Come Back From San Francisco

It's ironic. The wind doesn't need the trees, the trees need the wind. The moon doesn't need poetry, poetry needs the moon. And the boy doesn't need the narrator, the narrator needs the boy.

I love the sincerity of this song. I think it's about the drastic, irrational, unfamiliar things you do for someone you love; knowing better, but submitting to someone anyway.

haha this song is about me and my gay friends that I am so desperately in love with. people see us walking around together and they're all "aww that poor girl doesn't even realize her boyfriend is gay."

Realness.

I can pick specific lyrics in this song that I dig cos I dig the entire song but especially 'like the moon needs poetry" and the final line is cute 'damn you, i'v never stayed up as late as this" lol

I love the sincerity of this song. I think it's about the drastic, irrational, unfamiliar things you do for someone you love; knowing better, but submitting to someone anyway.

The "come back from San Francisco" and "novel" reminds me of Daniel Handler, who played accordian with them and also remains close with Merritt.

So, since the moon doesnt need poetry except to be noticed and the wind doesnt need trees, except, well, to be noticed...

The metaphor is that the missing person doesnt need the singer at all except that the singer kind of tells people about the missing person.

Ya? Otherwise it is a meaningless metaphor which makes me sad because I like the song so!

While I liked your idea of needing those things to be noticed, I'm not sure that's what it means, but I don't think it's meaningless. I think what the singer might be trying to impart is that, whatever other purposes the moon and trees may serve, without inspiring poetry, or creating the gentle and beautiful sound of wind blowing through branches, they are useless.

Anyway. I love the vocals on this song. She's a very good singer. I think the vocals, as much as the lyrics, if not more so, really make this song.

And of course, I like how Merritt isn't afraid to to have some bisexual implications in there.

"You need me like the wind needs the trees to blow in. Like the moon needs poetry, you need me."

Without the trees to blow into, the wind doesn't get noticed, it just blows on by. The trees are what pay attention to the wind; trees give the wind significance. Without poetry, the moon is just a random chunk of rock in the sky. The way its observers perceive it makes it valuable.

The wind and the moon are given meaning by the trees and poetry respectively, but the wind and the moon don't NEED the trees and poetry. The trees and poetry are helpful to the wind and the moon, but certainly not necessary. The narrator uses the word "need" so many times because he/she is in denial about her knowledge that his/her spouse in San Francisco does not really NEED him/her.

The narrator does, however, need his/her spouse, as shown by the songs's tone of desperation.