I discovered this song and F.M. after I signed my druggie ex-girlfriend into a mental hospital. We broke up later because, clean or smashed, she was still selfish and crazy. So that may have some bearing on my reading of the meaning.
The way I read it, the song's in a similar vein as the letter by Sullivan Ballou fatured in "The Civil War". A man knowing that he may soon die (in battle) writes to his wife to tell her that if he doesn't return, to know that he will still love her:
"But, 0 Sarah, if the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they love, I shall always be with you, in the brightest day and in the darkest night... always, always. And when the soft breeze fans your cheek, it shall be my breath, or the cool air your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.
Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for me, for we shall meet again... "
That's how I interpret, "If I ever leave this world alive." He's saying: If I could break the bonds of reality and had the power to visit you as a spirit without the need to answer the everyday demands of reality, I'd find a way to bring you comfort and ease your mind somehow that I couldn't find while I was with you.
So the song ends on an up-beat because She says she's ok, she's all right. She realizises that he had to leave to make things better for them both and that he was right: Maybe she can handle things without him.
I discovered this song and F.M. after I signed my druggie ex-girlfriend into a mental hospital. We broke up later because, clean or smashed, she was still selfish and crazy. So that may have some bearing on my reading of the meaning.
The way I read it, the song's in a similar vein as the letter by Sullivan Ballou fatured in "The Civil War". A man knowing that he may soon die (in battle) writes to his wife to tell her that if he doesn't return, to know that he will still love her:
"But, 0 Sarah, if the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they love, I shall always be with you, in the brightest day and in the darkest night... always, always. And when the soft breeze fans your cheek, it shall be my breath, or the cool air your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.
Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for me, for we shall meet again... "
That's how I interpret, "If I ever leave this world alive." He's saying: If I could break the bonds of reality and had the power to visit you as a spirit without the need to answer the everyday demands of reality, I'd find a way to bring you comfort and ease your mind somehow that I couldn't find while I was with you.
So the song ends on an up-beat because She says she's ok, she's all right. She realizises that he had to leave to make things better for them both and that he was right: Maybe she can handle things without him.