Lying in the Hands of God...

[Groogrux King]

Just realized the word Know was left out before intimately. Damn blackberry.

[chrisandiego]

Anyone have a good quality live DL of this tune?

[DustyKeys70]

The live version is beautiful, anyone else think at the end during the little jam Jeff's solo's sound soooo much like Roi, it's awesome!

Someone mentioned awhile back about Roi's ability to "bend" the note and Jeff didn't really do it. Well he does it here, gorgeous!

[xnad]

The live version of this song is amazing! When I heard this song for the first time..I lost it. My mother recently passed away and I totally got it. Just the state of mind you are in...all over the place. Your world is a mess.
Just a beautiful song.

[shakenmonkey]

I heard it was about a serial killer..dunno but one of DMB best

[FellOffTheWagon]

I passed over the slow songs when I first got the cd and am now have started to listen to this song.

Wow. Amazing.

[made2heal]

Greatest New song on the Album! Soooo so smoooth.

[HolyCow]

Jeff Coffin is OUTSTANDING on this live. I love that little dragging solo he does. Great stuff.

And I really think this song could be interpreted as a drug song. I listened really closely, and it makes sense there.

[Flip36]

top 3 for me!

[TheIdeaofYou41]

Beautiful Song, probably my 2nd favorite on the new record, after Squirm

[sean52692]

Originally Posted by HolyCow

Jeff Coffin is OUTSTANDING on this live. I love that little dragging solo he does. Great stuff.

And I really think this song could be interpreted as a drug song. I listened really closely, and it makes sense there.

Yes, I was unsure how this song would translate over live, and DMB did it very very well.

I still cant wait to hear it in a D&T setting

[JoeLa71]

Is ridiculous live.......I just listened to it, wasn't expecting that WOW

[MistreatedLewis]

I'm starting to think this might be the best live song the band has debuted since 2000.

Anyone with me?

[inmytree]

I'm sure every song in this album will be viewed through the eyes of Roi's death (is it about that subject, or not), and I think most of the songs are not about that directly, but I do think that there is alot about Roi in this song. Particularly the line "I will rise for someone that is afraid to love." Considering the context we now know of the demons Roi had in addition to his happier times (I believe a direct quote from Dave is something like he was a man who had difficulty loving himself). A large portion of the song seems to be about overcoming loss, and realizing that for the narrator, the love and laughter associated with the memory of someone is something that organized religion cannot provide (at least for him).

This song just keeps growing beautifully; it's great to have a new album of songs that work great.

[Pills&Soap]

Originally Posted by MistreatedLewis

I'm starting to think this might be the best live song the band has debuted since 2000.

Anyone with me?

It may be my favorite song since 2000 period.

[beebalmdancer]

I think it's about a guy who lives in an apartment upstairs over a woman's apartment and he knows she is pleasuring herself and he would rather she let him do that for her, but he doesn't think she's willing to love anyone - she's afraid of love; but he'd do anything for her if she'd just let him love her - both physically and otherwise How's that for a crazy look at the lyrics

[beebalmdancer]

The sermon/butterfly thing, is that she has admonished him and someone else who has offered to give him what he wants of her (given them a "sermon") . She has tried to stop that other woman from being with him (tried to cut the wings off the butterfly.)

[beebalmdancer]

I think the other stuff is sexual references - I won't go into that

[peetee32]

heres my go:

purely a drug song like Rhyme and Reason

1st verse:
user describing his love/addiction for the drug of choice. he'll do whatever he has to to get the drug. he is 'owned' by the drug

"save your sermon"
this is what the user is saying to someone trying to convince him NOT to do the drug, a la an intervention. the user is saying, save your breath, i love the drugs. i don't care if you're going to cut me out of your life, or im going to lose you, i love these drugs. at least i love SOMETHING, im better then all those people who don't have a passion for anything, so go tell it to someone who doesn't love anything. "if you knew what i feel, then you couldn't be so sure" the user is telling the person if they could feel like what it is to be this high, you wouldn't want to stop doing the drug either. the lying in the hands of god part is the user, in the depths of a drug induced high, feeling like he is literally sitting next to god he's so high. hes telling the person whos trying to save him, do what ever you want, i'll be here getting high

2nd verse-
here it comes, floor is the ceiling, - user doing the drug
if you never flew-wings of a butterfly- basically a poetic way of saying, "don't knock it till you tried it"

bridge
"if you feel angels..."
this verse stumps me a bit...but i think its the user telling the helper to give up on him. "you will rise" is telling him to move on.

