Need some help with Buckle Up

Hankj25

Read that there is a hospital vibe to the lyrics, but the woman with a baby on her lap, murderer groomed lyric has thrown me.  

Anyone wanna help me out?

joseph33

I get the feeling the song has something to do with child abuse.

edocon

My interpretation is the grown-up "baby" must make the decision to pull the plug on their mother at the hospital, and the guilt makes them feel like a murderer. 

Hankj25

Well my interpretation was some sore of a late term abortive process so we’ve got three opinions!  

LastStopOnTheWestCoastLine

The stuff about slipping and falling makes me think that the protagonist is a doctor who's just done some procedure (which gets blood on his hands). And then he's walking the hospital and notices a wounded woman (domestic abuse?), with her boy who's traumatized by his childhood and grows up to be a murderer (like in Mamasan). He also sees people in there who've slipped and fallen etc. So it's just a general rumination on different kinds of physical pain, and he's just telling us - there's an awful lot of unpreventable shit that hits people, so just do this simple thing and put your damn seatbelt on (and wash your hands when you get home).

The only thing that doesn't fit with this theory is - why would this doctor wake up to his own mother's wrath?

This is a fun thread!

CarryTheZero

Here’s my take but what do I know! (And don’t have all the lyrics in front of me).

Is the mother really earth or Mother Nature and the murderer groomed just the stand in for anybody polluting the earth? The last verse is really the environment on its last leg?

Which I could be completely off base and it’s a crazy kid! 

PJammer4life

Parents say buckle up to make sure your safe driving in a car. Even future murders. But I like edocons interpretations.

ceska

I don't know what is going on in this song but it is the underrated gem of the album. Lyrically it seems a cousin of Wilco's Bull Black Nova (and of course there is similarity to Rival as well). Someone elsewhere on the forum was disappointed that a song entitled Buckle Up was not a fast rocker. Actually I think this is perfect - had it been a fast tune it would have turned out generically cheesy and predictable - a weaker offspring of Supersonic perhaps. A song about (murder?) set to lullabye music? Not what I would have expected... and it works. Although the last verse take an already vague song and makes it too murky instead of providing insight and a conclusion. Nevertheless, Stone Gossard give us more of your musical genius please.

Yes, the suggestion of pulling the plug on an elderly parent seems like a good guess so far.

Smellyman

CarryTheZero said:

Here’s my take but what do I know! (And don’t have all the lyrics in front of me).

Is the mother really earth or Mother Nature and the murderer groomed just the stand in for anybody polluting the earth? The last verse is really the environment on its last leg?

Which I could be completely off base and it’s a crazy kid! 

Since it's Stone lyrics, I'd say this is much more likely.

Stone is a huge environmentalist as we all know.

rummy

Reminds me of Parachutes.

lolobugg

my fave tune on the new album

ed243421

Top 3 for me

#wassuplolo!

Stephen Flow

I think it is about a bed-ridden mother being murdered by her son after a lifetime of mental abuse.

lolobugg

ed243421 said:

Top 3 for me

#wassuplolo!

word up, playa!!! hope you are stay safe and healthy in BEANTOWN

ed243421

Same to you and yours!

All safe here, so far.


see ya at a show soon, but first, buckle up!

JG49071

I got the domestic abuse feeling for the woman with a baby on her lap. Maybe she fled the house with her young child, the doctor pulls back the curtain and sees her with the child in her lap. The murderer groomed part may be since the child saw his mom get beat up by his dad, he may grow up and want revenge by killing his dad.

I get different scenes of a hospital for each verse. It's like a day in the life of a nurse or doctor and what they see in the hospital.

But that's just me. I like the tune.

Abe Froman

Buckle Up has been the only song on Gigaton I’ve struggled with so far. With that being said sometimes I can’t get it out of my head!  It feels like a trippy Beatles song (White album?) mixed with Around The Bend. I think I’m going to end up loving it

ed243421

My take:

the “blood on his hands” is the guilt of human damage to the earth

”the stain of a human”

narrator has realized this from his “mother’s wrath” & her warning signs

“Drapes pulled back, reveal her wound. Boy on her lap, a murder groomed” is realization that our “mother” is dying and we are to blame.

“antiquities lost....fall on the tile” is the nirvana that the earth once was may be lost forever without immediate action.

CarryTheZero

ed243421 said:

My take:

the “blood on his hands” is the guilt of human damage to the earth

”the stain of a human”

narrator has realized this from his “mother’s wrath” & her warning signs

“Drapes pulled back, reveal her wound. Boy on her lap, a murder groomed” is realization that our “mother” is dying and we are to blame.

