Well it's a pretty classic description of depression, first of all.
Mikel references his medical condition, which involves Vitiligo, i.e. patches of lost pigment in the skin: "These spots on my hands" and again, "The ink stains on my hands" (which I think is the secondary meaning, the first being, of course, how he works so hard to write, and in context, how he's not sure it has any real purpose).
At the end of this "intro", he's saying when he feels like this, that if he knew that it was true that the dead went home to heaven, then he would gladly, well, go. As in, suicide.
I have a hard time connecting this to Innocence, which as far as I can see is about loss of innocence, probably through loss of virginity, and how it pretty much ruins their romance. I know they play them together in some live sets, but I would hardly consider them part of the same song.
Well it's a pretty classic description of depression, first of all. Mikel references his medical condition, which involves Vitiligo, i.e. patches of lost pigment in the skin: "These spots on my hands" and again, "The ink stains on my hands" (which I think is the secondary meaning, the first being, of course, how he works so hard to write, and in context, how he's not sure it has any real purpose). At the end of this "intro", he's saying when he feels like this, that if he knew that it was true that the dead went home to heaven, then he would gladly, well, go. As in, suicide.
I have a hard time connecting this to Innocence, which as far as I can see is about loss of innocence, probably through loss of virginity, and how it pretty much ruins their romance. I know they play them together in some live sets, but I would hardly consider them part of the same song.