I always felt like this song was about trying to keep a straight face when everything around you is falling apart. I've been there more times than I would care to recount, but suffice it to say,
Always be there, face I live with.
Now even living alone, away from all that, I can still feel that face leftover from
All the fallen down angels, raw pain distress
Of course it wasn't my pain, and all I ever dreamed about was getting away. I think in many ways, the hope of getting away was what kept me going.
It's all in the way we know that we could have it all
But in the meantime, war on all sides.
One of the most disarming things about the song to me has always been that first violin note, the one that comes out after he sings the title of the song. I don't know a lot about music, but I know a 6th note doesn't usually belong on top of a root (first) chord. Yet the dissonance of it just works so beautifully.
Drinking life as it comes, straight no chaser, that's the easy part for the narrator who's surrounded by people who need to chase it up with smoking, drinking, or just whispering curse words to themselves on the job (don't even get me started on that person. Haha) I climb inside my own awesome head and build a system of valleys and motorways, e.g. my new life away from these people.
Then suddenly it changes up. "It's all in the face of what we thought we knew before." Apparently some new information has come into the picture that changed what we thought we knew. It could be one of two things. Either you're finally getting some insight into what makes those around you seem so miserable, thus leading you to understand them better, and then it doesn't bother you so much anymore. Or #2, something terrible happens to you and turns you into one of them. Cue the nonstop deluge of crazy violin. But it's too late, not like you can control everything.
Either way, you keep on driving.
I never understood the line "Hair left morning wet" before until I read it here, but it's fascinating to know now that that's what the line is. My best guess is like a previous poster pointed out, hair still wet from the morning shower and it hasn't quite dried off yet. So even when you leave, the misery doesn't just up and disappear like that, it kind of sticks with you.
Yet still, how wonderful it was to get away. Even Gavin seems more than resigned to his fate, "Nothing like losing you." When I lost those people, my life went back to being a lot smoother than I had ever remembered. Note the absence of the dissonant violin note on the last verse. It's gone, yet somehow you still expect it to creep in because you've grown to expect it, even though everything's fine now.
I'm sure this didn't make a lick of sense, but it's fun to play around with the possibilities anyway.
I always felt like this song was about trying to keep a straight face when everything around you is falling apart. I've been there more times than I would care to recount, but suffice it to say,
Always be there, face I live with.
Now even living alone, away from all that, I can still feel that face leftover from
All the fallen down angels, raw pain distress
Of course it wasn't my pain, and all I ever dreamed about was getting away. I think in many ways, the hope of getting away was what kept me going.
It's all in the way we know that we could have it all
But in the meantime, war on all sides.
One of the most disarming things about the song to me has always been that first violin note, the one that comes out after he sings the title of the song. I don't know a lot about music, but I know a 6th note doesn't usually belong on top of a root (first) chord. Yet the dissonance of it just works so beautifully.
Drinking life as it comes, straight no chaser, that's the easy part for the narrator who's surrounded by people who need to chase it up with smoking, drinking, or just whispering curse words to themselves on the job (don't even get me started on that person. Haha) I climb inside my own awesome head and build a system of valleys and motorways, e.g. my new life away from these people.
Then suddenly it changes up. "It's all in the face of what we thought we knew before." Apparently some new information has come into the picture that changed what we thought we knew. It could be one of two things. Either you're finally getting some insight into what makes those around you seem so miserable, thus leading you to understand them better, and then it doesn't bother you so much anymore. Or #2, something terrible happens to you and turns you into one of them. Cue the nonstop deluge of crazy violin. But it's too late, not like you can control everything.
Either way, you keep on driving.
I never understood the line "Hair left morning wet" before until I read it here, but it's fascinating to know now that that's what the line is. My best guess is like a previous poster pointed out, hair still wet from the morning shower and it hasn't quite dried off yet. So even when you leave, the misery doesn't just up and disappear like that, it kind of sticks with you.
Yet still, how wonderful it was to get away. Even Gavin seems more than resigned to his fate, "Nothing like losing you." When I lost those people, my life went back to being a lot smoother than I had ever remembered. Note the absence of the dissonant violin note on the last verse. It's gone, yet somehow you still expect it to creep in because you've grown to expect it, even though everything's fine now.
I'm sure this didn't make a lick of sense, but it's fun to play around with the possibilities anyway.