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The Barrel Lyrics
I feel your love
I feel time is up
When I was a child, I never knew enough
What that do to me?
The wave of love is a transient hunt
Water's the shell and we are the nut
But I saw a hand arch out of the barrel
Look at all the peaches
How do you celebrate?
Can't appear inside of nowhere
It's already dead
I know you have the dove
I'm not getting wet
Looks like a date is set
Show the ferret to the egg
I'm not gettin' led along
I rushed in to hold down your page
And now I sleep 'side words you do not read with me
I hear a song from inside the maze, the very one you made
You shook at the ivory mantle
As a poet, I knew to be gentle
When you have a child, so begins the braiding
And in that braid you stay
Look at all the peaches
I want to celebrate
I can appear inside of nowhere
Look at all the peaches
It's already dead
I know you have the dove
I'm not getting wet
Looks like a date is set
Show the ferret to the egg
I'm not getting led along
The wave of love is a transient hunt
Water's the shell and we are the nut
But I saw a match struck outside the barrel
It's already dead
I know you have the dove
I'm not getting wet
(The barrel)
(The barrel)
Looks like a date is set
Show the ferret to the egg
I'm not getting led along
(The barrel)
(The barrel)
It's already dead
I know you have the dove
I'm not getting wet
(The barrel)
(The barrel)
Looks like a date is set
Show the ferret to the egg
I'm not getting led along
(The barrel)
(The barrel)
(The barrel)
(The barrel)
(The barrel)
(The barrel)
I feel time is up
When I was a child, I never knew enough
What that do to me?
The wave of love is a transient hunt
Water's the shell and we are the nut
But I saw a hand arch out of the barrel
Look at all the peaches
How do you celebrate?
Can't appear inside of nowhere
It's already dead
I know you have the dove
I'm not getting wet
Looks like a date is set
Show the ferret to the egg
I'm not gettin' led along
I rushed in to hold down your page
And now I sleep 'side words you do not read with me
I hear a song from inside the maze, the very one you made
You shook at the ivory mantle
As a poet, I knew to be gentle
When you have a child, so begins the braiding
And in that braid you stay
Look at all the peaches
I want to celebrate
I can appear inside of nowhere
Look at all the peaches
It's already dead
I know you have the dove
I'm not getting wet
Looks like a date is set
Show the ferret to the egg
I'm not getting led along
The wave of love is a transient hunt
Water's the shell and we are the nut
But I saw a match struck outside the barrel
It's already dead
I know you have the dove
I'm not getting wet
(The barrel)
(The barrel)
Looks like a date is set
Show the ferret to the egg
I'm not getting led along
(The barrel)
(The barrel)
It's already dead
I know you have the dove
I'm not getting wet
(The barrel)
(The barrel)
Looks like a date is set
Show the ferret to the egg
I'm not getting led along
(The barrel)
(The barrel)
(The barrel)
(The barrel)
(The barrel)
(The barrel)
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The best way to unravel this song is to understand it as a series of cryptic metaphors all surrounding the process of love, sex, conception, pregnancy, birth, parenting and how it all changes ones identity until we finally die. Note the imagery of the flesh like canals made of sheets. The phalic headdress. The diaper and rattlers. Then the video transitions to the old blue face and invokes elderly postures and poses in the choreography. Its all very loose and relies on a cloudwork of suggestions and inferences. Like all great modern art, its logic is vague in order to provoke deeper reflection on the importance of a subject rather than mentally checking the box and moving on. This in turns leaves a lasting impact on the observer.
