400 Bones

Maybe the most beautiful love song ever, even with the morbid imagery.

I will miss this guy terribly, few could write as bravely and openly and the soundscape produced by the band was a perfect complement to the beautifully crafted melodies.

I have spent a lot of time listening to this song recently and I think it is one of FR's most optimistic, powerful, and encouraging songs despite the sadness that still lingers within it, that sadness isn't despair, but joy of love, life and memory.

This is my understanding of the song.

"Four hundred bones, crumpled in bed"

The easiest line to interpret, with 400 bones being a reference to two people (the human body has about 200 bones in it), the choice of the word 'crumpled' is interesting, there are connotations there of exhaustion, or perhaps damage, you crumple things before you discard them, two people who are both broken in some way but who have each other and can take solace in that.

"I'm the only one who knows that you're still breathing"

This line I think means that they are isolated from the world, nothing exists in this moment beyond the two of them, no one knows that they are even alive, they are just enjoying this peaceful moment in each other's presence. It could mean that the partner of the speaker is sick and expected to die soon, no one knows that she/he hasn't died yet, or perhaps a combination of both, but I think the former meaning fits better with the rest of the song

"Beneath the blanket, of another French death"

While French death sounds sad or depressing, I wasn't sure what it meant so I looked up the term and Wikipedia suggested that "la petite mort" is French for the little death, a term used in modern times to describe the "period of transcendence" post orgasm, a reflective, happy, exhilarating moment that these two have just shared together and now lay together under it's "blanket" experiencing it together. This is a positive feeling, I like the mention in that article too that Barthes suggested this should be the feeling we get when we read great literature, and maybe I could add to that or when we hear great music. I think this is what could be meant by the French death.

"This afternoon is one I will be keeping"

This is the line that convinces me that this is a positive song and a positive moment, the speaker will be remembering this afternoon because of the joy it brings him.

"Where skin is painted by a brush from the Sun"

some nice imagery here, the warmth of the sun running over their skin

"Pull the sheets up to your neck so She can't see us"

pulling the sheets up to cover their nakedness from the sun

"And let the clocks do all the worrying for once"

This is another line that shows this is a comforting and encouraging song, the moment is so blissful that not even the clock, a symbol for the ever present passage of time and the existential dread that comes from the pressure of not "wasting" time or wasting any of your life, here not even the ticking of a clock can cause any worry to the couple.

"We're passing out inside the sleeping mausoleum"

This is the line that is challenging, since the mausoleum is a place of death, yet this moment seems to be a happy one, but I think since it is a "sleeping" mausoleum it is not a place of death yet, it has not awakened to become a mausoleum it is just a place where the two of them can share a moment. This line does foreshadow the somewhat tragic turn at the end of the song however.

"This is my safe house in the hurricane Here is where my love lays, two hundred treasured bones"

the safe house being the presence of the partner, a shelter from the chaos, confusion, despair and destruction of the hurricane of life.

"This is my warmth behind the Cold War This is what I'm living for, forever coming home"

The reference to the Cold War is another line I am not positive about, but I think he wanted to juxtapose the warmth of the relationship, but possibly the Cold War being a reference to the dread of the 70's that nuclear war would end the world, in the face of that dread the speaker still has a will to live because of the existence of the partner, the speaker has a reason to keep returning home and not give into the fear of annihilation.

"Here's to the room I can rest in The door I've always opened, never to be closed"

The room to rest in speaking about peacefulness, true rest from anxiousness or fear, complete comfort and relaxation because of the presence of the partner. The door never to be closed means that it will not be taken away from the speaker no matter what happens.

"You as my horizon line, the star I navigate by Takes me back to hold 200 perfect bones"

This is the line that makes me well up every time I hear it, just a beautiful pair of metaphors here. The horizon line being the line that defines the boundary between ground and sky, also connected to the vanishing point where existence could start and end, the partner defines the existence or identity of the speaker, gives the speaker the boundaries within which the speaker can exist. The star I navigate by as a reference to sailing where sailors would use the stars to figure out how to get home, the partner is the speaker's home, where he exists, feels alive, feels like himself/herself.

"On absent days I will return to this place And play a silent colour film within my head"

In the last verse here there is a melancholy turn, it is clear that the partner has died or is gone (likely death judging by the last line), but the speaker comes to remember their time together, the silent colour film, the fact it is colour is important since that means the memory is vivid and clear.

"In which the pillow leaves a cold upon your face And all at once it all makes perfect sense"

This is the line that I am the least confident about, but I think that this is something that indicates that the partner has died since normally pillows would heat up from human heat and human contact, the idea that when you turn your pillow over the other side is always cold, so if the pillow is cold on the partner's face then the partner is dead or not really there, however this memory is what brings the speaker to their epiphany, and "it all makes perfect sense." The speaker has figured out "all" of it, life, the meaning of life is to find a love and hold onto it, since a life without love is a life unfulfilled, love is the reason people exist on this planet, and he also realizes that something you love will never truly be gone (see the next line)

"400 bones crumpled in bed I'm the only one who knows that you're still breathing"

Here the song is framed by the repetition of the first two lines, but I believe the meaning here is different, the 400 bones are crumpled in bed again because even though the speaker's partner is gone, they are still with him/her in memory, and the speaker knows they are alive (still breathing) because they live on through the speaker's memory and love, so while the partner is not physically alive, they are spiritually alive or metaphysically alive.