If I fall

[davincis_girl]

I’ve been listening to this one Bare Naked Ladies song as I drive the hour to work every day. It ends, I listen to news radio for a few minutes and then start it back up. In the middle of the album of typical quirky, happy pop songs the BNL are know for is this haunting lyric. It’s a story song about a window washer on a high rise, but it’s more than that. It’s a metaphor for looking at drastic change, maybe death, and being frightened by possible consequences.

.
WHEN I FALL

Words by Steven Page & Ed Robertson

I look straight in the window
Try not to look below
Pretend I'm not up here
Try counting sheep
But the sheep seem to shower
Off this office tower
Nine-point-eight straight down
I can't stop my knees.

I wish I could fly
From this building,
From this wall,
And if I should try,
would you catch me if I fall?

My hands clench the squeegee,
My secular rosary
Hang on to your wallet,
Hang on to your rings
Can't look below me,
Or something might throw me
Curse at the windstorms
That October brings.

I look in the boardroom;
A modern pharaoh's tomb
I'd gladly swap places,
If they care to dive.
They're lined up at the window,
Peer down into limbo.
They're frightened of jumping,
In case they survive.

I wish I could step from this scaffold
Onto soft green pastures, shopping malls, or bed
With my family and my pastor
And my grandfather who's dead

Look straight in the mirror,
Watch it come clearer
I look like a painter,
Behind all the grease
But paintings creating,
and I'm just erasing
A crystal-clear canvas
is my masterpiece.

I wish I could fly
From this building,
From this wall,
And if I should try,
would you catch me if I fall?