The Garden

i like how in the photo booklet in strategies against architecture III, they show blixa's original notes for this track, and it's just scribbled on some museum pamphlet

In the booklet by the CD:

Blixa: I was in the Prado Museumshop, when suddenly I heard an elderly English woman next to me saying to her companion: "You will find me if you want me in the garden, unless it's puring down with rain".....

Reading this lyric reminded me immediatly of the story of the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 2 & 3. Now, as is stated above, mr. Bargeld overheard someone talking in a museum and took that as the start for this song. But i cannot help but see references to the Genesis story. "You will find me by the banks of all four rivers": Genesis ch2 verse 10. The river that flows trough the Garden Eden splits into four rivers (Tigris and Eufrate among others). The apple is often used to depict the "fruit" Adam and Eve were not supposed to eat in chapter 3. The story in chapter 3 is also often called "the fall" and the main character is waiting for (spring, summer and) the fall, he's also waiting for the apples to fall. The main character can aslo be found by "the spring of consciousness". This is not an element from the genesis story, but the "forbidden fruit" (apple) comes from the "tree of knowledge of good and evil". Eating of this fruit gives you insight into good and evil, which can be understood as a "spring of consciousness"... but maybe it is referring to something else. Many artists took inspiration from biblical stories. this is not to say that this is a religious song. The story from Genesis is just a good narrative and the conversation overheard in the museum gave a great start to reinterprete the "story of the Fall", and make it into a more personal story, like Hirnlego understands it to be a story of a lost love... Well, that's just how I see it. Wether I'm right or not, we still all agree it's a great song! And i'm looking forward to hearing it live next Saturday!

I think AngeloKS is right! The symbolic religious hints are unmistakable: the perfect garden, the entrance of evil, the Fall, the weight of conscientiousness and loss. And, the music in the second half is borrowed directly from Arvo Part's 'Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten'. This particular musical work is all about loss and death. Part wrote it, duh haha, in memory of composer Benjamin Britten, whose music he greatly appreciated. All Music says of Part's music: "The most prominent melodic contour is a simple descending a minor scale; this descending line (...) hints at a kind of multidimensional chronology that exists only in the hereafter. The melodic voices can be read to correspond with the mortal and the eternal -a dichotomy of body and spirit." Apart from the genius trigger for this song (the elderly lady), there really is enormous depth in the lyrics and music, it expresses the deepest possible feelings between finite and infinite. Love it!

i think blixa stole the "you will find me..." part from 2 old women in spain eheheh comments annyone?

Hehe, yeah he said he overheard two old ladies talking, and that's where the idea for the songs comes from.

I heard it was an old man and a woman in a museum in London from a friend.

I like Blixa's museum shop story - good to know how song narratives and vignettes come to life in the mind, simply from overhearing a snippet of conversation. Before I read the comments above, I always thought that the song was about a fair weather friend, as opposed to a foul weather friend who is there no matter what.

Haha, boatman, that's a really nice explanation... But it seems like the truth is sometimes extremely simple!!=P Nahh, mr Blixa, you owe that woman credit!!!xD

What an awesome song!! Thank you dear lady for having that conversation right next to Blixa!!!:)

I think this is Blixa's the carny (In which Nick Cave doesn't dig down the horse named sorrow deep enough, and the rain (tears, sorrow) makes sorrow appear again...rising from her grave "We shoulda dugga deepa one").

It's a song about sorrow, a woman has left him but she can find him again in the garden if she wants. Unless it is raining...meaning he is weeping then she won't find him, he is elsewhere. The scream of course is there for the pain, and the music progresses very slowly forward...he is dealing with it but it doesn't go in a fast pace.

Or maybe it is enough to say that the song is like so many others are simply Rorschach tests.