anyone know the meaning of the song?

 

I do believe its spirtual - I do believe it's about us taking this beautiful world around us for granted (the sounds we *ignore* everyday) - some things no man can create, that can only be devine - about us making mistakes, even when we know they can be avoided. just some thoughts.

 

"And birds go flying at the speed of sound, to show you how it all began. Birds came flying from the underground if you could see it then you'd understand"

 

I don't know about anyone else, but I just keep picturing doves as the type of birds.

 

its a great song!

 

what about the reference to japan/china as the only places mentioned?

 

- FTC

"...How long before I get in?

Before it starts, before I begin?

How long before you decide?

Before I know what it feels like?

Where To, where do I go?

If you never try, then you'll never know.

How long do I have to climb,

Up on the side of this mountain of mine?

 

Look up, I look up at night,

Planets are moving at the speed of light.

Climb up, up in the trees,

every chance that you get,

is a chance you seize.

How long am I gonna stand,

with my head stuck under the sand?

I'll start before I can stop,

before I see things the right way up.

 

All that noise, and all that sound,

All those places I got found.

And birds go flying at the speed of sound,

to show you how it all began.

Birds came flying from the underground,

if you could see it then you'd understand?

 

Ideas that you'll never find,

All the inventors could never design.

The buildings that you put up,

Japan and China all lit up.

The sign that I couldn't read,

or a light that I couldn't see,

some things you have to believe,

but others are puzzles, puzzling me.

 

All that noise, and all that sound,

All those places I got found.

And birds go flying at the speed of sound,

to show you how it all began.

Birds came flying from the underground,

if you could see it then you'd understand,

ah when you see it then you'll understand?

 

All those signs, I knew what they meant.

Some things you can invent.

Some get made, and some get sent,

Ooh?

Birds go flying at the speed of sound,

to show you how it all began.

Birds came flying from the underground,

if you could see it then you'd understand,

ah, when you see it then you'll understand?..."

 

Isn't this sad song?? :/

Hi shana, maybe it has a element of sadness

 

anyone know the real meaning behind it?

I think you have EXACTLY the right idea.

 

The one other thing I get from it is, it's one of those songs only a touring band can really write. Chris is on the plane, very world weary and wishing he was home. At the same time, sometimes you have to be very tired to the point where things are in slow motion, before you can fully appreciate to the world around you and not just your meaningless daily concerns-- and this song gets that across. He's in a sort of dream state where things seem to move at different speeds, but for once he's just able to look out at the beauty of the world and see everything fall into place (even if he doesnt really see the birds from his plane window and they can't really be flying at the speed of sound-- well, that's his imagination). I think there's a spiritual element too. "...show you how it all began" gives me a feeling that for that one moment he's completely in awe of nature, god, whatever you want to call it.

 

I don't adhere to a religion, but I have sometimes had exactly this feeling, when I'm tired, when I'm on a plane, when everyone else is asleep, the lights have finally been turned off, and I'm listening to music and looking out the window at the early morning fog and lights far below. It's hardly ever happened to me, but it's one of the most beautiful things ever. That's what the lyrics of this song get across so beautifully, it's too bad the music's not quite up to the same level.

^ i agree :D

chris said it was about how miracles can happen all the time. or something like that.

Well...I could partly agree with all of you but...on the other hand, there's something missing in your let say articles.Something crucial.

The very first thing I want to mention is, that this song was probably written in such a melancholic state of mind, that anyone could hardly imagine.It was written in order to express the author inner feelings he couldn't hold inside no more, in a form of so called self-confession.With regard to this...noone can state the right meaning of this song with absolute certainty.We can just polemize about it, just because of the fact,that the right sheer truth is hiden only inside the person, who has written this song.

All in all, it is only up to everyone how he or she will interprete the strains of this song.Coz each of us is an unique individuality and thus everyone will find something else behind this song and will try to find himself, his own recent feelings between the strains.I hope you have understood, what I tried to say by this words.

And this is the privilege of all the songs Coldplay had released yet.Well this particular song is a bit different from the others, but in the principle, it is the same.So...to ask for the meaning of a song from the coldplay by asking someone else is the worst way.You need to ask yourself, try to understand the song in your own way.That's what the music is about.Especialy with connection to Coldplay.

And how I understand the strains of this song?

 

The strains in the first strophe evoke me a such a feeling like if they were describing the moment when a person is taking the breaks off from the reality, starts fluctuating...leaving this world behind and begins to find himself in the another one, his own.The world where "I begin" could be interpreted in a way he finds absolute freedom there, can be on his own, be as he his...no affectation, no acting,worrying about the casual problems from the real world.This state of mind where he is in recently is a form of escape from the reality.But he is the balance where to go, what to do...in order to find himself his own soul...find who he actualy is.That's the reason why he is here...because he was not able to find it out in the real world.

