[dogboydog]

Great job on the lyrics so far guys. The only lines I'm not satisfied with are the part right after "where work might count", transcribed here as "Oh Mercy, Oh God" and the "rerounders" part. It's definitely very hard to tell what she's singing there since that part in particular takes on a very instrumental style, but I almost here "Oh, ask the old [something], God". I wonder if even being able to read lips would help. I particularly want to get them mostly correct because I'm going to do a guitar cover (with the chords I figured out from watching another user's piano cover, which I'll post when I post my cover)

Also, watch carefully as she signs the part in question -- if she was saying "mercy" she would close her mouth there to make the m sound, she doesn't. Hmm. I'm pretty positive it does begin with "oh" and end with "god" though.

[kidbanana]

Great job on the lyrics so far guys. The only lines I'm not satisfied with are the part right after "where work might count", transcribed here as "Oh Mercy, Oh God" and the "rerounders" part. It's definitely very hard to tell what she's singing there since that part in particular takes on a very instrumental style, but I almost here "Oh, ask the old [something], God". I wonder if even being able to read lips would help. I particularly want to get them mostly correct because I'm going to do a guitar cover (with the chords I figured out from watching another user's piano cover, which I'll post when I post my cover)

Also, watch carefully as she signs the part in question -- if she was saying "mercy" she would close her mouth there to make the m sound, she doesn't. Hmm. I'm pretty positive it does begin with "oh" and end with "god" though.

Yep. I'm pretty damn sure (which means only 75% sure) what she's saying is, "--- where work might count! Oh [something something] toward... God!"

The something something is a real puzzle. Sounds like "ack-see-on."

[Jordan~]

"Ack-see-on" could be "action".

The "O mercy, O God" part was largely my doing, but I'll admit that it was just so I'd have something to sing when I got to that bit. Not that I can hit those notes even if I start in a ridiculously low register, unless I reduce my voice to the tiniest squeak. How she manages to get there starting off that high is beyond me. I don't have a particularly deep voice either - just sort of average!

[kidbanana]

"Ack-see-on" could be "action".

The "O mercy, O God" part was largely my doing, but I'll admit that it was just so I'd have something to sing when I got to that bit. Not that I can hit those notes even if I start in a ridiculously low register, unless I reduce my voice to the tiniest squeak. How she manages to get there starting off that high is beyond me. I don't have a particularly deep voice either - just sort of average!

I really liked the idea of "Oh mercy." Anyway, regardless of what the lyric actually turn out to be, her singing of "God" will always remain as if it was just "O!" before it. It's a greeeaat moment (and putting on the falsetto singing it may indeed be the most fun thing to do ever).

[dogboydog]

Interesting, I heard something similar to "Action" when I was trying to figure it out earlier. I googled "Antion" but nothing that seemed relevant came up. I definitely hear "toward" now. It doesn't sound like a stretch at all.

So the line might be

"oh, action toward god!"

or "oh [two syllable verb] on toward god"

My gut feeling is the former line is uncharacteristic sounding but is the only one that plausibly sounds like what she's saying. From the surrounding material/themes I get the feeling that there is some meaningful ambiguity as to whether JP Mitchel "departing" refers to when he first left NY to train for the air force (to eventually fight WW1 at the literal western front, though he never ended up doing that) or to his death, in which case the western front might refer to an afterlife or the line between life and death. This double meaning is really enhanced by her choice of saying the work "might" count there...that after all the erasure of time and how little we understand of anyone more than one generation ago that maybe we can take some 'action toward god', and do something that will end up being truly transcendentally important -- emphasis on the maybe.

[Alex Ysoltsev]

A couple of notes about the line:
I will (or can it be "wait"?) the hunter to decipher the stone

It is actually pretty amazing because a few main themes of the songs are so gracefully entwined here. The main things are already pretty obvious and have been discussed there. "The hunter" of future is a reference to Horace Smith's poem and the stone is a material of all the mentioned monuments with their quoted inscriptions. The thing that hasn't been discussed yet is that "deciphering the stone" is an allusion to the most famous stone to be ever deciphered - the Rosetta Stone.

It is an Ancient Egyptan stele containing three versions of one text in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic script and Ancient Greek. It has been rediscovered in 1799. And these parallel texts turned out to be a clue to decyphering Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs which had been a total mystery before that.

So this is yet another reference to Ancient Egypt and it gives us a little bit more information about this hunter and about the future in the song where everything has changed so dramatically that English language is not understood anymore and has yet to be decyphered.

