Probably my favorite Slip tune, which is saying a lot. I remember when they started playing it and it was called "My Landlord" on bootlegs. Once it was published, it was called "Paper Birds," which I think hints at the meaning more directly.
It starts with a description of time spent with a woman who was probably the narrator's ex, and I imagine that the crying lady in the later verse is the same person, and that he ended the relationship ("second guesses").
I picture the landlord as a sort of beautifully eccentric loner, possibly an addict, who has a habit of making origami figures and then destroying them. The narrator identifies with this person, both their loneliness, and the need to create things.
The narrator has his own paper birds, which I take to be his art. They are how he expresses himself emotionally to the world ("better way to bleed" / "for all my friends to see") and also how he views his legacy ("before I'm old or even dead"). But they set him apart from people in a way that dooms his relationships. And he acknowledges in a self-deprecating way that these things are as ephemeral or trivial as paper birds, and that destruction is part of creation.
PS. The last section of "Paper Birds" is similar to the last half of Broken Social Scene's "Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl," and IIRC the original lyrics were similar enough to that song's that they ended up revising them to what they are now. The first half (which didn't show up in "Paper Birds") goes "Used to be one of the rotten ones and I liked you for that," which seems relevant.
Probably my favorite Slip tune, which is saying a lot. I remember when they started playing it and it was called "My Landlord" on bootlegs. Once it was published, it was called "Paper Birds," which I think hints at the meaning more directly.
It starts with a description of time spent with a woman who was probably the narrator's ex, and I imagine that the crying lady in the later verse is the same person, and that he ended the relationship ("second guesses").
I picture the landlord as a sort of beautifully eccentric loner, possibly an addict, who has a habit of making origami figures and then destroying them. The narrator identifies with this person, both their loneliness, and the need to create things.
The narrator has his own paper birds, which I take to be his art. They are how he expresses himself emotionally to the world ("better way to bleed" / "for all my friends to see") and also how he views his legacy ("before I'm old or even dead"). But they set him apart from people in a way that dooms his relationships. And he acknowledges in a self-deprecating way that these things are as ephemeral or trivial as paper birds, and that destruction is part of creation.
PS. The last section of "Paper Birds" is similar to the last half of Broken Social Scene's "Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl," and IIRC the original lyrics were similar enough to that song's that they ended up revising them to what they are now. The first half (which didn't show up in "Paper Birds") goes "Used to be one of the rotten ones and I liked you for that," which seems relevant.