December 25, 2010

Song of the Year?

While I was staying up to make sure Santa didn't need any help with batteries or assemblies, I was reflecting on the song, Future Island's “Tin Man”, which had been in my head for most of the evening. Sure, by now it is no doubt overplayed, overpraised, and over analyzed. Still we shouldn't let that detract from it's greatness. Anyway I thought I would share why I identify with the piece so strongly.

It would be a safe bet to imagine the antagonist intended by the author to be an old lover. Someone who reached out to the speaker, showed him love and then left because they themselves were afraid. Leaving the the tin man to either fall back on a heartless and therefor invulnerable persona, or perhaps to pity themselves for not having the heart the relationship needed to continue – depending on who you want to blame. Certainly themes that hit close to home, but not quite what I see in this song.

In my mind, the protagonist and his adversary are one and the same. A character that once switched off so much of his heart to survive, that he had find it again for the same reason. That is in so many ways my innermost story, put so beautifully.

Merry Chirstmas

Thomas Stover

You couldn't possibly know how much you meant to me
You couldn't honestly look inside my tarot
You couldn't possibly find it in your heart to forgive me
You are the savage sun and scarecrow

And time – goes by
And you've got a lot to learn, in your life
And the heart's not inside
And I've got to find the one that's just right

You offer all amends in hopes of saving me
You never imagined I could be strong without you
You offer me a branch of peace that bleeds through
The thorns that welcomed me – now speak truth

I am the Tin Man

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