Bro I think I can explain what the song means, but it's just an interpretation. Imma try to answer this shit legit tho my dude:
The first half of the song, up until the point where Conor Oberst first says, "so I won't ever be happy again," I believe he is discussing the turmoils of living in society because living in a society where "I won't ever be lonely again" requires you to constantly be there to support your "lovers and friends," and this implies being, what one would call, "happy." The remainder of this section deals with the facts of life. There are many facts of life, and one of them is that you will not always be happy, which Oberst is often not. Oberst goes further to emphasize the sadness in this song, aside from establishing a slow melody, displaying an obviously tragic title, and utilizing the overall tone of voice that he does, by discussing facts of life that shove our true limitations in our faces. Bright Eyes capitalizes on this section of the song as a whole by, I'm sorry I really don't know the musical terms, but building the melody or, as you would say, building the beat for a hip-hop song (starts at line 8: "Now a forest fenced becomes backyards" this statement of course meaning that everything around us is simply taken from the beautiful earth and now we generally destroy it and use it for crude purposes, i.e. corporations taking down forrests, endagering animals by way of conducting work with dangerous materials, etc.). Notice "So, I mean, here we go, but there ain't no escape \ These streets are just dead ends," stating that one may not simply "leave society," you are a part of it forever unless you actually do leave society as a whole. This raises the point that in order to survive, many people in the modern world do require, or at least would prefer the benefits of, today's society because it helps them acquire everything they need for living in addition to extra commodities as well. Of course, this is still all just my interpretation so it could not only be applied to society, but life entirely as a whole, especially considering his focus on the limitations of people in real life. I do not know much of Mister Oberst's past, therefore I do not know of the particular reasons why he may seem so emotionally distraught.
The next few lines (15-19 on this site), Oberst references a "you" so as to, if nothing else, imply that he is conversing with another being. As a consolation to this being, after simply stating that life is basically all shit, he states, "But as the story goes, or it is often told \ A new day will arise." and the things that follow this statement are all inevitabilities. Skeletons will come to life and dance, a lion will betray his nature and lie down with a lamb (generally inevitable if in the wild at least), and finally, as Mister Oberst puts it, "I won't ever be lonely again," being the final inevitability to be listed. This is a list of things that will not happen, not in his opinion anyway, therefore he continues, and he feels terribly sorrow, and he would never like to feel this way again.
To be completely honest, this song means that life is fucking stupid a lot of the time, and depending on who you are, it could be fucking terrible every single day of your life, but damn any man who does not become emblazened with appreciation when he looks up into the sky and sees it dressed in a "lovely yellow gown."
Bro I think I can explain what the song means, but it's just an interpretation. Imma try to answer this shit legit tho my dude: The first half of the song, up until the point where Conor Oberst first says, "so I won't ever be happy again," I believe he is discussing the turmoils of living in society because living in a society where "I won't ever be lonely again" requires you to constantly be there to support your "lovers and friends," and this implies being, what one would call, "happy." The remainder of this section deals with the facts of life. There are many facts of life, and one of them is that you will not always be happy, which Oberst is often not. Oberst goes further to emphasize the sadness in this song, aside from establishing a slow melody, displaying an obviously tragic title, and utilizing the overall tone of voice that he does, by discussing facts of life that shove our true limitations in our faces. Bright Eyes capitalizes on this section of the song as a whole by, I'm sorry I really don't know the musical terms, but building the melody or, as you would say, building the beat for a hip-hop song (starts at line 8: "Now a forest fenced becomes backyards" this statement of course meaning that everything around us is simply taken from the beautiful earth and now we generally destroy it and use it for crude purposes, i.e. corporations taking down forrests, endagering animals by way of conducting work with dangerous materials, etc.). Notice "So, I mean, here we go, but there ain't no escape \ These streets are just dead ends," stating that one may not simply "leave society," you are a part of it forever unless you actually do leave society as a whole. This raises the point that in order to survive, many people in the modern world do require, or at least would prefer the benefits of, today's society because it helps them acquire everything they need for living in addition to extra commodities as well. Of course, this is still all just my interpretation so it could not only be applied to society, but life entirely as a whole, especially considering his focus on the limitations of people in real life. I do not know much of Mister Oberst's past, therefore I do not know of the particular reasons why he may seem so emotionally distraught.
The next few lines (15-19 on this site), Oberst references a "you" so as to, if nothing else, imply that he is conversing with another being. As a consolation to this being, after simply stating that life is basically all shit, he states, "But as the story goes, or it is often told \ A new day will arise." and the things that follow this statement are all inevitabilities. Skeletons will come to life and dance, a lion will betray his nature and lie down with a lamb (generally inevitable if in the wild at least), and finally, as Mister Oberst puts it, "I won't ever be lonely again," being the final inevitability to be listed. This is a list of things that will not happen, not in his opinion anyway, therefore he continues, and he feels terribly sorrow, and he would never like to feel this way again.
To be completely honest, this song means that life is fucking stupid a lot of the time, and depending on who you are, it could be fucking terrible every single day of your life, but damn any man who does not become emblazened with appreciation when he looks up into the sky and sees it dressed in a "lovely yellow gown."