Dead of Winter

My father passed away from lymphoma about 3 weeks ago. For the past six weeks i've had this song on repeat. It's amazing and so perfectly represents what it feels like the have this happen to someone you love.

"Radiation sore throat got your tongue Magic markers tattoo you and show it where to aim"

Radiation causes the person who receives it (if around the face/throat area) to have an extremely sore throat, to the point that they can't talk and how he described eating as "everything tastes like metal". And they use magic markers to pin-point where to aim the radiation when they do the first radiation session.

I don't know. This song, overall, is really, truly amazing.

I think this is the most emotionally ripping song I've ever heard. I took "the streets are jammed with cars/rockin their horns to race to the wire of the unfinished line" to mean that even with everything bad going on with his life everyone else still carries on as normal but they are unaware of their own mortality. The rest of it, yeah without the prior knowlege (although some suspicion as I knew the album was written as a large amount of his family were dead/dying), I related to cancer or aids - something with quite a slow death giving the light time to fade :(

this song is so sad and emotional. its about him thinking about someone that has died, and hoping that they can see him wherever he is, because the memories of them won't fade in him.

its about his mother who died of cancer and was originally going to be called standing outside my mothers house.

its a "dead" give away its about death. To me i think the verse "Well I was thinking how it must feel to see that little light And watch it as it disappears and fades into And fades into the night" is about someone he knows dying and seeing the the light in heaven. Then i think the verse "Radiation sore throat got your tongue" is about someone dying of cancer becuase of smoking. NOw this verse "Magic markers tattoo you and show it where to aim" kind of confuses me but id say its about his mother or sister getiting a autopsy and the doctor marking where there going to cut open or perhaps someone goin into to surgery and the docters said it wasnt goin to hurt but it really did hence the verse "And strangers break their promises "You won't feel any, you won't feel any pain..." "And the streets are jammed with cars Rockin' their horns to race to the wire of the unfinished line " id say is about somoen one living life wihtout knowing that one day they will die too. "Thought thatd id forget all about the past but it doesnt let me run to fast" meaning he is trying to get over all this tragedy but no matter how hard he trys its still in the back of his head at every moment. "And I just wanna stand outside and know that this is right And this is true and I will not fade into Fade into the night" would mean hes trying to live a normal life but after all these deaths he knows he will one day die too.

im not saying im completlyt write but thats the great thing about lyrics they can mean whatever you want them to mean so when you poeple are calling others morons for saying what they think you shouyld shut up becuase this song may mean alot to someone and when they find out it has a differant meaning they may not liek it anymore. sorry so long

sorry, that was mean.

Anyway, my grandma was in the hospital last semester and she had the number 5722 written on her hand (in marker) and looking at it upside down it looked like eels (squiggly twos, the kind you can't type) but at any rate i should've taken a photo of it.

the line about magic markers refers to doctors marking on the body where to make their incisions, and the promise of feeling no pain is broken, because there's always pain.

yeah

the title dead of winter is from a childrens book,e liked it better than "standing in the dark outside my mothers house", amazing song,never fails to make me cry

Acrossthesea gets it right. Mark's mother died of cancer, and what acrossthesea says is accurate.

People very often try too hard to read into song lyrics. Not everything is mysterious symbolism. I think when he says "I was thinking how it must feel to see that little light And watch it as it disappears and fades into ... the night", he's just talking about the heart monitor machine going to a flatline... Yeah, it's a really morbid, hard-hitting thought if you really consider it, but that's how I have always taken it.

When my father died of congestive heart failure, I was at his house a couple days later, and found myself standing outside, in the cold (and in January in Northern New York state, it's cold!). I thought of this song without trying, and it was a really ... tough moment.

Grief must be one of the most powerful processes a person can go through. I haven't gone through it yet-- not truly. Listening to this song, understanding E, and reading these comments I can almost emphathize Grief. The images of standing in the cold, watching cars blow past, etc. can really stab you in the heart with an icicle when you take a moment to try to experience it.

Mr. E is a gorgeous writer with terrible inspriation. It'd be very hard to try to convey these things if you hadn't gone through some of the shit like that.

It makes you wonder what poetry or lyrics hasn't he published that he's holding on to? Is there something that's too personal for him to share? What songs didn't they record and produce?

Peace.

I saw this peformed live and was crying my eyes out, then I looked around and saw that both the people next to me were too.