Chris left enough clues about the song to reveal what its about and its fairly obvious considering his choice of metaphors:
The song is about dying, specifically coping with one's own death and to a lesser extent death of people you know.
The theme is most obvious during the chorus, which in traditional songwriting highlights the message of the song. With the term "belly up" being a slang for dead. Then the metaphor is further developed with the Spirit floating into heaven imagery via the sailing into the clouds, etc.
The dam and the flood bits are pretty obviously a metaphor for the incredible emotions one may feel at the end of their life. And could also be a more direct metaphor for crying. This is confirmed by the bridge, where he sings the lines about dispair, but he cleverly twists this into a positive by likening us to transforming in that moment to a spiritual vessel and riding the unstoppable force into new territory. Pretty solid songwriting technique.
The rest is even more obvious but you get the idea...
Chris left enough clues about the song to reveal what its about and its fairly obvious considering his choice of metaphors:
The song is about dying, specifically coping with one's own death and to a lesser extent death of people you know.
The theme is most obvious during the chorus, which in traditional songwriting highlights the message of the song. With the term "belly up" being a slang for dead. Then the metaphor is further developed with the Spirit floating into heaven imagery via the sailing into the clouds, etc.
The dam and the flood bits are pretty obviously a metaphor for the incredible emotions one may feel at the end of their life. And could also be a more direct metaphor for crying. This is confirmed by the bridge, where he sings the lines about dispair, but he cleverly twists this into a positive by likening us to transforming in that moment to a spiritual vessel and riding the unstoppable force into new territory. Pretty solid songwriting technique.
The rest is even more obvious but you get the idea...