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Vertical Lyrics
Mountains in Kauai
Make me feel so lowly
Cower at their power
Vertical I like
Dizzy under buildings
Bending like their willing
Is it what I’m seeing
Vertical is fright
Hard to gain perspective
Often it’s perplexing
Reaching for a record
Vertical is sight
Hanging on a pylon
Dropping from a million
Jumping hill to hill on
Vertical is height
People live above you
Postured like a totem
Runnin’ up some stairs oh
Vertical is might
Stalling on a nose and
Places to propose in
Seeing everything from
Vertical is light
Diamonds of the sky on
Black and endless background
Reaching out to grab them
Vertical at night
My imagination
Reaches to forever
Like an endless tower
Vertical I write
So high and still it sends a feeling through me
(Oh up above me falling over)
Suddenly not vertical
Breathe in the air the goes through a system that is
(down below me working steady)
Weary when it’s vertical
A tree we are with limbs extending to the sun
(Single holly
Finches calling)
Very lovely vertical
Come find me floating up if you should find me gone
(Nice and
Breezy
Spirits easy)
Did you hear a child say?
My feet can't cross the parking lot
The parking lot is way too hot
Then everything went vertical
At the tips of cities
Birds are tracing columns
Windows bend in wind
Vertical in flight
Down below a statue
People stand in poses
Making good impressions
Vertical delights
Lying on a trunk
And waiting to be dreaming
Startled by a thumpin
Vertical insight
Lots of people thinkin
Thinking about falling
Nothing but a rope so
Vertical hold tight
Sometimes you feel the pressure dropping on you
(Heavy folders
Daring soldiers)
Crashing from the vertical
I start to wonder does this system matter?
(Crumbling boulder
Couldn’t hold her)
Only if it’s vertical
Even in leaves some creatures build themselves a home
(Ancient maples
Empty stables)
Can’t always be vertical
Lifted above the din their worlds a peaceful dome
(Natures diet
Finding quiet)
They don’t hear the child say
My feet won’t cross the parking lot
The parking lot is way too hot
The everything went vertical
Make me feel so lowly
Cower at their power
Vertical I like
Dizzy under buildings
Bending like their willing
Is it what I’m seeing
Vertical is fright
Hard to gain perspective
Often it’s perplexing
Reaching for a record
Vertical is sight
Hanging on a pylon
Dropping from a million
Jumping hill to hill on
Vertical is height
Postured like a totem
Runnin’ up some stairs oh
Vertical is might
Stalling on a nose and
Places to propose in
Seeing everything from
Vertical is light
Diamonds of the sky on
Black and endless background
Reaching out to grab them
Vertical at night
My imagination
Reaches to forever
Like an endless tower
Vertical I write
(Oh up above me falling over)
Suddenly not vertical
(down below me working steady)
Weary when it’s vertical
A tree we are with limbs extending to the sun
(Single holly
Finches calling)
Very lovely vertical
(Nice and
Breezy
Spirits easy)
The parking lot is way too hot
Birds are tracing columns
Windows bend in wind
Vertical in flight
Down below a statue
People stand in poses
Making good impressions
Vertical delights
Lying on a trunk
And waiting to be dreaming
Startled by a thumpin
Vertical insight
Lots of people thinkin
Thinking about falling
Nothing but a rope so
Vertical hold tight
(Heavy folders
Daring soldiers)
Crashing from the vertical
(Crumbling boulder
Couldn’t hold her)
Only if it’s vertical
(Ancient maples
Empty stables)
Can’t always be vertical
(Natures diet
Finding quiet)
They don’t hear the child say
The parking lot is way too hot
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
The Hawaiian island of Kauai was formed by a large number of lava flow rock layers which built upon one another over time. Today the highest point of Kauai reaches over 5000 feet. The island is beautiful and impressive, but it can also give a person vertigo. Many viewpoints have steep drop-offs, and it is also common to tour the island via helicopter.
As the island metaphor suggests, the concept of "vertical" represents both the up/down spacial dimension as well as the process of incremental growth over time. The experience of being vertical can be inspiring, dizzying, frightening, and/or illuminating. It is common both to reach for record heights and also to worry about falling abruptly into setbacks. At the same time, one can also question whether reaching high heights is even important at all.
The meaning of the parking lot lines is less clear, but the repetition of these lines suggests they are important. Perhaps crossing the parking lot represents a childhood goal that is literally horizontal and rather meaningless by adult standards. Regardless of the true importance of this goal, at some point it is replaced by the desire to climb higher and higher when “everything went vertical.”
Another clue about the parking lot is that while the lyrics include many beautiful images about nature, parking lots are considered to be unnatural and ugly. The child could initially be complaining about the ugliness of this parking lot and humanity’s impact on the environment that contributes to the lot's hot surface. When everything goes vertical, however, the child realizes that the parking lot is simply a result of society’s natural vertical growth, which is not unlike trees growing taller in nature.