Just listened to Backspacer...

htt2821htt2821 Posts: 21
edited September 2009 in The Porch
I love it!!! Halfway through it occurred to me that it sounds as if the band has a weight lifted off it's shoulders and the music sounds pure and free...Eddie sounds as if he doesn't have a care in the world and the band let's us into their happiness...Just my first listen thoughts....
"You think I got my eyes closed but I've been lookin' at you the whole fuckin' time...
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Welcome to the club!!! :)
    Makes me ache, makes me shake...
    ...is it so wrong to think that love can keep us safe?
  • Brisk.Brisk. Posts: 11,486
    Backspacer?
  • Realy? I thought Eddie might be batteling Leukemia or some other life threatinging illness. I just recieved it in the mail and the lyrics broke my heart.
  • I actually thought it sounded very free as well. Like ed was just putting it out there without rethinking what he wanted to say over and over before he decided on a final version. I think it has some of the most amazing really vulnerable lyrics I have ever heard!
    all those paper plates......
  • the wolfthe wolf Posts: 7,027
    RM210343 wrote:
    Realy? I thought Eddie might be batteling Leukemia or some other life threatinging illness. I just recieved it in the mail and the lyrics broke my heart.

    WTF???
    Peace, Love.


    "To question your government is not unpatriotic --
    to not question your government is unpatriotic."
    -- Sen. Chuck Hagel
  • Maybe I'm just freaking out and making up stuff but:

    Gonna see my friend

    "I'm going to shake this thing
    I'm wanna shake this pain before I retire"

    And retire has always been a synonym for death.

    And of course the "Buona Sera".

    The Fixer
    The whole song is all about how he is going to fix things. Very classic boy makes things right for girl. And the last stanzas are about staying by her side, "Find us a way to make a light" and "I'll dig your grave" - thus implying he'll be there for her when she dies.

    Just Breathe
    "Yes I understand that every life must end
    As we sit alone, I know somday we must go"
    "Stay with me
    Let's just breathe"
    Then there are three stanzas of essentially saying "did I ever tell you how much I love you" and it ends with
    "Hold me till I die...
    Meet you on the other side"

    Amonst the Waves
    The entire song continues this theme of "did I ever tell you how much I love you"
    and then ends with "gotta say it now
    Better loud
    than too late"

    Unthought Known
    This song, from narrator to 'you' discusses the great expanse of the sky and notes
    "see the path cut by the moon... for you to walk on"
    and later notes "see the waves on distant shores... for you to walk on"
    Both the path to heaven concept and the distant shores metaphor symbolizes heaven or an afterlife.

    Speed of Sound
    If this is not the song of man contemplating his own mortality while his wife sleeps beside him, I don't know what it is.

    "Yesterdays, how quick they change
    All lost and long gone now"

    And then the refrain of battling despair and clinging to hope:
    "And yet I'm still holding tight
    to this dream of distant light
    and that somehow I'll survive

    But this night as been a long one
    waiting on the sun... that just don't come"

    I believe we mean 'survive' quite literally.

    Force of Nature

    "One man stands the edge of the ocean
    a beacon on dry land
    eyes upon the horizon
    in the dark before the dawn"

    While I can certainly see this being a literal moment as well, it is also quite metaphorical. The ocean and the horizon both being symbols of journey and death, and the solitary man facing this journey in the dark sounds a whole lot like a man who is facing death.

    "All the strength you might think would disappear"
    doesn't make sense in the literal sense of a man standing on a beach, but it does make sense if we are talking about a man facing his own death.

    "Makes me ache... makes me shake
    Is it so wrong to think that love can keep us safe?"

    The End
    "What were all those dreams we shared
    those many years ago?
    What were all those plans we made
    Now left beside the road?
    Behind us in the road"

    "I wanted to grow old
    Just want to grow old"

    "Don't leave me so cold
    or buried beneath the stones" .... headstones.

    "Sickness in my bones .... a bit of a leap, but leukemia came to mind.
    How it pains to leave you here
    with the kids on your own
    Just don't let me go"
    --I don't think he means divorce.

    "Before I disappear
    whisper in my ear
    give me something to echo
    in my unknown future's ear"

    "My dear
    the end
    comes near
    I'm here
    But not much longer"

    Thoughts?
  • thats a stretch
    Hartford '06 Camden '06 East Rutherford '06
    Madrid '07 Munich '07 London '07
    Camden '08 MSG I '08 MSG II '08 Hartford '08 Mansfield '08
    Philly II '09 Philly III '09 Philly IV '09
    Hartford '10 MSG I '10 MSG II '10
    Made in America Fest Philly '12
  • I don't know, it seems to me to be more about a feeling of weakness or being a vulnerable human. The lyrics are really honest and sometimes maybe a little off putting. But I am thinking of it more as a show of inner emotion. does that make sense? After a couple times through, I think you can really tell that Ed did not go back and re edit the songs, maybe making them less personal or sometimes second guessing lines that may have in the past been taken out because they reveal a kind of self disapointment or longing. some of the songs on this album remind of of bineural in the way that they give a distinct feeling or emotion but maybe not a simple narrative, but others remind me more of ten or no code, songs told more as a story, ok now I am just rambling, I just love it all so much!
    all those paper plates......
  • you left out Supersonic.

    leave it to that damn Stone to fuck things up.
    WOOT!
  • My thoughts exactly, yes there are some sad lyrics, but this is an very uplifting record!!! I'm 45 years old, been a fan since the beginning and this record gives me goosebumps (not saying it's my favorite, but it's fresh and pure)
    Manchester, TN - 2008
    Washington, D.C. - 2008
    Philadelphia, PA I - 2009
    Bristow, VA - 2010
    Baltimore, MD - 2013
    Milwaukee, WI - 2014
    Hampton, VA - 2016
  • Not saying it's bad at all. Love it. Been listinging from the begining as well. But the albulm left me feeling as it were a goodbye to this earth.

    Supersonic

    I think its more of an anthem of living a fast life.

    "I want to live my life with the volume full"

    Still contemplating "I don't need you to live, but I'll never let you go."

    Also, ALL songs don't have to fit the theme. I'm just saying a lot of these seem to be contemplating one's own mortallity.
Sign In or Register to comment.