Cherry Blossom

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And I have just realised how bored I must be to do that and read through all the lyrics to Elsie...

LOL...same here. For me it's not so much boredom as curiousity-turned-procrastination.

But "how 'bout this for a good one" :

When Elsie first came out I found it just a tad amusing that "Mary Ann" is #9 on the CD, reason being I believe I read allusions to The Inferno in some of the lyrics, and there are nine circles of hell.

Backstory: I had a prof in college who had done his doctoral dissertation on Dante Aligheri and The Divine Comedy and I ended up having that prof for five different courses throughout college. And it didn't matter what the course was supposed to be about, somehow, some way, all things came back to The Divine Comedy and especially The Inferno.

So I have had a lot more instruction about the epic than the average person and admittedly, one result is that my brain has been wired to notice certain things like numbers, patterns of numbers, and number meanings.

Then later I noticed while the length of the song is listed as 3:37 on the CD jacket, some sites have the timing for "Mary Ann" listed as 3:35 and others as 3:33. So then I decided to time the song myself. I have used four different CD players -- a Bose, my car CD player, my computer at home, and my computer at home, and all of them read 3:33 as the stop point.

Weird, eh? Just sayin' ...I know what you mean.

Finally, someone as obsessed as me! I love this forum!

I always find that you can gain so much more from lyrics if you actually look at the words used and the order Brian chose to put them in. Or why he chose a certain word over others etc...

I thought I'd be able to see where, if they did, Brian and Ian wrote different parts of this song. But all the lyrics sound like Brian really, there's just the occasional thing, such as the changes of the seasons or the rhyming.

Also, you said about Brian not having a sister. I'm pretty sure Ian does, but Brian seems to call all women 'sister' for some reason... He did it a few times during the Revival Tour when I saw him.

I was hoping maybe people could shed some light on what they think of this song. I hate listening to a song or reading a poem and not understanding it, it bugs me!

I'm pretty sure Brian wrote all the lyrics for both this and Gaslight. Especially the whole point of Elsie is to be a concept album about what Brian refers to as a very dark period of time in his life. It wouldn't really make any sense to have a British fella who he didn't know at the time to write lyrics about that...

I think the chords could conceivably be split like:

Verse: Bsus2 D A A, F#m D A A- Very much Ian, as confirmed by that video where they talk about it, and being very un-Brian in chord theory

Chorus: A F#m A F#m E - Probably Brian, since it's the simplest and most straightforward.

Bridge: D F#m Bm A E E7 - Again, more involved than Brian usually is. Probably Ian.

AGoodTime wrote:

I have a slight feeling that this may have gone off topic...
I'd swear Brian was talking about the lyrics too but he was a bit ambigous when he spoke.
Another thing I kinda noticed, this is all up for interperation, is that the events of Sugar/Behold the Hurricane sound like they happen in the autumn winter time. ("At the door the leaves had fallen") But Cherry Blossoms as a song seems to vary in the seasons in which it's set.
"From the long winter here" would suggest spring time.
"conjuring spring" Whilst I would say metaphoric, Brian seems to often mix metaphors and reality.
"And miss all your kisses like the spring" Winter now.
"As the chill in this season sputtered and spit and died" Spring again.
"Finding cherry blossoms on the hood of my car " The blossoms have finished so that means its going into summer.
And I have just realised how bored I must be to do that and read through all the lyrics to Elsie...

Although I dont remember what interview it was, I remember Brian saying Cherry Blossoms is about like a girl broke up with him at the start of winter & how it fit with the season b/c it was cold & harsh. & he said something about seeing cherry blossoms in the spring after that terrible winter. My explanation sucks, I'll try & find the link.

Harbortown wrote:

JohnnyC wrote:

2) I've danced around the topic of Ian, and I really don't wish the guy ill at all. I just think the band sounds infinitely better without him...in it. He's often out of tune (which I don't get...the guy was a guitar tech after all...just puzzling) and he hits some wrong chords. And that's part of it...he just plays chords and muddies up the sound. It's hard to make three guitars sound good and they haven't pulled it off yet. Maybe they will and I'll be forced to eat my words (nothing would make me happier, honestly) but as of now I just don't get his presence in the band.

Brian and Alex 1 and 2 all mess up and are out of tune fairly often. They're only human.

Also what shows are you judging Ian's abilities on and how do you actually know it was Ian who was off? Is this from the warm-up shows? (Note: "Warm-up" is in the title)

I've no idea what this interview was where Brian got upset either.

EDIT:
Here's an interview where he's just talking about Cherry Blossoms. But I don't see where Brian is getting upset and Ian's comforting him (unless you're talking about another interview).

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But I don't see where Brian is getting upset and Ian's comforting him

It wasn't that one. They were sat at a table in what looked like a restaurant. All it was was that the guy brought up this song, the moment he mentioned it, Brian looked down at the table and Ian lightly patted/stroked his arm. (Not in a creepy way). They then went on to say pretty much what they said at the start of that interview, but I swear it sounded like the lyrics, adding:
"Ian was like," let's write something dark." And I was like "What? Dude, you're meant to be my friend, you know I don't like doing that." But we just went with it and it worked."

That version was really good! I haven't seen that before. Thanks!

Oh ok. Well it shouldn't be too hard to find. There didn't seem to be many videos of the two of them being interviewed.

Yes! That's the video. (the one I was talking about) Thanks for finding it.

I've done a complete 180 on this song. A couple of nights ago I was feeling pretty hopeless and I listened to Elsie late at night on headphones while simply looking over the lyrics, no other distractions (which in and of itself was an extraordinarily powerful experience). Cherry Blossoms really came through for the first time for me. Chilling stuff.

JohnnyC wrote:

I've done a complete 180 on this song. A couple of nights ago I was feeling pretty hopeless and I listened to Elsie late at night on headphones while simply looking over the lyrics, no other distractions (which in and of itself was an extraordinarily powerful experience). Cherry Blossoms really came through for the first time for me. Chilling stuff.

YES! Cherry Blossoms is the best

Haha I'm as glad as anyone, believe me. I hated that there was a Brian-penned song that was less-than-perfect for me. I just wish I didn't have to get to a life-altering level of despair to understand the song's power haha.

JackStreetcar wrote:

Haha I'm as glad as anyone, believe me. I hated that there was a Brian-penned song that was less-than-perfect for me. I just wish I didn't have to get to a life-altering level of despair to understand the song's power haha.

It's the same way for me, though. Cherry Blossoms is usually a skipper on Elsie for me unless I'm in a REALLY bad spot. Then the album stays endlessly on repeat, all tracks, all the way through until I feel better.

Probably my favorite song on the album. Epic, epic song.

Yozzy wrote:

Probably my favorite song on the album. Epic, epic song.

This, and Go Tell Everybody

Yozzy wrote:

Probably my favorite song on the album. Epic, epic song.

I couldn''t agree more.

I walk home a lot, instead of drive, and this is my go-to walking song. It's just so sad and broken, it makes the entire walk home feel... surreal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygI-2F8ApUM

I walk home listening to this. Feels even surrealer-er.

Harbortown wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygI-2F8ApUM

I walk home listening to this. Feels even surrealer-er.

I love Neil Cicierega.

I haven't checked out any of his other stuff but that video is alpha and omega, seriously.

Ha. I just "stumbled upon" this youtube vid, and was gonna see what people thought of it. It was interesting, I thought.

Good story at the end tho. Brian is a fall guy. haha