There The First Time

[Manchalivin]

This was a song I didn't think too much of when I first heard it but more and more I liked the style and uniqueness of it.  Anyway, the reason I made this thread is because this song has really got me curious lyrically for some reason, it seems like a different topic/style than usual from MG.  So I'm wondering, does anyone have ideas on what the heck it's about?

[Stwlegend]

Not sure what its about either but really dig this song.  I enjoy it live too with Matt on vocals only.

[Moonlight_Graham]

I've gone over the lyrics to all of the songs on "Something Like a Storm" numerous times.  Some songs are a lot easier to interpret their meaning than others.  Matt has a very poetic style of lyric writing.  Often they can be extremely vague, and for some songs it's like he writes the lyrics for himself to enjoy and express and no intention for us to know, or it takes a darned English professor to extract the symbolism & metaphor etc.  Some songs are impossible to interpret their original meaning because many of his songs can be about personal matters we aren't privy to.  After learning the meaning of different songs through different interviews of his, there's just no way anyone could ever interpret the lyrics accurately for some songs because they were based on personal matters he never shared with his fans.

This song I've tried to interpret with some vague theories, like immigration (and refugees) in the US and Canada, or possibly something to do with aboriginals, immigrants, European migrants to North America, and nationalism. It could also have to do with something cyclical about humans and their relation to the environment and humans as part of the whole animal ecosystem where it's a timeless battle for survival for all living things.  I really am not 100% sure.  Again, it's vague.

As a listener it can be frustrating because I want to connect to the lyrics and to the artist and share in its meaning, but because of the vagueness it's impossible.  An album like LOES was still complex lyrically but I found as a whole a bit easier to interpret with some work, and a genius of an album lyrically & musically.  I like songs that are complex enough to take some work to figure out, but not so vague that it's possible to do so with some mental effort.  Avalanche was an album like that.

What do you think this song means?

Edited November 22, 2018 by Moonlight_Graham

[Moonlight_Graham]

How I try to interpret Matt's lyrics is to consider:

- The context of the album as a whole, whether it's a concept album or has a central theme, how that theme might relate to the lyrics in a given song

- What's been going on in Matt's life either interest-wise (ie: political events) or personally (ie: having kids) that he's shared around the time the song was written

- Any general personal interests of Matt (ie: politics, soccer etc) or themes that he's talked about or sung about in the past (ie: mental health, the state of the music industry, US foreign policy etc) that might provide clues.

Matt's always been really into covert operations in US foreign policy, he likes figuring out all secret CIA shit that's been done now & throughout the decades, likes figuring out a complex puzzle, and I think he likes making his lyrics like that too, a puzzle for us to figure out.

[daniel_v]

Just in case anyone wants to be able to look at them without searching them up: 

Get a good run at it
Whip the horse and rattle
The station of state a bit
A universe of battle

 

Every second a sun
Somewhere one dies
No heaven's heir apparent
There the first time

Well I know this feeling
I get it all the time
Every second a sun
Somewhere one dies

 

Time to get on with it
The prison and the shackles
Colonize you brick by brick
Leading by example

 

Sun up, sun down
Two hundred species die
Crawled off a cliff
There the first time

Well I know the reasons
I use them all the time
From sun up to sun down

 

I believe in the power of an ocean
A trillion miles bereaved
But there the first time
There the first time

Sun up, to sun down
There the first time