 

2nd strophe:

It seems to me like his world is not 3 dimensional but 4D.He sees things, which are impossible to see in the real world and he appreciate them.Like the planets moving in a speed of light...in the real world...if the planets were moving in a speed of light...it would be impossible to see them, what's more...impossible to appreciate them.The strains with the trees,chances and head stuck under the sand mean all in all the situation when the person should not stuck the head under the sand avoiding the problems and should climb as high as possible to get the every possible chance to solve it.He doesn't know how long he gonna stay with the head under the sand but his inner voice calls him and advise him to climb the trees to get a chance to proceed in his journey.Coz he might have lacked the courage...might have been covard or so....all in all...he found out that he must do something to succeed otherwise he loses.He came up with the idea that he is the one who must make the very first, initial step and "climb the trees."Otherwise...he would never catch the chance,which would never be given to him without his own effort to get it.

 

Chorus:

Understanding this is very very individual and it depends on each of us how to interpret it.This is my own interpretation:

From the 2nd strophe above, he got the chance in a form of wind, which carry him far away to the endless distance by the speed of sound.The point is, that the wind is stronger as higher we are, so that was the reason to climb the tree up to the top,where the wind was the strongest.So strong and so fast as a speed of sound.But do not forget we are not in the real world now.We are in the world where there's everything possible.While carrying by the wind he has the opportunity to see birds flying from the underground who might represent the escape,escape from the place where they might have felt like our hero in the real world he tried to escape from like these birds from the underground.So...we can now consider him and the birds as the one personality.Both are now free...both escaped from somewhere they feel uncomfortable...both are flying in the speed of sound.The birds are the symbol of the absolute freedom and liberty.By the escape from the underground, they represent the begining of his journey.Because if you want to find yourself,the very first thimg you need to do is to free your mind.And he has done it.As well as his mind, also birds become free.The last strain seems to me like if the author was advocating to the listener.Tellling the listener that only if he saw it, only then he would understand it.Maybe because of the fact that such a beauty and inner feelings were not possible to describe by the words.

 

3th strophe:

By the strains in this strophe...he was describing the world he was in recently.Describing things never made before,never designed before...totally new things which would hardly be invented in the relal world where his physical shell lives.Because his soul is here, in the fantasy recently.Milions light year away from the reality.He discovers the new sign...which he was unable to see....the light he was not able to see...and he had to deal with these things...he had no other choice.But I mean it in a pozitive way.He was not forced to,he was pleased to do it so.He was thunderstruck by them...particulary by those which was puzzling him.

 

again chorus...

 

4th strophe:

He found out that he can now recognize the signs...and end up with the idea that no one could have invented them...they could only have been made by them self...or by him...in his head.But not by someone else.He is now at the point where he reached the goal of his journey...because the answers for his questions were hiden in those signs he had found.By the phrase "some get made, and some get sent" an author wanted to say that these signs are hiden somewhere inside us either from the very begining or we must somehow do something in order to gain them...from...from the greatest one....don't know.Maybe from the god.And now when he found them...they got carried with him by the wind at the speed of sound.And the last couple of strains is again advocating to the reader an encouraging him not to resign, but to fight for those signs...to see what an author saw...that beauty...SENSE OF LIFE!!!

 

Ok....I quess it's quite enough....isn't it? :D

I would be really glad to read some feedbacks from you.

Hi SadMax,

 

some great understandings of the song. I really like that fourth-dimension idea! and the climbing the tree to catch the light (express).

 

anyone else see this song in another way/meaning?

wow! badlydrawngirl 10378 posts? la hostia!

I just think that it suggest that the world is bigger than all of the material things. There are things that money can't buy and that people can't create.

Look up, I look up at night,

Planets are moving at the speed of light.

Climb up, up in the trees,

every chance that you get,

is a chance you seize.

How long am I gonna stand,

with my head stuck under the sand?

I'll start before I can stop,

before I see things the right way up

 

when he says: climb up,up in the trees... i thinks he refers to the tree of life..a kabbalah belief...what do you think about it?

NEGATIVE i have to disagree X&Y was always meant to 'examine the unanswerable questions' and one of those questions is how the world began. Maybe I'm reading too literally into the lyrics but that's the great thing about cp songs - they're open to interpretation. I think the song concludes that there must be a higher power - God - that created everything around us. It's also half just wondering about the beauty and amazing quality of the world, but the message I get is that he understands he's ccountable to a higher power. It's about inspiration and, honestly, about the meaning of life.

 

"All those signs, I knew what they meant.

Some things you can't invent."

are the actual lyrics. I don't know if Chris is religious but there's certainly undertones in there.

wow! badlydrawngirl 10378 posts? la hostia!

 

hehe i've been here so long i should have a BILLION posts by now! :lol:

i agree :D

I just think that it suggest that the world is bigger than all of the material things. There are things that money can't buy and that people can't create.

 

I agree with you

Well...I could partly agree with all of you but...on the other hand, there's something missing in your let say articles.Something crucial.

