"This Is The Sea" as written by and Michael Scott....
These things you keep
You'd better throw them away
You wanna turn your back
On your soulless days
Once you were tethered
And now you are free
Once you were tethered
Well now you are free
That was the river
This is the sea!
Now if you're feelin' weary
If you've been alone too long
Maybe you've been suffering from
A few too many
Plans that have gone wrong
And you're trying to remember
How fine your life used to be
Running around banging your drum
Like it's 1973
Well that was the river
This is the sea!
Wooo!
Now you say you've got trouble
You say you've got pain
You say've got nothing left to believe in
Nothing to hold on to
Nothing to trust
Nothing but chains
You're scouring your conscience
Raking through your memories
Scouring your conscience
Raking through your memories
But that was the river
This is the sea yeah!
Now I can see you wavering
As you try to decide
You've got a war in your head
And it's tearing you up inside
You're trying to make sense
Of something that you just can't see
Trying to make sense now
And you know you once held the key
But that was the river
And this is the sea!
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah!
Now I hear there's a train
It's coming on down the line
It's yours if you hurry
You've got still enough time
And you don't need no ticket
And you don't pay no fee
No you don't need no ticket
You don't pay no fee
Because that was the river
And this is the sea!
Behold the sea!
You'd better throw them away
You wanna turn your back
On your soulless days
Once you were tethered
And now you are free
Once you were tethered
Well now you are free
That was the river
This is the sea!
Now if you're feelin' weary
If you've been alone too long
Maybe you've been suffering from
A few too many
Plans that have gone wrong
And you're trying to remember
How fine your life used to be
Running around banging your drum
Like it's 1973
Well that was the river
This is the sea!
Wooo!
Now you say you've got trouble
You say you've got pain
You say've got nothing left to believe in
Nothing to hold on to
Nothing to trust
Nothing but chains
You're scouring your conscience
Raking through your memories
Scouring your conscience
Raking through your memories
But that was the river
This is the sea yeah!
Now I can see you wavering
As you try to decide
You've got a war in your head
And it's tearing you up inside
You're trying to make sense
Of something that you just can't see
Trying to make sense now
And you know you once held the key
But that was the river
And this is the sea!
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah!
Now I hear there's a train
It's coming on down the line
It's yours if you hurry
You've got still enough time
And you don't need no ticket
And you don't pay no fee
No you don't need no ticket
You don't pay no fee
Because that was the river
And this is the sea!
Behold the sea!
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The train is the final metaphor for changes...it moves from place to place, new people, new stories, new jokes to laugh at,new summer beaches and everything good that life can offer, and this time u dont have to sacrifice anything (material or emotional) to make that change.
The final verse is missing:"Behold the sea", and then the song finishes
There's actually an acoustic version of this song which has different lyrics. It's mostly the same but the changes give a good indication of the meaning. The main difference is in the 3rd verse
These things you keep
You better throw them away
Turn your back
On all your old ways
Once you were tethered
Now you are free
Once you were tethered
Now you are free
That was the river
This is the sea
If you're feelin' weary
Maybe you been up too long
maybe you're sufferin' from
A few too many
Plans that have gone wrong
Don't try to remember
How good it all used to be
Don't try to remember
how good life used to be
Because that was the river
This is the sea
Now you say you got trouble
You say you got pain
You say you've been so confused
Seeing all your lies
Again and again and again
Say your lost lover
He was nothin like me
Say your old lost lover
He was nothing like me
Well he was the river
This is the sea
Now I can see you wavering
As you try to decide
There's a war in your head
And it's tearin' you up inside
Just forget all your schoolin'
It won't give you the key
Just forget all your schoolin'
It won't give you the key
But that was the river...
This is the sea
(last verse the same)
I think the lyrics of this song are so good because you can relate them to them with so many things, growing up/new relationships etc I don't agree with the spiritual interpretation but it just shows that the meaning can be interpreted in so many ways.
My personal thoughts are about the singer trying to appeal to a girl to forget her old troubles and lovers and be with him. pAll rivers lead to the ocean and (particularly in the acoustic version of the lyrics) he says that her old lover is the 'river' and that he is the 'sea'...ie he is her destination.
The line about the train says i'm yours if you want me no questions asked 'you don't ay no fee'
Finally i think just the driving inspirational melody of this tune is so uplifting but strong at the same time.
"You better throw away these things you keep" meaning-old addicitons, habits, sinful behaviors. Turn your back on your days of sinning-you "soulless days" when life was shallow. Once you were tethered [like a monkey on your back] but now you are free from your sins and your former way of life.
You're tired; this former way of life [which leads to nothing but misery] lead you to lonliness-and everything "has gone wrong" and you're "trying to remember" when you were younger and everything in your life was fine...That was the [River] smaller part of your life-when you didn't know Jesus. Now you've been introduced to the "Sea"- this whole new way of thinking...
And yes, people will let you down-but God never will even though you feel like he is/may. "You keep scouring your concience" thinking of where did it all go wrong?
Now I can see you're wavering: this whole verse refers to whether or not you are ready to make the change in your life and put your trust in Jesus. "You're trying to make sense of something that you just don't see/ You've got war in your head"-which is the devil telling you that "you once held the key" and you thought everything was fine then...
But is all the River...[your former way of life]
The train is your opportunity to accept Jesus into your heart and change your life around. You don't need to pay a price-he paid it for you- you just need to jump on! Behold the Sea!
But not so.
As Tomasino explains, this is a song written for a current lover who is struggling to shred her scars and pains of her past. She needs to leave her lost lover behind as he was nothing like the singer.
I have always loved the song. Firstly because of the melody, but more significantly as the metaphor for change. The river depicts the turbulent prior relationship that flows into the maturity of the sea - the current affair. My 8th grade english teacher once told me that the ultimate image for change in the river to sea metaphor is the final touch point between river and sea. That touch point is the climacted change and is appropriately labelled the delta.
Such a pity that Mike Scott checked out on us.
MS is alive and well and still writing GREAT songs. The guy is still a musical powerhouse.