Welcome to Wintersleep.com Sign In| Join | Help
Wintersleep
Search Forums:  in Search

Miasmal Smoke & The Yellow Bellied Freaks

Last post Thu, Sep 11 2008, 8:31 AM by TheWeatherNetwork. 5 replies.
Sort Posts: Previous Next
  •  Wed, May 21 2008, 5:45 PM 765

    Miasmal Smoke & The Yellow Bellied Freaks

    .. is an absolutely incredible song.   I actually learned how to use repeat on my CD player so I could listen to it over and over and over.   I have no idea what the lyrics mean or what the song is about, but it's mesmerizing. 

    I would like to hear what your interpretation of this song is.

     

     

     

     

     

  •  Mon, Jun 02 2008, 9:06 PM 796 in reply to 765

    Re: Miasmal Smoke & The Yellow Bellied Freaks

    Definitely my favourite song on Welcome to the Night Sky.

     I believe it's about a young girl who sees the superficiality in everything, and (theoretically, or perhaps literally) gives up her sight so she can live in her own reality.

     


    Donated her eyes to view life as she imagined it.
  •  Wed, Jun 04 2008, 2:51 PM 798 in reply to 796

    Re: Miasmal Smoke & The Yellow Bellied Freaks

    nice.

    So cool to hear everyone's interpretations. keep them coming!

  •  Thu, Jun 26 2008, 11:54 PM 815 in reply to 765

    Re: Miasmal Smoke & The Yellow Bellied Freaks

    I also generally think of the first part of the song to literally be about a girl who donates her eyes, apparently to the blind person singing the previous song. The next part of the song is a bit more difficult to pin down.

     Here's one thing I want to know; is the first instrumental half of the song named "Miasmal Smoke" and the second part named "Yellow Bellied Freaks" or the song title meant to apply to the whole thing? For some reason I imagine "Miasmal Smoke" could either be a title for the 'smoky', dense instrumental beginning or maybe a fanciful name for the teenage girl in the song. I don't know??



    Anyway, the second half of the lyrics are a bit more cryptic, but I tend to think of them as being addressed to whomever might find this girl's life-changing decision objectionable for reasons that seem to only be based in societal conventionality ("traditionalist" folk who are afraid of god and modern science).

    The second set of lyrics are also a bit difficult to understand, though I'm pretty sure I have it nailed down to this:

    Go back to sleep
    You yellow-bellied freaks
    Afraid of god and modern science

    Go back to sleep!
    If I could only sleep,
    If I could stop imagining,
    If my dream weren't after me...

    He cursed and sweared, blinkered, the deafening hum of some great silence
    The jingle-jangle and heat
    The strangle
    And she's terrible
    And fucking meaningless

    I can't for certain say what that last stanza means, except that the word "meaningless" is, of course, meant to mean "beautiful".

  •  Wed, Jul 23 2008, 4:25 AM 863 in reply to 815

    Re: Miasmal Smoke & The Yellow Bellied Freaks

    Donated her eyes when she was young and shy,
    hated her awkward breasts and filled the yawning skylines with kisses
    sweet, to hear existence beat, to hold it tangible and drifting,
    ever so gently sifting summer sky, donated her eyes, donated her eyes
    to feel her actual senses, oh sweet 16, to feel what life was like,
    donated her eyes to feel life as she imagined it

    Go back to sleep you yellow bellied freaks, afraid of God and modern science
    Go back to sleep, if I could only sleep, if I could stop imagining if my dreams weren't after me
    Through piss and sweaty blankets, the deafening hum of some great silence
    The jingle jangling heat, the strangling sheets, terrible and fucking meaningless

     I wonder if the first verse is about a 16 year old girl who took her own life. 'To hear existence beat, to hold it tangible and drifting' could mean that she wanted to go beyond the life she lived, not because of depression necessarily, maybe just to evolve. The words 'To hold it tangible and drifting' especially make me think of seeing life from a different perspective, one that views our lives as a temporary state. 'To feel her actual senses' might refer to feeling more than the 5 senses we are normally said to be limited to.

    The second part sounds like it is from the perspective of someone struggling with the situation, possibly after the fact. Dealing with not only the loss, but also with the misconceptions that would inevitably go hand in hand (with the idea that she may have killed herself without any depression or insanity to blame). Maybe even a significant other who had known the girl's intent, and is now haunted.

    Whatever the song actually means, the contrast between the first and second parts is really interesting, and the visuals you get from the lyrics are stunning. What an epic masterpiece, and what a way to open their SummerSonic set!
     


    People talk so loud.
  •  Thu, Sep 11 2008, 8:31 AM 963 in reply to 863

    Re: Miasmal Smoke & The Yellow Bellied Freaks

    The perfect epic to end an album with. 
View as RSS news feed in XML