3rd verse-
fill me up now drain me, skin begins to grow back slowly. this is the user coming back out of their high, becoming sober again. i think the comparison to having your skin grow back to sobering up is amazing, and quite accurate if you've ever slowly sobered up from any kind of drug.
faster until im choking- withdrawal
call my mother- even an addict at rock bottom still give mom a call when the need something.

"I am in love with nothing less"
the user is totally consumed with the drugs and doesn't care about anything else.


what do you think?

and for the record, i think this is one of the most beautiful DMB songs ever written and it took me a while to get past it on the album because i just kept listening to it over and over.

[peetee32]

...and just to add on to my post above, i've been really looking into the last set of lyrics, and im starting to think the drug user actually gets help at the end of the song.

the "i will rise for someone thats afraid to love"...although im not quite sure how to explain it, it seems like the user has now decided to get help and hes saying the "if you knew how i feel' this time hes talking about how unhappy he's been on the drugs. and the "lying in the hands of god' line no longer refers to being under the control of the drugs, but under the guidence of those wishing to help him get better.

the last lines become the user warning others not to get caught up in the life of drugs and addiction

there seem to be so many themes and ideas in this song i think its really impossible to put any one concrete idea to whats going on. it really is an amazing song

[songthatCAlikes]

wow, when i first heard ya'll say it was about drugs i thought no way, but that is an interesting argument. i had always believed it was dave in leroi's voice basically saying, "although you don't believe in heaven, don't prevent others from believing in it". but it could also be about drugs. i think therein lies the beauty, in that it could have so many different meanings

[lotas]

Originally Posted by peetee32

heres my go:

purely a drug song like Rhyme and Reason

1st verse:
user describing his love/addiction for the drug of choice. he'll do whatever he has to to get the drug. he is 'owned' by the drug

"save your sermon"
this is what the user is saying to someone trying to convince him NOT to do the drug, a la an intervention. the user is saying, save your breath, i love the drugs. i don't care if you're going to cut me out of your life, or im going to lose you, i love these drugs. at least i love SOMETHING, im better then all those people who don't have a passion for anything, so go tell it to someone who doesn't love anything. "if you knew what i feel, then you couldn't be so sure" the user is telling the person if they could feel like what it is to be this high, you wouldn't want to stop doing the drug either. the lying in the hands of god part is the user, in the depths of a drug induced high, feeling like he is literally sitting next to god he's so high. hes telling the person whos trying to save him, do what ever you want, i'll be here getting high

2nd verse-
here it comes, floor is the ceiling, - user doing the drug
if you never flew-wings of a butterfly- basically a poetic way of saying, "don't knock it till you tried it"

bridge
"if you feel angels..."
this verse stumps me a bit...but i think its the user telling the helper to give up on him. "you will rise" is telling him to move on.

3rd verse-
fill me up now drain me, skin begins to grow back slowly. this is the user coming back out of their high, becoming sober again. i think the comparison to having your skin grow back to sobering up is amazing, and quite accurate if you've ever slowly sobered up from any kind of drug.
faster until im choking- withdrawal
call my mother- even an addict at rock bottom still give mom a call when the need something.

"I am in love with nothing less"
the user is totally consumed with the drugs and doesn't care about anything else.


what do you think?

and for the record, i think this is one of the most beautiful DMB songs ever written and it took me a while to get past it on the album because i just kept listening to it over and over.

im blown away by this analysis and i absolutely love it,

I love how Dave didn't say too much about this song and said he wanted to leave it 'open', and that is now my favorite interpretation, it works perfectly with the theme of addiction

[peetee32]

Originally Posted by lotas

im blown away by this analysis and i absolutely love it,

I love how Dave didn't say too much about this song and said he wanted to leave it 'open', and that is now my favorite interpretation, it works perfectly with the theme of addiction

cool, glad you like it.

i wish i didn't start the post with "purely a drug song"...because its obvious this song is way deeper then that. that was a topic heading left over as i was typing about what it could be about, and all my ideas starting all falling under the 'drug song' heading. oh well.

