idea why.
I think the verses better support your interpretation, though.
@masonmcconell1 wow I really appreciate that interpretation. I think a lot of the song is better explained by that idea. Not all of it but most. That's the incredible beauty of music I think. Something can be so clear and so relatable to someone for one thing but so clear and relatable to someone else for a completely different reason! Thanks for sharing!
Interesting! To me, this song is about an Alzheimer's / dementia patient in a home. I can't fully explain some of the lyrics in the verses, but I take the letters to be for the person with Alzheimer's, and they assume that the letters are for someone else. Then the line about the picture "filled with strangers" is a photograph of loved ones, but in the patient's confusion, the perception of them shifts between them being condescending figures (looking down on you), protective (sticking around for you) and concerned (looking around for you)