The Funeral

"The Funeral"

Band of Horses 

I'm coming up only to hold you under

I'm coming up only to show you wrong

And to know you is hard; we wonder

To know you all wrong; we warn.

Really too late to call,

So we wait for morning to wake you

That's all we got

And to know me as hardly golden

Is to know me all wrong, they warn.

At every occasion, I'll be ready for the funeral

At every occasion, once more, is called the funeral

Every occasion, know I'm ready for the funeral

At every occasion, oh, one million day funeral

I'm coming up only to show you down,

For I'm coming up only to show you wrong.

To the outside: the dead leaves, they're on the lawn

For they don't have trees to hang their own. 

AZ lyrics

The first time that I heard this song I was watching the movie Stepfather with some of my friends. As weird and messed up as that movie was, I was drawn to the song when I heard it playing in the background of a scene. I love the instrumentals that the Band of Horses put into this song, it makes the lyrics all the more captivating. So, what's the song about? When you hear this song...what did you imagine the song was about?

At first I thought that obvious, that it was just about a funeral and about the emotions that arise during the funeral. But as a continued to hear it play on my itunes I began to think otherwise. I thought that maybe there was something deeper to the title. Then I began to read the lyrics of the song and then ideas came rushing to my head. 

The lyrics presented to me the idea that this song is about something that was going to tear people apart to the point that the conclusion of the event was going to be a funeral. The something in this song I thought was a secret. In my mind the secret has presented itself amongst a family, a secret that could potentially tear it apart. Perhaps even a teenager finding out that his parents are leaving each other. This secret is "coming up only to hold you under", to hold you under the amount of emotion that it has forced upon a person. "I'm coming up only to show you wrong", to show you that things really don't look good, there is unhappiness amidst the family. Maybe the father is leaving the teen and his mother, therefore "to know you is hard, we wonder". They no longer know who the father is, and wonder how their family has been torn apart. "To know you all wrong, we warn", the mother didn't know the father that well at all and so know they are warning their family of the situation at hand. "Really too later to call, so we wait for morning to wake you", could be alluding to the fact that the mother wants to get out of the house, so they are waiting to call a loved one with whom they can stay

Maybe I am way off base here...but that was the first image that came to my mind and is something that I always feel strongly when I hear this song. Divorce in a lot of teenagers minds is very much like a funeral. Their family is dead and they are left alone to struggle between what's real and what makes them happy.