I agree with everyone, this song is incredible. It's so epic and heartfelt, you can just see Davey screaming into the mic, trying to stop his lungs from falling out. Killer breakdown too.
I really have no idea about the meaning of the song, apart from the obvious stuff. Like Davey maybe feels alone and disconnected from the world.
This line in particular made me think this,
"Twenty-six years end, still speaking in these tongues. Such revelations while understood by no one"
To me that clearly suggests that Davey has been writing lyrics and singing these songs, revealing so many things that are close to him - stories and emotions, yet they are understood by no-one as he never discloses the meaning of his songs.
But then I can't make sense of the rest of the song..
Of course, with the whole 336/337 phenomenon, it could have a completely different meaning. If you haven't been a regular member of the AFI message boards over the past 2 years, there is no chance you'll understand, unless someone has a lot of patience to type it all out.
For God's sake I'll have a go at writing a brief history of it.
It basically all has to do with Chinese esoteric astrology, and the fact that Davey was born under the chinese symbol of the rabbit, meaning that he can't be reincarnated in death. It all started when the band and the webmaster started giving us all these clues, then the picture disk "336" came out and we were told to research esoteric astrology to understand what it meant.
Soon lots of references to rabbits were being made (rabbits are roadkill in the STS booklet, in the GNG video, small pics on the website, Davey making eerie comments about rabbits on the message board, rabbit in the Clandestine video).
Soon, Gavin (the webmaster) told us the real thing to worry about was 337, and that 336 was just "what comes before". We learned that 336 means death in esoteric astrology, and 337 means reincarnation.
So, after extensive research by particular members of the boards, we found that Davey was born in the year of the rabbit, and these "rabbits" can not be reincarnated.
We think the album has to do with this theory somehow. We also started looking at the order of songs on the album, going into HUGE amounts of detail.
Some of us think that maybe the album represents a life cycle, in my opinion starting with Bleed Black and ending with The Leaving Song Pt 2 (thus explaining the reversed order of the Leaving Songs).
I can't remember it all (I wrote it all out so long ago) but Bleed Black was the birth, or the beginning of this story, and Leaving Song Pt 2 was the extinction of the self (as the reincarnation was not possible). This possible explains why the song ends so abruptly with Davey screaming and one montone note carrying on, but that's getting a bit too vague..
Oh yeah one more thing about this whole theory - it's supported by the fact that the sounds at the very start of the album (before Miseria Cantare) and right at the end (after This Time Imperfect) are the same. Played back to back it's as if there has been no pause.
let's say that we would go listen to STS from Bleed Black to The Leaving Song pt. II, would this include all songs from the diffferent versions of STS, or just the US version?
let's say that we would go listen to STS from Bleed Black to The Leaving Song pt. II, would this include all songs from the diffferent versions of STS, or just the US version?
I agree with everyone, this song is incredible. It's so epic and heartfelt, you can just see Davey screaming into the mic, trying to stop his lungs from falling out. Killer breakdown too.
I really have no idea about the meaning of the song, apart from the obvious stuff. Like Davey maybe feels alone and disconnected from the world.
This line in particular made me think this,
"Twenty-six years end, still speaking in these tongues. Such revelations while understood by no one"
To me that clearly suggests that Davey has been writing lyrics and singing these songs, revealing so many things that are close to him - stories and emotions, yet they are understood by no-one as he never discloses the meaning of his songs. But then I can't make sense of the rest of the song..
Of course, with the whole 336/337 phenomenon, it could have a completely different meaning. If you haven't been a regular member of the AFI message boards over the past 2 years, there is no chance you'll understand, unless someone has a lot of patience to type it all out.
For God's sake I'll have a go at writing a brief history of it. It basically all has to do with Chinese esoteric astrology, and the fact that Davey was born under the chinese symbol of the rabbit, meaning that he can't be reincarnated in death. It all started when the band and the webmaster started giving us all these clues, then the picture disk "336" came out and we were told to research esoteric astrology to understand what it meant.
Soon lots of references to rabbits were being made (rabbits are roadkill in the STS booklet, in the GNG video, small pics on the website, Davey making eerie comments about rabbits on the message board, rabbit in the Clandestine video).
Soon, Gavin (the webmaster) told us the real thing to worry about was 337, and that 336 was just "what comes before". We learned that 336 means death in esoteric astrology, and 337 means reincarnation. So, after extensive research by particular members of the boards, we found that Davey was born in the year of the rabbit, and these "rabbits" can not be reincarnated. We think the album has to do with this theory somehow. We also started looking at the order of songs on the album, going into HUGE amounts of detail.
Some of us think that maybe the album represents a life cycle, in my opinion starting with Bleed Black and ending with The Leaving Song Pt 2 (thus explaining the reversed order of the Leaving Songs). I can't remember it all (I wrote it all out so long ago) but Bleed Black was the birth, or the beginning of this story, and Leaving Song Pt 2 was the extinction of the self (as the reincarnation was not possible). This possible explains why the song ends so abruptly with Davey screaming and one montone note carrying on, but that's getting a bit too vague..
Oh yeah one more thing about this whole theory - it's supported by the fact that the sounds at the very start of the album (before Miseria Cantare) and right at the end (after This Time Imperfect) are the same. Played back to back it's as if there has been no pause.
That's about it. Requires some deep thinking heh.
let's say that we would go listen to STS from Bleed Black to The Leaving Song pt. II, would this include all songs from the diffferent versions of STS, or just the US version?
let's say that we would go listen to STS from Bleed Black to The Leaving Song pt. II, would this include all songs from the diffferent versions of STS, or just the US version?
sorry, re-read this and answered my own quesstion :P
sorry, re-read this and answered my own quesstion :P