I think what's really missing from the prior interpretations is that this song really is not hopeful. This is the Alpha male's absolute last attempt to make this irreparably broken thing work. It's not a compromise. It's a fatalistic acceptance that their love is more important than their lives.
"But I will walk / Down to the end with you / If you will come / All the way down with me"
It's important to note the use of the word "down" in relation to where their going and to know what the Alpha male is referring to by "the end." Many songs relating to the Alphas refer to them moving either up or down vertically (or pretending to move up while actually moving downward). In this song, the end of their relationship is worse than where they are now, as denoted by the downward movement.
"From the entrance to the exit / Is longer than it looks from where we stand"
He's pleading a bit. The end of the marriage (or more likely, their lives) is farther away than she thinks it is.
"In the weak last gasp of the evening's dying light
In the way those eyes I've always loved illuminate this place
Like a trashcan fire in a prison cell
Like the searchlights in the parking lots of hell"
Here he compares the marriage and/or his life to both a prison and the entrance to hell. However, he compares her eyes to two things that are in some way hopeful or welcoming: fire and searchlights. These things both point upwards to a place that he values as being better than where he is.
I think what's really missing from the prior interpretations is that this song really is not hopeful. This is the Alpha male's absolute last attempt to make this irreparably broken thing work. It's not a compromise. It's a fatalistic acceptance that their love is more important than their lives.
"But I will walk / Down to the end with you / If you will come / All the way down with me"
It's important to note the use of the word "down" in relation to where their going and to know what the Alpha male is referring to by "the end." Many songs relating to the Alphas refer to them moving either up or down vertically (or pretending to move up while actually moving downward). In this song, the end of their relationship is worse than where they are now, as denoted by the downward movement.
"From the entrance to the exit / Is longer than it looks from where we stand"
He's pleading a bit. The end of the marriage (or more likely, their lives) is farther away than she thinks it is.
"In the weak last gasp of the evening's dying light In the way those eyes I've always loved illuminate this place Like a trashcan fire in a prison cell Like the searchlights in the parking lots of hell"
Here he compares the marriage and/or his life to both a prison and the entrance to hell. However, he compares her eyes to two things that are in some way hopeful or welcoming: fire and searchlights. These things both point upwards to a place that he values as being better than where he is.
I agree with you, but when ARE the Mountain Goats "hopeful." LOL
I agree with you, but when ARE the Mountain Goats "hopeful." LOL