The very first thing I want to mention is, that this song was probably written in such a melancholic state of mind, that anyone could hardly imagine.It was written in order to express the author inner feelings he couldn't hold inside no more, in a form of so called self-confession.With regard to this...noone can state the right meaning of this song with absolute certainty.We can just polemize about it, just because of the fact,that the right sheer truth is hiden only inside the person, who has written this song.

All in all, it is only up to everyone how he or she will interprete the strains of this song.Coz each of us is an unique individuality and thus everyone will find something else behind this song and will try to find himself, his own recent feelings between the strains.I hope you have understood, what I tried to say by this words.

And this is the privilege of all the songs Coldplay had released yet.Well this particular song is a bit different from the others, but in the principle, it is the same.So...to ask for the meaning of a song from the coldplay by asking someone else is the worst way.You need to ask yourself, try to understand the song in your own way.That's what the music is about.Especialy with connection to Coldplay.

And how I understand the strains of this song?

 

The strains in the first strophe evoke me a such a feeling like if they were describing the moment when a person is taking the breaks off from the reality, starts fluctuating...leaving this world behind and begins to find himself in the another one, his own.The world where "I begin" could be interpreted in a way he finds absolute freedom there, can be on his own, be as he his...no affectation, no acting,worrying about the casual problems from the real world.This state of mind where he is in recently is a form of escape from the reality.But he is the balance where to go, what to do...in order to find himself his own soul...find who he actualy is.That's the reason why he is here...because he was not able to find it out in the real world.

 

2nd strophe:

It seems to me like his world is not 3 dimensional but 4D.He sees things, which are impossible to see in the real world and he appreciate them.Like the planets moving in a speed of light...in the real world...if the planets were moving in a speed of light...it would be impossible to see them, what's more...impossible to appreciate them.The strains with the trees,chances and head stuck under the sand mean all in all the situation when the person should not stuck the head under the sand avoiding the problems and should climb as high as possible to get the every possible chance to solve it.He doesn't know how long he gonna stay with the head under the sand but his inner voice calls him and advise him to climb the trees to get a chance to proceed in his journey.Coz he might have lacked the courage...might have been covard or so....all in all...he found out that he must do something to succeed otherwise he loses.He came up with the idea that he is the one who must make the very first, initial step and "climb the trees."Otherwise...he would never catch the chance,which would never be given to him without his own effort to get it.

 

Chorus:

Understanding this is very very individual and it depends on each of us how to interpret it.This is my own interpretation:

From the 2nd strophe above, he got the chance in a form of wind, which carry him far away to the endless distance by the speed of sound.The point is, that the wind is stronger as higher we are, so that was the reason to climb the tree up to the top,where the wind was the strongest.So strong and so fast as a speed of sound.But do not forget we are not in the real world now.We are in the world where there's everything possible.While carrying by the wind he has the opportunity to see birds flying from the underground who might represent the escape,escape from the place where they might have felt like our hero in the real world he tried to escape from like these birds from the underground.So...we can now consider him and the birds as the one personality.Both are now free...both escaped from somewhere they feel uncomfortable...both are flying in the speed of sound.The birds are the symbol of the absolute freedom and liberty.By the escape from the underground, they represent the begining of his journey.Because if you want to find yourself,the very first thimg you need to do is to free your mind.And he has done it.As well as his mind, also birds become free.The last strain seems to me like if the author was advocating to the listener.Tellling the listener that only if he saw it, only then he would understand it.Maybe because of the fact that such a beauty and inner feelings were not possible to describe by the words.

 

3th strophe:

By the strains in this strophe...he was describing the world he was in recently.Describing things never made before,never designed before...totally new things which would hardly be invented in the relal world where his physical shell lives.Because his soul is here, in the fantasy recently.Milions light year away from the reality.He discovers the new sign...which he was unable to see....the light he was not able to see...and he had to deal with these things...he had no other choice.But I mean it in a pozitive way.He was not forced to,he was pleased to do it so.He was thunderstruck by them...particulary by those which was puzzling him.

 

again chorus...

 

4th strophe:

He found out that he can now recognize the signs...and end up with the idea that no one could have invented them...they could only have been made by them self...or by him...in his head.But not by someone else.He is now at the point where he reached the goal of his journey...because the answers for his questions were hiden in those signs he had found.By the phrase "some get made, and some get sent" an author wanted to say that these signs are hiden somewhere inside us either from the very begining or we must somehow do something in order to gain them...from...from the greatest one....don't know.Maybe from the god.And now when he found them...they got carried with him by the wind at the speed of sound.And the last couple of strains is again advocating to the reader an encouraging him not to resign, but to fight for those signs...to see what an author saw...that beauty...SENSE OF LIFE!!!

 

Ok....I quess it's quite enough....isn't it? :D

I would be really glad to read some feedbacks from you.

 

:o