He's just the kind of man
You hear about
Who leaves his family for
An easy out
They never saw the signs
He never said a word
He couldn't take another day
Carry me to the shoreline
Bury me in the sand
Walk me across the water
And maybe you'll understand
Once the stone
You're crawling under
Is lifted off your shoulders
Once the cloud that's raining
Over your head disappears
The noise that you'll hear
Is the crashing down of hollow years
She's not the kind of girl
You hear about
She'll never want another
She'll never be without
She'll give you all the signs
She'll tell you everything
Then turn around and walk away
Carry me to the shoreline
Bury me in the sand
Walk me across the water
And maybe you'll understand
Once the stone
You're crawling under
Is lifted off your shoulders
Once the cloud that's raining
Over your heads disappears
The noise that you'll hear
Is the crashing down of hollow years
Carry me to the shoreline
Bury me in the sand
Walk me across the water
And maybe you'll understand
Once the stone
You're crawling under
Is lifted off your shoulders
Once the cloud that's raining
Over your heads disappears
The noise that you'll hear
Is the crashing down of hollow years
You hear about
Who leaves his family for
An easy out
They never saw the signs
He never said a word
He couldn't take another day
Carry me to the shoreline
Bury me in the sand
Walk me across the water
And maybe you'll understand
Once the stone
You're crawling under
Is lifted off your shoulders
Once the cloud that's raining
Over your head disappears
The noise that you'll hear
Is the crashing down of hollow years
She's not the kind of girl
You hear about
She'll never want another
She'll never be without
She'll give you all the signs
She'll tell you everything
Then turn around and walk away
Carry me to the shoreline
Bury me in the sand
Walk me across the water
And maybe you'll understand
Once the stone
You're crawling under
Is lifted off your shoulders
Once the cloud that's raining
Over your heads disappears
The noise that you'll hear
Is the crashing down of hollow years
Carry me to the shoreline
Bury me in the sand
Walk me across the water
And maybe you'll understand
Once the stone
You're crawling under
Is lifted off your shoulders
Once the cloud that's raining
Over your heads disappears
The noise that you'll hear
Is the crashing down of hollow years
Lyrics submitted by elmoz, edited by Octavarium64
Hollow Years Lyrics as written by John Petrucci
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I wont pay attention to the verses as the real core is in the chorus, I understand the whole thing is about growing up, getting mature, and being happy: "Carry me to the shoreline, bury me in the sand, walk me across the waters" could be interpreted as how life sucks sometimes and makes us feel so down. "And maybe youll understand" means that after youve been through all that pain MAYBE youll "get it" if youre strong/brave/mature enough, aha? "Once the stone youre crawling under is lifted off your shoulders, once the cloud thats raining over your head disappears, the noise that youll hear is the crashing down of hollow years" Here is where the song gets powerful, it means that once youve left all your baggage and your issues behind and accepted reality, you finally begin to be happy "the stone is lifted off your shoulders" and "the cloud disappears" its like you just started living, and finally the term "hollow years" mean literally all that time in ur life when you still didnt "get it", all those years you felt miserable, but you are happy now, and that the noise that you are hearing is nothing more than the crashing down of those hollow years.
hope makes sense to you, cheers.
If we take close attention, the melody when it explains -troubles- its downbeat, kinda sad, but when it comes to the chorus when talks about relieve and "lifting problems over shoulders" it gets more merryer, specially in the concert of Budokan, it almost sounds like a Triumphant tune.
so i get this meaning, and, adding my personal experience, now, after three years of deep depression due to a vast amout of problems that stacked up, now that i have worked all of them out, its true, somehow i can "hear" the crashing down of all that.
I dont consider them "hollow" because even the bad stuff is useful, but yes, its a triumphant sound to hear that part "crash down" specially when you had to work hard to make em fall.
And about the theory of suicide.... I think its impossible and also a "cliche" of all rock players talking about suicide.
AND, who suicides ONCE (after) their "stones" have been lifted? ;-)
This song makes me cry everytime i hear it... but of happiness. ( its a mixture, when i remember what i felt and lived during those "hollow years" and happiness to had the strenght to fight trhought them and now being a winner over it) its causes a powerful mix of feelings into me, its awesome how music can explain things that words can´t.
"She'll give you all the signs
She'll tell you everything
Then turn around and walk away"
I think most of us can relate to that in some way
Onto interp - I always thought it was the divorce story. Upinthesky has it down perfectly. He's the kind of man who will leave his family on a whim, not talk about his problems, and not really care. She's the kind of girl who will work hard for it, tell you her problems, and when the fall on deaf ears, she'll walk away.
The course is like getting out of a bad relationship you thought was good, you begin to see things from an objective persepctive and realize it wasnt' so good. Once the cloud disappears, you will see how hollow the years have really been.
"Carry me to the shoreline
Bury me in the sand
Walk me across the water
And maybe you'll understand"
The concept here is that sometimes we are weak and we fall, we need someone to care for us, to help us out. I love the metaphor of the beach. What he wants you to do, in my opinion, is support him, get him to the shoreline(be there for him), bury him in the sand(take him away from his problems), walk him across the water(take him to your end, there is a vast ocean between the two of you) and maybe you'll understand(because now you have seen BOTH sides).
"Once the stone
You're crawling under
Is lifted off your shoulders
Once the cloud that's raining
Over your head disappears
The noise that you'll hear
Is the crashing down of Hollow Years"
This could be any number of people speaking. The concept, I think, is this:
When you are finally relieved of your pain, when someone finally comes and sets you free from your personal hell, when you are released from the cage of your troubles.. you will realize that it was all meaningless. That pain and suffering is gone and worthless to you now. This is now, that was then.
This does kind of support the suicide theory, as all the bad goes away at once when you die(theoretically) but, again, I don't feel the verses support the idea of a suicide. Occam's razor makes me think relationship
Wait a minute, that is not possible, since this song was written in the 90s, and the TV show was aired 10 years later...
Anyway Here's the breakdown.
He's just the kind of man
You hear about
-- Jack Bauer changed his name/identity, and became an ordinary worker.
Who leaves his family for
An easy out
-- He left his family (his daughter) and made her think he's dead.
They never saw the signs
He never said a word
He couldn't take another day
-- Jack disappeared just like that. At the end of season 4. He couldn't take "another day", well, it had been a long day.
Chorus
Carry me to the shoreline
Bury me in the sand
Walk me across the water
And maybe you'll understand
-- Jack is supposed to be dead. So he says "bury me in the sand". "The water" is referring to the ending of season 6 (Jack gazing at the Pacific Ocean). 24 was set in Los Angeles, California -- they had nice beaches and shorelines there.
Once the stone
You're crawling under
Is lifted off your shoulders
Once the cloud that's raining
Over your head disappears
The noise that you'll hear
Is the crashing down of Hollow Years
-- This verse refers to the terrorists. "The stone" is their WMD, and "the cloud" is the mushroom cloud of the nuclear bomb. "The crashing down" could refer to the explosion of the bomb (season 2 and 6), or the failure of the attack (season 4).
She's not the kind of girl
You hear about
She'll never want another
She'll never be without
She'll give you all the signs
She'll tell you everything
Then turn around and walk away
-- This verse is about Jack's daughter, Kim. She'll never want another man to be her father. Now that her father is (supposedly) dead, she'll try to turn around and walk away from all the sadness in her life.