Such a compelling, poetic song. There's so much here, it's incredible. Not gonna pretend to know what the artist's intent is, just what my best guess is (at least for today). On the most surface level, it's about a moribund relationship ("it's already dead"), one where a lover has the scales fall from her eyes and has an awakening: when the love is gone, and she has one foot out the door (or one hand arching out). The barrel is a metaphor for a confining, suffocating space. The peaches represent newfound sensuality. Love is random and we construct these barrels as false constructs, the invention of one "soul mate", the idea of romantic monogamy, all the things we were led to believe growing up (the braiding). The dove is hope, false hope? Ferret in Latin means "little thief", a name given by its penchant to secret away small things. Perhaps these small things are feelings that don't fit in the idea of what's "acceptable"—and the ferret represents animal instinct; perhaps "showing the ferret to the egg" means to give into her true and honest desires. When she talks about sleeping besides words that are no longer read together, it sounds like the person she fell for (the one she "rushed in to hold down" the page) has changed. She can still sense what she fell in love with ("the song from inside the maze"), but the relationship has created a complication of something which was once pure. In her mind, her lover is a faint and distant echo of someone she used to love. The maze is the painful, emotional distance of not being able to truly connect with someone. That said, this song is remarkably hopeful... in a way it reminds me very much of Fleetwood Mac's "I Don't Wanna Know" ... while tonally different, it's about recognizing the end of a relationship in a way that understands love as a greater force that guides us in ways we can't always understand
@disco_nnect that interpretation is amazing! Wow
@disco_nnect that interpretation is amazing! Wow
@disco_nnect Amazing interpretation. “Rhiannon” also might be a spiritual cousin (of course, interpretation depends on perspective - when singing, Aldous speaks to both person reading, and the sleeper). So long as on Fleetwood Mac and themes of love and feeling unable to communicate or connect.
@disco_nnect Amazing interpretation. “Rhiannon” also might be a spiritual cousin (of course, interpretation depends on perspective - when singing, Aldous speaks to both person reading, and the sleeper). So long as on Fleetwood Mac and themes of love and feeling unable to communicate or connect.
@disco_nnect thanks so much for this offering. It matches closely with my first impression of the song after really listening to the lyrics. That being said, my interpretation has changed over multiple listenings and so offer a slightly different take: i don't see this as a song at the end of a relationship...i see it as a luke-warm re-affirmation of a love that was feeling stale and distant. It's a love between people who have children, but are avoiding the heavy commitment of marriage (you shook before the ivory mantle/as a poet i knew to be gentle). The song...
@disco_nnect thanks so much for this offering. It matches closely with my first impression of the song after really listening to the lyrics. That being said, my interpretation has changed over multiple listenings and so offer a slightly different take: i don't see this as a song at the end of a relationship...i see it as a luke-warm re-affirmation of a love that was feeling stale and distant. It's a love between people who have children, but are avoiding the heavy commitment of marriage (you shook before the ivory mantle/as a poet i knew to be gentle). The song seems to be about the need to escape from this nut/barrel on the wave of love, which is, by its nature, transient but also concedes that the peaches are out of reach. The line "it's already dead" seems to me to point to an acknowledgement that the time for other peaches has passed because "i know you have the dove" i.e. you possess that which symbolizes home and dry ground after the flood. As for "show the ferret to the egg" i am not entirely sure but your thoughtful analysis has led me to think it could be about the prospect of another child to continue the "braiding" of the union within the nut (totally encased) or the barrel (hollow and open to the outside). I am not entirely sure that there is just one clear message but i just want to offer up a new way to think about the poetry of the lyrics. Thanks again for helping me think it through
Absolute guess but from what she wears in the video, the many references to water and a barrel. Annie Edson Taylor comes to mind, the dress is very similar if you image search the name. She survived going over Niagara falls in a barrel.
@JustAHunch The song reminds me so much of Niagara Falls. Barrels and water, people died doing that, they were obsessed to do go over the edge (Can a ferret resist an egg?). Its also an area where until the last 5 years or so was a major peach growing region. In mid summer all of a sudden peaches are everywhere. White doves and mantles, well lots of people get married at Niagara falls or go there for a honeymoon. Getting married and having kids puts a commitment there: orderly and restraining like a braid restrains hair. Love the song!...
@JustAHunch The song reminds me so much of Niagara Falls. Barrels and water, people died doing that, they were obsessed to do go over the edge (Can a ferret resist an egg?). Its also an area where until the last 5 years or so was a major peach growing region. In mid summer all of a sudden peaches are everywhere. White doves and mantles, well lots of people get married at Niagara falls or go there for a honeymoon. Getting married and having kids puts a commitment there: orderly and restraining like a braid restrains hair. Love the song! Takes me back to Niagara Falls every time.
yep he's throwed over
He wants a baby but she feels she is already too old, and really don't want one. Having a child is a lot of work. She just want to have fun and enjoy life and their love for eachother.
hmm we have a "wave of love" and many references to water/wet. could "the barrel" refer to part of a wave? in surfing a barrel is the most critical part of a wave, difficult to stay in. too slow and it closes in on you, too fast and you lose it. much like a relationship. you are also surrounded by a tunnel of spinning water and then come out into the light, very birthlike.