I take no credit for the itnerpretation of this song, I found it on a website.
Singer Geoff Rickly is cured. He always has been, but it was only recently that he realized this. He writes the song in the present tense, but he is actually looking back at a point in his life when he could find no answers. He did not know why the bad aspects of his life were piling on top of each other, making it seem as though the "wheels" of Hell would never stop spinning at a speed so exhausting that he could barely keep up. He looks back to a point where he was near resignation, but did not resign because he knew that he could not "stop these intersections" at which his life was crashing. While near the point of resignation, Rickly has a cathartic experience. He realizes that it was not what happened in his life, or even the order in which they happened that is making him feel this way, but that he was looking at his life wrong. He realizes that he is cured, and always has been. To purify his life and his feelings, he learns to look at the good parts of his life, not the bad ones. He learns that in order to survive in this world, he must "cut the jet black," or the bad parts of his life, from his "hair" of tangled memories. In order to survive in this world, he must "pull out the shards" from the lens of life, and deal with the problems that periodically get "caught in your throat," even if it means choking on them from time to time. He realizes that the only reason periods of a life seem bad is because we have such good periods, such bright days, to compare them to. Finally, he realizes that he has been cured. He has always had bright periods as well as dark, but only needed to learn how to cope with the bad while focusing on the good. Rickly examines what other people, people from "another room," may do when faced with the same problem that he has recently faced. Some may give up on life, but this solves nothing. Even when the "piano player" gives up and is hanging from "piano wire," the "player piano", a symbol for both a higher being and other peoples' lives, carries on. Nothing changes in the majority of others' lives when this happens, and the daily routine of life continues. The music played at this point illustrates both emptiness and the repetitive routine of life. Other people may pretend to be someone else. These are people that do not try to deal with their problems, but set them aside. Once they realize that no matter who they pretend to be they will have problems in life, they begin to go mad. They do not live life, but lie to themselves and say they are perpetually dreaming. New Year's Day is used as a symbol of renewal. When Rickly cuts the "jet black" from his hair, he is renewing his way of thinking. He begins to think not of the bad, but of the good. The flame is his realization of the cure within. By realizing that he has always had the cure, he can renew himself. He does this "in the dawn of New Year's Day," and changes back to himself, rather than the negative person he was. The song is written in the present tense to show action. In order to change, Rickly needed to take charge of his life. To fix his feelings, he had to act upon it. By writing in the present tense, he recreates this action that he was required to use. This also makes the song more exciting, more suspenseful, and more interesting. To change his life and heal himself, Rickly needed to find the cure within. He found the cure by examining himself and teaching himself how to be inwardly happy. He taught himself to replace the "I" in "live" with an "O," and to not just live his life, but to love his life.
I take no credit for the itnerpretation of this song, I found it on a website.
Singer Geoff Rickly is cured. He always has been, but it was only recently that he realized this. He writes the song in the present tense, but he is actually looking back at a point in his life when he could find no answers. He did not know why the bad aspects of his life were piling on top of each other, making it seem as though the "wheels" of Hell would never stop spinning at a speed so exhausting that he could barely keep up. He looks back to a point where he was near resignation, but did not resign because he knew that he could not "stop these intersections" at which his life was crashing. While near the point of resignation, Rickly has a cathartic experience. He realizes that it was not what happened in his life, or even the order in which they happened that is making him feel this way, but that he was looking at his life wrong. He realizes that he is cured, and always has been. To purify his life and his feelings, he learns to look at the good parts of his life, not the bad ones. He learns that in order to survive in this world, he must "cut the jet black," or the bad parts of his life, from his "hair" of tangled memories. In order to survive in this world, he must "pull out the shards" from the lens of life, and deal with the problems that periodically get "caught in your throat," even if it means choking on them from time to time. He realizes that the only reason periods of a life seem bad is because we have such good periods, such bright days, to compare them to. Finally, he realizes that he has been cured. He has always had bright periods as well as dark, but only needed to learn how to cope with the bad while focusing on the good. Rickly examines what other people, people from "another room," may do when faced with the same problem that he has recently faced. Some may give up on life, but this solves nothing. Even when the "piano player" gives up and is hanging from "piano wire," the "player piano", a symbol for both a higher being and other peoples' lives, carries on. Nothing changes in the majority of others' lives when this happens, and the daily routine of life continues. The music played at this point illustrates both emptiness and the repetitive routine of life. Other people may pretend to be someone else. These are people that do not try to deal with their problems, but set them aside. Once they realize that no matter who they pretend to be they will have problems in life, they begin to go mad. They do not live life, but lie to themselves and say they are perpetually dreaming. New Year's Day is used as a symbol of renewal. When Rickly cuts the "jet black" from his hair, he is renewing his way of thinking. He begins to think not of the bad, but of the good. The flame is his realization of the cure within. By realizing that he has always had the cure, he can renew himself. He does this "in the dawn of New Year's Day," and changes back to himself, rather than the negative person he was. The song is written in the present tense to show action. In order to change, Rickly needed to take charge of his life. To fix his feelings, he had to act upon it. By writing in the present tense, he recreates this action that he was required to use. This also makes the song more exciting, more suspenseful, and more interesting. To change his life and heal himself, Rickly needed to find the cure within. He found the cure by examining himself and teaching himself how to be inwardly happy. He taught himself to replace the "I" in "live" with an "O," and to not just live his life, but to love his life.