Timewaster's Guide Archive
Departments => Music => Topic started by: fuzzyoctopus on February 12, 2005, 11:45:15 PM
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I don't know if this will catch on with you guys. Why? Well, because if you think about it, it's uncool to admit that you don't "get" the lyrics to almost any given song. Whatever. If nothing else, you guys can help answer my questions.
So. Fastball. What exactly does "I'll be the rain falling on your fire escape" mean? I don't get the metaphor.
And Ookla, Brenna, Mistress of Darkness - is it ok to say "And I may not be the man you want me to," or should there be a "be" at the end of that line? Obviously the be is implied, but every time I hear the song it makes me do a kind of mental double take.
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Fire escape could be someones hastiness in retreating to somewhere, and the rain the control that will set the fire out keeping you in balance.
Or, it's just to say I'll always be falling for you.
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rather than making something up, I prefer to put it into the context of the song.
The narrator doesn't want to be great or notable ("I don't wanna president, superman or clark kent" -- note that he rejects even the "mild mannered" sort of everyday notability of a newspaper reporter). He's ignorant and unlearned ("I don't know just what I've found, I don't know my sky from ground") and seemingly proud of it, or at least ok with that.
But, he CAN be himself ("how 'bout you?"). ie, he can do the things he's always done. I think in that context, he's just trying to offer all he can. He can be a pleasant moisture, or perhaps, in the end, all he can be is something that will keep her trapped in doors. i think there's two ways to take that. If it's a warm spring rain, maybe he thinks that's a pleasant image. if that's not pleasant, he's either a) the thing that will keep her indoors (ie, with him, because she doesn't wANT to leave) or be the thing that will trap her, but he can't be more. He's just warning her.
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I never thought of it as a trapping image; something noisy maybe. A rain making a lot of noise on a big metal fire escape. Maybe that's it, going with the unimportant/uneducated part - He can't be anyone really smart elegant or important, he can just be himself, which is ... loud and noisy.
Ok, I've reconfused myself.
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Maybe he is just saying that he would be anything just to be close to her. Or you could say that some people, when they are sad, find it comforting to look out the window (in an apartment this would be by the fire escape) and watch the rain fall. So he could be saying that he is content to be a comfort to her in hard times.
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The "be" can be left out/understood. Technically it's called elision.
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Though I haven't heard the song (which would be helpful for a contextual influence--songs are usually about one topic, so if you know what one of the verses means you can use that to infer a meaning into a verse you do not understand) it sounds like he/she is saying the following:
It seems to me like he/she is saying that they will always be around to hinder the peson he/she is talking to, as in their memory will always slow the person down because that person will always be looking back and wondering what could have been or thinking about what a great opportunity they gave up. "I'll be the rain falling on your fire escape" or "I'll be the hinderance slowing you down", as using a wet fire escape is tricky--wet metal is slippery and will always make you rethink your purpose and will slow you down.