The Sound

More details: Gira had recently read a Hubert Selby Jr. story of the same title involving a man trapped in a cell, unaware of how he got there. There is a hole in the locked door of the room to look through. He heres a sound coming closer and closer. He then looks through the hole and... The reader never is told what he sees. Gira mixed that story with his somewhat insane mother's emotional self-isolation. Notice how the music becomes more and more introspective while still subtly rising. And, in live versions, Gira, before reciting the final words, screams, just like the man who saw something out there...

I think this is one of the most powerful songs ever written. To appreciate it's meaning fully, one has to refer to the live version on "the swans are dead" CD. The way Michael Gira howls "mother" after the final burst of musical explosion is, for me, one of those very rare musical moments that can be described as "sublime" without the word being an overstatement.

Though not represented by the lyrics provided above, Gira distinguishes the following line with three slightly different variations in the studio recording. One variation is repeated twice:

You despise, but I love You despise what I love You despise; I love You despise; I love

Similarly, the lyrics provided above omit another important distinction, and indeed several words:

Mother, I... Mother, I... I was wrong, I am wrong, You were wrong; I am wrong.

Absolutely amazing live. It is a tribute to Gira's mother, who had died recently.

my take on this is that the track splits youthful rebellion into two phases: it's initial point of actualization, and the point of maturity that follows later on. the song itself is the time that occurs in between the point of youthful folly and the later point of maturation.