“antiquities lost....fall on the tile” is the nirvana that the earth once was may be lost forever without immediate action.

Well said!

Stephen Flow

Yeah so I can see this being about the Earth too... the 2 lines of the chorus are interesting when you take into consideration our efforts to save the earth from pollution - "Firstly do no harm"... but this is juxtaposed with the next line "then put your seat belt on"... to me this could be an attempt to try and show some irony that we all feel saving the planet is important but yet we all still drive a lot. idk just taking a stab at it.

release00

I like this one A LOT

pursuedbybear

ed243421 said:

My take:

the “blood on his hands” is the guilt of human damage to the earth

”the stain of a human”

narrator has realized this from his “mother’s wrath” & her warning signs

“Drapes pulled back, reveal her wound. Boy on her lap, a murder groomed” is realization that our “mother” is dying and we are to blame.

“antiquities lost....fall on the tile” is the nirvana that the earth once was may be lost forever without immediate action.

Well put, this was my takeaway as well. Stone always says so much with so little, it's never just a straightforward lyric. I honestly adore this song. 

LastStopOnTheWestCoastLine

ed243421 said:

My take:

the “blood on his hands” is the guilt of human damage to the earth

”the stain of a human”

narrator has realized this from his “mother’s wrath” & her warning signs

“Drapes pulled back, reveal her wound. Boy on her lap, a murder groomed” is realization that our “mother” is dying and we are to blame.

“antiquities lost....fall on the tile” is the nirvana that the earth once was may be lost forever without immediate action.

I love this interpretation!

Spiritual_Chaos

I interpreted it as a sons goodbye to a mother dying. Remembering the childhood, and past and balancing the good and the bad of a life with her as his mother.

cincybearcat

Spiritual_Chaos said:

I interpreted it as a sons goodbye to a mother dying. Remembering the past and balancing the good and the bad of a life with her.

This is what I get now.  First listen I wondered about a murderer...but after actually seeing the lyrics and listening more, this makes more sense.  Especially after it was said that stone was writing about a hospital.  I really love this song.

Spiritual_Chaos

cincybearcat said:

Spiritual_Chaos said:

I interpreted it as a sons goodbye to a mother dying. Remembering the past and balancing the good and the bad of a life with her.

This is what I get now.  First listen I wondered about a murderer...but after actually seeing the lyrics and listening more, this makes more sense.  Especially after it was said that stone was writing about a hospital.  I really love this song.

It's a bit like Parachutes back in 2006 -- I like it but I get why someone else would press skip.

Veddernarian

I apologize for this but when I hear the guitar and the cowbell clunking I keep thinking of Disney's "A cowboy needs a horse" cartoon.  I hope I just now didn't ruin anything for you or anybody else.  Still getting used to this one.  I probably would have probably liked the Buckle-up instrumental, guitar only for about 15 seconds and then burst into "Of the earth" kind of like Sabbath's "Symptom of the universe".  That on Gigaton in the same spot.  Probably would make Gigaton 2 minutes longer.  Love the album!

GlowGirl

When I first heard this song I really didn't like it. I thought it was the worst song on the album. However, I have been listening to the album pretty regularly and just found myself bopping my head to it. Still not my favorite, but it is growing on me with more listens.

mandarine65

I think it's one of the best songs on the album. It' new the way all of those yesterday or parachutes were, new musical territory for them. The sound work is really experimental and interesting, there is a part where it almost sounds like horns, feels like something Broken Social Scene  would do, sonically. I really like it! Personally, I still struggle a lot with the chorus and outro of 7o', the verses are so great but these parts still feel off and mushy. Then retrograde, although it has some interesting sound work too, again the chorus feels generic, the way lots of songs felt on the previous two albums felt. Still the strongest album since Avocado, no doubt. I love that they are experimenting, at this stage of their careers, it's great, even if hit or miss.

Bladamus Maximus

rummy said:

Reminds me of Parachutes.

Hadn’t thought of this but maybe that’s why I love it so much. 

Gern Blansten

cincybearcat said:

Spiritual_Chaos said:

I interpreted it as a sons goodbye to a mother dying. Remembering the past and balancing the good and the bad of a life with her.

This is what I get now.  First listen I wondered about a murderer...but after actually seeing the lyrics and listening more, this makes more sense.  Especially after it was said that stone was writing about a hospital.  I really love this song.

I like that you like it....it's the only song on the album I don't get anything from