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What do we think about the book-ended setting sun lyrics?
Scared of Fear:
Quote:
I hear the voices calling, hear the voices calling All around my head, all around my head Hear the voices calling, oh, again they're calling All around my head, have I lost my friend? Is this what we've become? One last setting sun I'll give, but I can't give up, I'll live, not long enough To stop these voices calling, stop the voices calling All around my head, as if you never left
Setting Sun:
Quote:
May your days be long till kingdom come May our days be long before kingdom come May our days be long until kingdom come We can become one last setting sun Am I the only one hanging on? We could become one last setting sun Or be the sun at the break of dawn Let us not fade Let us not fade
In the first song he seems upset about being one last setting sun, while in the last song he seems to beg for it.
My interpretation, if you take the album as an album about a breakup, is in the first song, the breakup is still fresh (maybe ongoing). The narrator is upset about their significant other's self-destructive behavior, the tumultous relationship, he feels like they are just another fading romance (setting sun), and it upsets him. (In fact the first two songs seem to take place in this fiery and raw period, until Wreckage when the narrator fully realizes what he lost and becomes resigned, realizes what he lost, and no longer cares about the anger)
By the end, in Setting Sun, he frames the setting sun metaphor more positively, he would give anything to be together with the other. Even being one last setting sun now is desirable if it means they are together, and maybe he views the metaphor through a different lens, a more positive and romantic one. It's the two of them together, even if they're the last on earth. And maybe they are not a setting sun but a rising one. He refuses to give up "(I wait on the porch hoping someday, I'll be let in They say in the end everything will be okay If it's not okay, well then, it ain't the end") believing that if they are not together, then it isn't over yet.
You can choose to interpret it as romantic and hopeful, or you can see it as pathetically desperate and clinging onto somebody who has moved on from him. That is your choice how to see it, and if you sympathize with the narrator or not.
But I do think the first and last songs show a change in his opinion, probably the difference between a breakup that is happening now, and one that is in the past and suddenly none of the fighting seems important at all.
I think "being the setting sun" would be resignation, failure. He's trying to shout down that potential resolution.
right. we can either resign and accept that fate, or rise again and start anew
Interesting. So maybe in the first song he is feeling hopeless, but by the end he has become either desperate or determined, depending on your interpretation of the lyrics and if you think the narrator has a chance (I still interpret the song as sad and desperate ala Black and not optimistic even if the narrator is determined)
In the "relationship" reading, it seems that nothing has improved from the beginning of the album to the end, aside from the fact the narrator is less confused about where things stand.
Look at how many "question" lyrics there are in Scared of Fear, and then compare to Setting Sun. By the end, his only question is "Am I the only one hanging on?"
In the "relationship" reading, it seems that nothing has improved from the beginning of the album to the end, aside from the fact the narrator is less confused about where things stand.
Look at how many "question" lyrics there are in Scared of Fear, and then compare to Setting Sun. By the end, his only question is "Am I the only one hanging on?"
Yes that's why I see it as a sad song. The narrator desperately wants to be together again, but he is not just entitled to her just because he wants her. Like the lead singer of Black, his desperation does not do him any good. Saying "if you could see what I see now you would find a way to stay" sounds particularly self-involved in the same way the narrator of Black thinks they belong together. Though....
The more I think about it...I CAN see another interpretation if people want to take the album as more positive.
Got to Give is also clearly about the narrator at a breaking point - his sadness of earlier songs has given way to unbearable mental turmoil. He seems to want to get over the person. But perhaps at the end of the song what ACTUALLY happens, what ACTUALLY gives, is he gives up on his anger and pride and resentment and decides he wants to be with the person, not just mope and whine about it.
Maybe then Setting Sun is a hopeful song, in that maybe the narrator is not just bitterly thinking about how he thought they'd be together and his wife left. But maybe he's become more self-aware, is humbling himself, admitting what happened, and deciding he wants to actually work to repair things. Maybe that's what he needs to do. Maybe he wasn't in the right place mentally until this point. Earlier in Wreckage he says "If you're feeling the leaving I can't make you stay"
But now he has decided he will fight for the relationship.
You could see that as a possibly positive ending?
So I still think this song can be interpreted either way but this is possible as well
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