Live - Lightning Crashes

[Colonel Sanders]

Ok, what is the meaning of the lyrics?

I found this on wikipedia:

The band dedicated the song to Barbara Lewis, a friend of the band who had been killed by a drunk driver who was fleeing from the police after a robbery. Barbara had many of her organs donated, and the song lyrics reflect how her death enabled others to continue living. After the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, Ed Kowalczyk would frequently dedicate the song to the victims at live shows.

And here is a copy of the lyrics:

lightning crashes, a new mother cries
her placenta falls to the floor
the angel opens her eyes
the confusion sets in
before the doctor can even close the door


lightning crashes, an old mother dies
her intentions fall to the floor
the angel closes her eyes
the confusion that was hers
belongs now, to the baby down the hall


oh now feel it comin' back again
like a rollin' thunder chasing the wind
forces pullin' from the center of the earth again
I can feel it.


lightning crashes, a new mother cries
this moment she's been waiting for
the angel opens her eyes
pale blue colored iris,
presents the circle
and puts the glory out to hide, hide

The first few lines suggest to me that her baby just died. "a new mother cries" = just had a baby, and she is sad (normally you should be haappy). Add to that the doctors dropping a placenta and confusion seems to me like the baby just died?

The next few line looks self explanatory, "an old mother dies" - but confusion sets in after that. "her intentions fall to the floor" WTF? "the confusion that was hers belongs now to the baby down the hall" even more WTF?

I haven't even attempted to dive into the last verse without having an understanding of the first two verses. Any ideas on this?

Thanks, L J

[dibdib]

If you listened to much Live, Ed's lyrics aren't always transparent and sometimes trail off into abstract stuff. He's stated about that much in interviews. Just looking at Throwing Copper, go ahead and try to find a meaning behind most of the other songs on that album. If it were something like Tool, you could probably go line by line and find a few levels of meaning since everything is intentional, but with lots of bands like Live you're supposed to develop interpretations of statements.

[Colonel Sanders]

Well, it seems most songs I can eventually decipher a meaning to their lyrics, or there is no intended meaning. However, this song seems to have an intended meaning that has me confused. I suppose it could just simply be something mean to sound good.

Whatever it may be, as much as I like the song I find my lack of complete understanding of every line to be quite annoying.

L J

[bitchtow]

Seems, fairly self explainatory, the mother gives birth to a child in the first verse (mothers cry and scream giving birth, and also cry in joy afterwards in some cases).

The angel is the child who grows up and dies, the confusion being her life, and i guess the reference to the baby down the hall in the second verse is the recipient of the donations.

No idea what the chorus and 3rd verse mean.

Actually i guess the 3rd verse refers to the recipient surviving and the 'angel' being an 'unsung hero'.

But if i didn't know the backstory i probably would have just said it represents the cycle of life, mother has child, child has child, then dies, etc.


All I can say is, don't analyze lyrics so heavily, lyrics are either, as far as i've seen, literal, metaphorical, or abstract (and in most cases random, with no ties). But if the meanings don't jump out at you, dont explore for them. It's art, and really who buys the scrap metal glued together for hard earned dough, because it has a 'deep meaning'?

[Balew]

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