February 5, 2004
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Matt Talbot, the singer/guitarist/lyricist for one of my all time favorite bands, Hum, swore that his lyrics had no meanings. That he wrote vague abstractions to let the listener impart their own meanings. I beg to differ.
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If You Are To Bloom - from the album, "Downward is Heavenward".
I'm thinking of your wide open eyes, smiling as they feed the nerves that push the field of silver and the colorful lines that only you could see, like only you could do.
I'm picturing a forcep in ice, that you would see if you could reach and reconnect the ends into the delicate threads,
but I just sit and wait for a blip to break the perfect little thin green line.
I dreamt of jet this high, seeding clouds from the other side and glowing softly until the underbelly shines,
and the back skims through the steam. Feeding upturned mouths and sprinkling awake, a dusty sleep you took too soon.
And you, you need watering if you are to bloom.
I'm thinking of your failing green eyes, smiling as they greet the day, but they can't see me. And now I'm picturing us opening wide, and drinking down our days in haze and bliss. Together til it tumbles aside, but I just sit and wait for a rhythm in a perfect little thin green line. It's true, so soon.
(And the coil speaks) I'd like to see us together, I'd like to lay my head low. I need to lean on a soft one, and bring the spin of the world to appear slow.
(And the coil sleeps) You've been gathering angels, and fading further each day. I love you now as I never, remember my face as you quietly make your way.
I dreamt of jet this high, seeding clouds from the other side and glowing softly til the underbelly shines,
and the back skims through the steam. Feeding upturned mouths and sprinkling awake, a dusty sleep you took too soon.
And you, you need watering if you are to bloom.
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What meaning do you get?
Update/Response:
The meaning I've given this song is that of a rebirth or resurrection (in a Frankenstein like sense). "but I just sit and wait for a blip to break the perfect little thin green line", is the line that (to me) sums the whole meaning. The narrator is waiting, which denotes expectations of something to happen, such as the blip on a perfect little thing green line, such as the flat line of an inactive heart monitor or something similar. The eyes and sight are both symbolic as life, from "I'm thinking of your wide open eyes, smiling as they feed the nerves that push the field of silver and the colorful lines that only you could see, like only you could do" and "I'm thinking of your failing green eyes".
Anything else? Anyone?
Comments (27)
To be honest, this reminds me of some of the cryptic stuff I used to write, and I just get through it anymore.
I'd say it's about having sex, but who knows.
(I think *everything* is about sex.)
hmm, someone needing rescuing? can I get more superficial?
I'm picturing a forcep in ice, that you would see if you could reach and reconnect the ends into the delicate threads
love that line though.
i get longing and a sense of resignation...
...but what do i know?
well then.
disconnected nerves behind the eyes, the green line and the blip.....this is someone at someone's bedside, someone dying or in a coma. It's about letting go, gathering angels, remembering, and the grace of dying, which is like blossoming. Could the jet be a jet from heaven, and the contrail makes clouds, which rain down on us, to make us grow?
a good puzzle, thanks.
I got the same as oxy -- the thin green line and blip... the gathering angels, dusty sleep taken too soon, fading green eyes etc... however the 'if you are too bloom' part makes me think of life/birth/growth... so....
True! but ok, but not to get all airy fairy, but wouldn't the repeated reference to green, even in death, make that essentially a part of a growing cycle?
oo, poetry debates.
I guess to me this would be about watching someone die... 'thin green line' and hoping for them to come back to life...and imagining life on the other side... when people ask about my lyrics I respond in a similar way... I want people to imagine whatever they want... ~tc
LOL Oxy -- I'm constantly being labeled arty farty... hehe.. birth/death cycles we are pretty much along the same line.
fyi- the color green is a reoccurring theme on the album
I'm getting the same as the above who said bedside vigil, coma, death. The green and the bloom perhaps a belief in an afterlife?
Yeah, I get the death thing too. But I also get a sense of the desperation of holding on to someone and the realization that you have to let them go.
seconds the death thing. but it's like...there's a sick sort of necrophilia thing going on. although there's also a sense of heartbreak and loss and longing.
"Downward is Heavenward"
Even the title of the album is leading isn't it. This piece is filled with the hope of a vigil...
It's truly melancholy...and achingly loving...
And now I'll have to hear it.
I like Hum. they play them a lot on the local alterna station and I know that out back counting stars song but they are on my list of CD's I think about wanting to own.
This song, it's all about the little death isn't it? I mean of course it's not.
Bummer! My comment didn't post, apparently. So melancholy and elegaic. Perhaps the green line is simply the emptiness of her gaze, and he's waiting for some sign of activity behind the eyes. Cool way he equated care for someone in an extremely debilitated state with cloud seeding. Now off to check out the music.
i think its all about someone who is walking through life wondering searching for something 2 believe in and never finds it.... and all the while using other things such a alcohol or drugs 2 cope... waiting on love, acceptance, or something else... but u never know unless u wrote it do ya? lol
"...a dusty sleep you took too soon.
And you, you need watering if you are to bloom."
I just love that.
I like your new skin. It's much easier on the eyes. I'm sorry people don't know the meaning of copyrighted work. I'll miss your photos.
See....now the blip and the green line made me think of radar or sonar.
Great lyrics.
I have nothing to add. Perhaps one day you will suggest a song that I can actually download.
Happy belated humpday, honey
hrmm. my post didnt post. Grr, and it was good too.
I heart Hum.
Reading the lyrics like that, maybe I'm ovulating, but I kept seeing sexual imagery -
all the sprinkling and upturned mouths
and the laying the head low and spinning
and the rhythm
I think you misunderstood him...perhaps he meant the lyrics had no meaning to himself. As in...I could write a song about love and it may reach thousands of other people but it would be of no importance to me because I've never experienced it before...OR I could write a song deticated to a girl named Suzanne and it may make certain Suzannes across the world happy but it would mean nothing to me because I don't know of any Suzannes.
Dig?
Well it started to me to be of how she inpires him, then I thought she was losing a baby or finding one (waiting for green blip, and forceps together), he's thinking of need and giving (feeding open mouths) sprinkled with divinity, and overall I think she's dying. A dusty sleep that she took too soon, her failing vivid eyes, he needs her softness to lean on in this ironic moment, she's gathering angels, and how he hopes she remembers his face. And he's hoping, no.
He's clinging to hope in the way that only those losing someone precious can.
But has a sense of acceptance, and that wondrous way of remembering only the beauty and inspiration.
So maybe he left loose imagery so we can interpret what we want (a good song) but he was definitely preoccupied with some themes, whether consciously or not.
great post
I am not going to read all the comments posted here, so if I reitterate what another xangan has already opined, i apologize. when you say:
"Matt Talbot, the singer/guitarist/lyricist for one of my all time favorite bands, Hum, swore that his lyrics had no meanings. That he wrote vague abstractions to let the listener impart their own meanings"
This might be true in 95% of all songs that he writes, but I don't think we can generalize hasty and say this applies to all material ever written now or ever will be. Do you agree. Maybe this song is thriving with the artists intended meaning.
Or is it even more possible he was so sick to death of explaining what his songs meant that he just issued this blanket statement to appease his never satisfied public?
~suede
fucking. definitely about fucking. fucking girls.