the trapeze swinger
the best bloody song ever. i know i say it often when i plug songs i’m into—only to sheepishly confess tiring of it a week later, having had it on an infinite loop on my portable, home player and work/school computer the entire time. so check back next week when i’m sick of it. but for now, it’s just excellent. the link will bring you to a guy’s analysis of the song, which i thought was pretty helpful, but the lyrics are below his analysis for your own perusal.
that being said, the tune is pretty monotonous, consisting of a verse that cycles endlessly. no chorus, no bridge; none of the usual trappings of typical song structure nowadays. being too afraid of authorities clamping down on my tiny site, i hesitate to give you the song, downloadable from my site, but if you see me on MSN, ask me for it. (i just confessed i had it anyway, didn’t i.)
apart from its eulogy-type homage to a past relationship, it makes me think about how we want to be remembered by exes. does it matter if you never see the person again? does it matter if your lives have been so cleanly severed you never cross paths after? and even if you do, what does anything matter now that you’re not seeing each other anymore?
but we do care, don’t we. we want to forever be known as the girl/boyfriend who was the best, the greatest loss you ever had. no one wants to be remembered as “thank goodness that’s over” and “what was i thinking?”
the reason why people get paranoid about this, i suspect, is because they do it to their exes; where all exes get filed up in the “good riddance” folder eventually (or even immediately), in an effort to save yourself from self-inflicted post-heartbreak. you stop up all the holes and plaster the cracks shut.
and in doing that, you’re afraid that you’ve been filed away too. because even if you never want to see him/her again, you always want to be wanted. for no good reason, i suppose, other than for ego-gratifying reasons, to fill the giant tank of empty self-esteem with yet another thimble of it at a time.
the guy dies in the song, however, so if you’re like me, listening to the song, thinking, “yeah, i hope you remember me well, because my reputation is all that matters,” you’re going to feel very shallow. uh… but good song, didn’t i say? it’s by Iron and Wine.
in other news, i’m going on my first business trip next week! to beijing, actually, which will be great till i’m piled up with all the requests of cheap/fake/pirated/rare/exotic/cheena/cheap/cheap/cheap things to buy back for friends and family. but i’m expecting it to be a pleasant time anyway; definitely more pleasant than the ridiculous summer fortnight i spent two months ago there, where i brought thongs (like, slippers, not g-strings) after hearing about the hot weather, but regretting it instantly after i found myself jerking my foot up spasmodically everytime i heard someone clearing his throat.
since you opened the door…
nip/tuck!!!! i want the dvds of both seasons!
haha. i’m addicted. fucck.
ooh, maybe sex and the city too. hmm.
I WANT HAW. I WANT MORE OF THAT HAW GOODNESS THAT YOU LET ME EAT IN YOUR CAR. HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW!
my, haven’t we fallen from the days where NOTHING was allowed in your car. Breathing was barely acceptable. And now, i’m eating Haw in your car:)
hahaha. yeah now you can eat most things in it. but flicking boogers is an absolute no-no. this may seem surprising, but i’ve had to announce that on more than one occasion in the past.
you may, however, eat your boogers. i think that’s only fair.
that is disgusting. ergh.
you do not have secret spy powers… I do!
and who says i’m laughing at your picture?
..snigger snigger.
haha you’re SO lucky, emma had like every other year except the ‘97 mag.
oh, we found joce too! ha ha ha!
but your’s is still funnier(:
jody/jun> debbie’s one of the girls from the baby band in lovemgs. they found my sec 2 picture. i don’t know what else to say.
ok, cuz i was just about to say.
haha. it’s okay, i looked like a dork too. i think.
it’s all a blur now.
no, no jun, you remember correctly, you did look like a dork. HAHAHAH i’m just kidding, if anyone looked weird it was me. with that hair. well, then there was Jun, really, with that LACK of hair. that sent the world spinning. *snigger*
yes yes. i remember, biatch.
I know I am a little late to post on the Iron and Wine song, but I absolutely had to say something…
Wonderful song. Consistently uplifting and mortally sobering, somehow all at once. And how he says what he says, to me, carries more of the meaning than anything else.
“We’ll meet again…”
“My misery, and how it lost me all I wanted…”
“Remember me, finally, and all my uphill crawling, my dear…”
It sounds like a man struggling to come to terms with loss, and still maintain a perspective with room for hope, repentance and redemption. And I don’t mean religiously, necesarily… Just in terms of an honest appraisal of a well-worn life.
I don’t agree that it is necessarily primarily about an ex, though. I think that the fundamental reference is there, yes, but I think the crisis of being “remembered” applies to more than that — “tell my mother not to worry,” and all the references to the afterlife. I think the speaker’s crisis is a more general human one, and the childhood relationship/romance just an entry point to a much larger discussion.
That’s just my own personal…
sam> thanks, that was pretty insightful. :)
I fell in love with this song the moment I heard it.. and then I cried.