This was a perfect opener for their new album as well as a fantastic first single. As far as I can see I'd suggest three basic interpretations.
The first I think is just a light-hearted quip (if such a thing exists with Thursday): "Let's restart it!" What better line to start a new album, especially an extremely emotional and well put together one? The song is a wake up call, a breath back to life of the listener. It says "come back to life for this album, you'll love it but more than anything you need to FEEL it." You can't take Thursday lightly and they are letting you know it, trying to wake you up. And boy does this song wake me up. That's the first impression.
But of course it goes much deeper than that. The second is what the actual lyrics are directly talking about: death and the fragility of life but also our incredible ability to restart it. This, in my opinion is why Thursday should be considered Gods of rock music. Who else can sound so desperate and torn but simultaneously so hopeful? I think it is the way we ought to be in a screwed up world this where there is as much reason to despair as there is to hope, and the two mix together in one beautiful, heart-rending moment. The song says, yes life is fragile, people are fragile, our bodies are fragile, but we can restart it. We can fix it. We can move on. But sometimes we only realize this once we are at the edge, about to dissolve into the blackness of death.
But I am getting to the third meaning, the broader metaphorical one in which the fragility of our bodies and our ability to resuscitate them is likened to the the fragility of our whole existence, our whole society, and our ability to fix and enliven it. This is why he includes the line "We all stand on a bridge thats been slowly burning." Yes this could indicate the bridge of life, so to speak, but it broader than that. This bridge is our whole existence. This is a very politically charged album. Like every good artist, Geoff's lyrics speak in direct images that work in their direct content and in their metaphor.
In this case, to bring all three meanings together, Geoff's opening song to the Album Common Existence is a plea to all of us to wake up and realize that our existence is fragile, that our world is slowly burning down, but that we have the incredible ability as human beings to revive it, to awaken ourselves and restart our flickering, dying hearts. You could be the breath of air that saves it!
With a drum hit and and a thousand voices (that's you, the listener, screaming along with him), we can utter that single word to this decaying and sputtering planet: live, live, LIVE!
This was a perfect opener for their new album as well as a fantastic first single. As far as I can see I'd suggest three basic interpretations.
The first I think is just a light-hearted quip (if such a thing exists with Thursday): "Let's restart it!" What better line to start a new album, especially an extremely emotional and well put together one? The song is a wake up call, a breath back to life of the listener. It says "come back to life for this album, you'll love it but more than anything you need to FEEL it." You can't take Thursday lightly and they are letting you know it, trying to wake you up. And boy does this song wake me up. That's the first impression.
But of course it goes much deeper than that. The second is what the actual lyrics are directly talking about: death and the fragility of life but also our incredible ability to restart it. This, in my opinion is why Thursday should be considered Gods of rock music. Who else can sound so desperate and torn but simultaneously so hopeful? I think it is the way we ought to be in a screwed up world this where there is as much reason to despair as there is to hope, and the two mix together in one beautiful, heart-rending moment. The song says, yes life is fragile, people are fragile, our bodies are fragile, but we can restart it. We can fix it. We can move on. But sometimes we only realize this once we are at the edge, about to dissolve into the blackness of death.
But I am getting to the third meaning, the broader metaphorical one in which the fragility of our bodies and our ability to resuscitate them is likened to the the fragility of our whole existence, our whole society, and our ability to fix and enliven it. This is why he includes the line "We all stand on a bridge thats been slowly burning." Yes this could indicate the bridge of life, so to speak, but it broader than that. This bridge is our whole existence. This is a very politically charged album. Like every good artist, Geoff's lyrics speak in direct images that work in their direct content and in their metaphor.
In this case, to bring all three meanings together, Geoff's opening song to the Album Common Existence is a plea to all of us to wake up and realize that our existence is fragile, that our world is slowly burning down, but that we have the incredible ability as human beings to revive it, to awaken ourselves and restart our flickering, dying hearts. You could be the breath of air that saves it!
With a drum hit and and a thousand voices (that's you, the listener, screaming along with him), we can utter that single word to this decaying and sputtering planet: live, live, LIVE!
hi five man. that was brilliant.
hi five man. that was brilliant.