There is more than one way to interpret this song. For example, you can say that this song is about a musician standing in one of New York City's cemeteries — bordering the dead and the living - remembering someone that died. The memory of what this person said is how the musician will defeat the existential angst working inside her, because the infinite supply of hope in humans will provide for her the real-life movement toward an improved future. In the lines “All we can do is try, / And live like we’re still alive,” she is blurring reality and fantasy by giving that deceased person life again.
You can also say that this song has nothing to do with New York City. The “really old city” she speaks about is just the idea of dying, obviously a state of being that’s really old. Where she is then is an abstract space where the very planet she walks on is “a graveyard shelf.” No wonder the cemetery is being filled with the echo of heartbeats. But she is not crazy and knows that it is silent. But get this: this state of dying is intertwined with the life/death continuum, which is the essence of a living creature. One has to remember that if you are not dead, you are dying. And because you’re not a silent dead yet, you can be loud and hopeful. You can be alive, which, thanks to biology, is a state of being always run through MOTHERS, the royal “queens” of life.
There is more than one way to interpret this song. For example, you can say that this song is about a musician standing in one of New York City's cemeteries — bordering the dead and the living - remembering someone that died. The memory of what this person said is how the musician will defeat the existential angst working inside her, because the infinite supply of hope in humans will provide for her the real-life movement toward an improved future. In the lines “All we can do is try, / And live like we’re still alive,” she is blurring reality and fantasy by giving that deceased person life again.
You can also say that this song has nothing to do with New York City. The “really old city” she speaks about is just the idea of dying, obviously a state of being that’s really old. Where she is then is an abstract space where the very planet she walks on is “a graveyard shelf.” No wonder the cemetery is being filled with the echo of heartbeats. But she is not crazy and knows that it is silent. But get this: this state of dying is intertwined with the life/death continuum, which is the essence of a living creature. One has to remember that if you are not dead, you are dying. And because you’re not a silent dead yet, you can be loud and hopeful. You can be alive, which, thanks to biology, is a state of being always run through MOTHERS, the royal “queens” of life.