A Grain of Salt

If I wasn’t so lazy, I would have embedded this video.

Start out with listening to the song, then hop back here for an analysis.

“I do not exist,” we faithfully insist
sailing in our separate ships,
and in each tiny caravel -
tiring of trying, there’s a necessary dying
like the horseshoe crab in its proper season sheds its shell
such distance from our friends,
like a scratch across a lens,
made everything look wrong from anywhere we stood
and our paper blew away before we’d left the bay
so half-blind we wrote these songs on sheets of salty wood

you caught me making eyes at the other boatmen’s wives
and heard me laughing louder at the jokes told by their daughters
I’d set my course for land,
but you well understand
it takes a steady hand to navigate adulterous waters
the propeller’s spinning blades held acquaintance with the waves
as there’s mistakes I’ve made no rowing could outrun
the cloth low on the mast like to say Ive got no past
but I’m nonetheless the librarian and secretary’s son
with tarnish on my brass and mildew on my glass
I’d never want someone so crass as to want someone like me
but a few leagues off the shore, I bit a flashing lure
and I assure you, it was not what it expected it to be!
I still taste its kiss, that dull hook in my lip
is a memory as useless as a rod without a reel
to an anchor-ever-dropped-seasick-yet-still-docked captain spotted napping with his first mate at the wheel floating forgetfully along, with no need to be strong. we keep our confessions long and when we pray we keep it short
I drank a thimbleful of fire and I’m not ever going back

Oh, my G-d!

“I do not exist,” we faithfully insist
while watching sink the heavy ship of everything we knew
if ever you come near I’ll hold up high a mirror
Lord, I could never show you anything as beautiful as you

I’ll start out with a quick look at some of the lyrics.

To start out with, I believe the general meaning of the song is quite obvious. The speaker is caught in an adulterous relationship that he cannot seem to escape. He tries his hardest to get away from his problem, (the propeller’s spinning blades held acquaintance with the waves, as there’s mistakes I’ve made no rowing could outrun) but can’t seem to be able to.  Even when he is leaving his situation, he falls into another sin (as shown by the section on the fishhook.) Even though it appears alluring, he is trapped by it. The only thing that frees him from his capture is the memory of God’s love (…thimbleful of fire…). Without the sin holding him down, the narrator is free to bask in God’s glory.

The last verse contains as much theological significance as the rest of the song in it’s entirety. “While watching sink the heavy ship of everything we knew,” I believe, symbolizes the author’s final commitment- getting rid of his former self entirely, and accepting God entirely. However, the one line that sticks out to me more than any other in this song is the last– “Lord, I could never show you anything as beautiful as you.” It’s pretty self explanatory. Nothing we could ever do would be an adequate representation of the love God has for us, much less the enormity of the sacrifice of his son.

The rest of the song is chock-full of good nuggets- I just scratched the surface. Feel free to leave other impressions in the comments.

Tags: Entertainment, Music, Society

Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 6:21 pm • Uncategorized • RSS 2.0 feed • leave a response or trackback