The only Youtube video that has a full version of this song in it, mentions in the description, that "like a Lion" was written about Colin Meloy's son. I couldn't find where the poster found that tidbit, but the more I think about it the better an interpretation that is. Written in 2006, right after his son henry was born, this song seems to have all the shock and incredulity and beauty that comes from becoming a father. Meloy's son, Henry, has high functioning autism, which is where "like a lion" comes in.
I think the song has two parts. The first being the birth, you hear the machine noises and hospital beeps and boops. then comes the triumph and the lines "How it delighted us"/"And it all stands still/ Somehow you thought it never would."
The second part is the realizing the gravity of his son's condition, where he is compared to a lion. Who sits and watches the world go round. He was born black and cold, which is a comment on the way someone with autism might seem emotionally cold. In this way his unresponsiveness and dis-intrest makes him stoic, "like a lion."
The only Youtube video that has a full version of this song in it, mentions in the description, that "like a Lion" was written about Colin Meloy's son. I couldn't find where the poster found that tidbit, but the more I think about it the better an interpretation that is. Written in 2006, right after his son henry was born, this song seems to have all the shock and incredulity and beauty that comes from becoming a father. Meloy's son, Henry, has high functioning autism, which is where "like a lion" comes in.
I think the song has two parts. The first being the birth, you hear the machine noises and hospital beeps and boops. then comes the triumph and the lines "How it delighted us"/"And it all stands still/ Somehow you thought it never would."
The second part is the realizing the gravity of his son's condition, where he is compared to a lion. Who sits and watches the world go round. He was born black and cold, which is a comment on the way someone with autism might seem emotionally cold. In this way his unresponsiveness and dis-intrest makes him stoic, "like a lion."