so the two parts of the song that are really throwing me for a loop are:

if you feel angels in your head
teardrop of joy runs down your face
you will rise

and

I am in love with nothing less
teardrops of joy run off my face
i will rise...for someone thats afraid to love
if you knew what i feel then you couldn't be so sure


im thinking the "if you feel" part might be another person telling the addict they can overcome the addiction. they are being told by someone to listen for angels in their head, or to listen for the help they need to get better. teardrop of joy because they will be so happy once they realise they need to get help, and of course, you will rise. this is the person telling the addict they can overcome.


the "i am in love with nothing less" has to then be the voice of the addict. they are in love with the drugs and the high. they don't love anything that can't make them feel like the drugs do. but then the teardrops of joy...why would a drug addict who has thrown away everything be crying tears of joy? they realize they can overcome the addiction...
but i just can't make sense out of these lines:
...for someone thats afraid to love
if you knew what i feel then you couldn't be so sure

so the helper is afraid to love the addict. the helper has been burned in the past trying to help them and has given up on them...but now that the addict is ready for help the 'helper' shouldn't be so sure of their fear of the love for the addict. now the addict is ready for help.

i don't know...now im just rambling. i just re-read what i typed and its pretty out there and over analzed...but what else are message boards for!

hope someone enjoys this long winded post.

[caribbeandream]

This song has such a dreamy vibe to me. It's been my favorite as far as complexity on the album (I'm also loving Shake Me and Alligator Pie just for pure fun and energy and such). I haven't looked much into the lyrics (although I'm looking at them a lot more closely after reading through these posts), but musically, I think this song is gonna be amazing live. Definite jam potential. I love how the 2nd jam part seems to go into a bit of a reggae beat for a little bit. Adds a bit more to the dreamy feeling I was talking about. Almost like it transforms it to a different state of mind (think, how warehouse or two step or well, many of their songs I guess start start out a bit dark, yet end in a happy sounding jam).

[bmt322]

Originally Posted by bs022

Interesting find that was brought up over at TDC that I thought I would share here. The opening lyrics to LITHOG are sung in the intro of What You Are from the 6.9.08 show at Detroit.

June 9th. This is before LeRoi's accident and death. If you listen to the song, link provided (thank you), Dave sing's 'if you never flew why would you'. This line was written before the tragedy. So for those thinking that this line refers to LeRoi flying, it is not. I am NOT saying that flying did or did not lead to his clot, I'm just saying that the line in this song does not refer to it. That is all.

[caribbeandream]

Originally Posted by bmt322

June 9th. This is before LeRoi's accident and death. If you listen to the song, link provided (thank you), Dave sing's 'if you never flew why would you'. This line was written before the tragedy. So for those thinking that this line refers to LeRoi flying, it is not. I am NOT saying that flying did or did not lead to his clot, I'm just saying that the line in this song does not refer to it. That is all.

Wow- that's crazy! Where is the link? (Sorry, I didn't see it). I had never even thought about that line though and it how it could have been the cause of the clot. That's crazy too. This song is intense. But still w/ a foggy, dreamy vibe.

[bmt322]

Originally Posted by caribbeandream

Wow- that's crazy! Where is the link? (Sorry, I didn't see it). I had never even thought about that line though and it how it could have been the cause of the clot. That's crazy too. This song is intense. But still w/ a foggy, dreamy vibe.

The link is on page 2 of this thread.

It's possible flying could have caused some time of problem. I know there are several medical conditions where people should not fly. The air pressure and whatever can mess stuff up.

[warehouse06]

best song on the album.

[The Lado]

I agree, the fav. off the album. Seems to be the one that keeps getting the repeat button.

The one line I like the most if, "If you never flew why would you, cut the wings off a butterfly."

To me, the lyrics tell how people try to bring someone down experiencing joy when the person inflicting the pain has never felt happiness before and doesn't understand what it feels like.

If your life has been hard and troubling, why hurt someone who is happy?

.02


D.

[aoeiifreak]

I think this song is the #1 BWGK live effort right now. Squirm might be my favorite studio, but it definitely doesn't translate as well as LITHOG, my #2 studio pick. I think I enjoy LITHOG almost as much as PM, which is a great compliment.