Here is a Wikipedia article about the Rosetta Stone. I highly recommend to read it if you don't already know this story - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rosetta_Stone

[dogboydog]

That would be an interesting connection for sure, Alex.

Still wracking my brain about the "rerounders" part.
http://www.endlessvideo.com/watch?v=cRu ... &end=1m12s

The [something] and the [something]. That's all I can get from it. I keep wondering if the word at the end is some form of "renders" given that there are so many references to paintings in the song, but it doesn't really sound like that...

I slowed it down to 50%, lol...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PG2_vYs7JLs

[butterbean]

... two cents about the mystery bits. Maybe she's not saying "God" there - could it be "go on" or "go and"? Hmm.

The rerounders bit - now this is far-fetched... but the part that sounds like "the hand", could it be "The Rand"? The Rand School of Social Science, housed in the early 20th century in a building right near Union Square. A really interesting history with a link to something called "Camp Tamiment" which sounds kind of Tammany/Taminend-ish. Dunno if it actually sounds like she's saying that though, and it's a bit of a stretch anyway...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rand_Scho ... al_Science

[mywaywardfriend]

It does sound more like rand than round, but I really can't make out what she's saying there.

[claire]

Could it be "they're around us" for the second part maybe?

[butterbean]

Oops, I forgot which park we were primarily discussing, scratch that whole Rand thing. Though it does kinda sound like "rand"...

"They're around us" sounds good, too! I can't stop hearing rerounders, it's such a pleasing word. JayNew Wot R U Saaaying??

[dogboydog]

To be honest, "rerounders" is the only thing I can hear, but...it's not a word! Except for some kind of plumbing equipment, which I doubt she is referring to. I don't think she's saying "they're around us" because if you listen especially to the slowed down version you can clearly hear an "ers" sound. I also definitely think she is saying "the" at the beginning of the line, you can hear/see that as well

Unless she's saying

The rounder and the rereounders?

...Which still doesn't really make sense. I really want to record a cover of this song but not while saying something totally ridiculous that will turn out to be way off when the song is eventually released

[dwaink]

think we will have to wait for another live performance(recorded....gasp) to get this one down right

[Southy]

... two cents about the mystery bits. Maybe she's not saying "God" there - could it be "go on" or "go and"? Hmm.

You're definitely onto something here butterbean. Having listened to the part a bunch of times, there's definitely the "click" of a consonant sound (maybe an f or v sound?) before the final "d/t" (sounding something like "go aft") which leaves me feeling strongly the final word in the line is not "God". I'm not sure if it's actually two words there or two vowel sounds or she's just varying the inflection in her voice on the last vowel sound.

I'm actually much clearer on the word just prior, which to me sounds very much like "toward" but I'm baffled by the first few syllables so I can't rule out that it's part of a longer word.

Dwaink might be right. We might have to wait for another recording to get that bit.

[dogboydog]

By the way, after further listening/thinking, I don't think the stone refers to the Rosetta Stone. I believe it refers to the memorial in the park that a bunch of the rest of the song is concerned with. I have been practicing my cover but I would feel kind of silly recording it with two blatant guesses in the lyrics. Somebody said she's playing in about three weeks, maybe she'll play it again.

[Alex Ysoltsev]

By the way, after further listening/thinking, I don't think the stone refers to the Rosetta Stone. I believe it refers to the memorial in the park that a bunch of the rest of the song is concerned with.

I totally agree with that. I'm also convinced that the stone she's singing about refers to the memorial in New York.
What I meant was that her words can remind a listener (as it happened with me) of the story about the Rosetta Stone. Which fits perfectly with the Egyptian theme of the song.

[dogboydog]

By the way, after further listening/thinking, I don't think the stone refers to the Rosetta Stone. I believe it refers to the memorial in the park that a bunch of the rest of the song is concerned with.

I totally agree with that. I'm also convinced that the stone she's singing about refers to the memorial in New York.
What I meant was that her words can remind a listener (as it happened with me) of the story about the Rosetta Stone. Which fits perfectly with the Egyptian theme of the song.

Ah sorry, good point.

[claire]

I can shed maybe a little light on some of the missing lyrics after hearing this one tonight.

Still don't know what the rerounders line was because what I heard was "Around there, the re-renders" so who knows.

At the end, I heard "Oh ask the (?) / Go out, await the hunter to decipher the start / And what lies under the city is gone"

[MMsloth]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mxr-nnF-sL4

[butterbean]

Listening to the live version, it seems to me like she's saying "plastic bag"... and the "rerounders" bit, I still don't know. Could it be "The snow falls above me, and the rain in the rerounders"? Hmm.