Lyrics and What They Mean

Lyrics and what they mean

Hot sand on toes, cold sand in sleeping bags
I've come to know that memories
Were the best things you ever had
The summer shone beat down on bony backs
So far from home where the ocean stood
Down dust and pine cone tracks

We slept like dogs down by the fire side
Awoke to the fog all around us
The boom of summer time

We stood
Steady as the stars in the woods
So happy-hearted
And the warmth rang true inside these bones
As the old pine fell we sang
Just to bless the morning

Hot sand on toes, cold sand in sleeping bags
I've come to know the friends around you
Are all you'll always have
Smoke in my lungs, or the echoed stone
Careless and young, free as the birds that fly
With weightless souls now

We stood
Steady as the stars in the woods
So happy-hearted
And the warmth rang true inside these bones
We stood
Steady as the stars in the woods
So happy-hearted
And the warmth rang true inside these bones
As the old pine fell we sang
Just to bless the morning

We grow, grow, steady as the morning
We grow, grow, older still
We grow, grow, happy as a new dawn
We grow, grow, older still
We grow, grow, steady as the flowers
We grow, grow, older still
We grow, grow, happy as a new dawn
We grow, grow, older still

It is evident from this song that Ben Howard is talking about his young and how much he simply enjoyed life. In the second line of the song Ben Howard sings about how his memories “were the best things” he ever had. Howard gives subliminal clues early in the song that he is talking about his youth as he describes how the sun shone on “bony backs”. This possibly could be referring to Ben Howard being young and like a lot of young boys he is skinny. Further on in the songs second verse Howard gives a huge sign that this song is about his younger years as he sings, “Careless and young, free as the birds that fly”. This is great for our video and fits in perfectly as us three group members are young and simply just making the most of life.

Ben Howard quite clearly intended to write about his personal experiences and is reliving a time in his life which really made him who he was. He doesn’t give much away about the location, but I’m guessing it is in his home town of Devon, he uses positive lexis to describe which gives the representation that this place really does have a place in his heart as he was “so happy hearted” in this place. In our video we have used this song whilst filming in Liverpool City Center as this generally has a place in our hearts as it has always been our home and it always will be. Linking back to what I said earlier about Howard recalling memories, our video pragmatically suggests that Liverpool will always be in our memories no matter what happens in the future. 

At the end of the song when Howard sings, “we grow, grow, steady as the morning. We grow, grow, older still”. I believe this is evidence of Howard describing how he is constantly growing and he is no longer young. In our video it shows how although we are young we are in our older teens and life is gradually getting different. The time lapses that we took from filming last week could connote the gradual growth throughout the song and they fit in perfectly with the music as it begins slow but crescendo’s to become fast paced, again symbolising us growing as people.

What I also think is great about the lyrics is that it includes the words “I’ve come to know the friend around you are ones you always have”. This again really fit in with the theme of our video and the videos we took when filming last week. We did videos of us three group members walking together and singing together and scenes like this would interplay with these lyrics successfully. What is also great is we have actually been friends now for over 7 years so in the scenes together we have a natural friendship and it doesn’t look like we are acting.

In conclusion Old Pine is the best song we could have picked as it conforms to the videos we took from filming the last two weeks. The lyrics are perfect for our genre as they are very much linked to folk.