When Your Number Isn't Up Lyrics

Lyric discussion by LeylandLatic 

Cover art for When Your Number Isn't Up lyrics by Mark Lanegan

Lord Pembroke has it pretty much right. It's about someone who is waiting to die, they feel like their life is about over. They feel lonely and just want it to be over as their freinds have all gone leaving them nobody to lean on;

And where are your friends? They've gone away It's a different world, they left you to this To janitor The emptiness So let's get it on

The frozen border to me at least is clearly 'passing on'. The sun is finally going down is metaphor picturing your life as a single day and the sun is setting on it so it's time to go to sleep and end it. That's how they feel, but they're 'still above the ground' and their number isn't yet up but it's what they long for. Awesome song.

i agree. i also thought it alludes to a person who has outlived a lot of his friends, not unlike Mark