My Songs Have Stupid Lyrics

CONTEXT: I promised myself if  I ever released an album, it'd be titled 'My Songs Have Stupid Lyrics'.

Anyway, I'm talking about Safe Behind the Ribs of the One I Love Most, and The Art of Learning How To Choose.

Safe Behind the Ribs of the One I Love Most

For some reason, anatomical imagery related to romance is striking to me. I suppose it's some level of sappy but...'their eyes sparkled like a thousand stars' or 'a waterfall of curls descended gracefully' and 'i would reach the heavens and catch a meteor for you' doesn't hit me as hard as 'i would claw my way into your rib cage' or 'would you whisper adorations while you eat out my heart?' and 'her eyes glistened like the red that pooled in her cupped hands'. 

Whimsy strikes me as cheesy. Morbid strikes me as sincere. I don't know why.

So, sitting in the middle of math class feeling bored out of my mind, I thought of a line out of nowhere - as what usually happens - and I thought, oh that's good. So I wrote it down:

I am so tired of pretending I'm alive.

Whoa wow slow down there buddy don't be edgy. It was supposed to be put in Overgrowth, but then I decided not to, because, you know, too much. Then I wrote, let me sleep behind the ribs of the one I love most.

My sister was fooling around with a lyre and I thought that the tune was quite nice, so I decided to replicate it with a piano. Over the course of the week, I found my scribbled line again and thought that it would make a good song. I started adding lyrics to it and tried to figure out the basics of the music.

Basically, the lyrics are written very purple-prose-ly, and are supposed to echo Art of Learning, because it's Frisk and Sans having a dialogue.

If I ever get around to re-recording this cleanly, I plan on having this mainly on the piano and maybe an acoustic guitar and a bit of drums, mostly to show Frisk's softness, manifested in the song's calm instruments.

Now, here's the explanation of the lyrics. Bear with me if it feels like I'm spoonfeeding you the meanings that could easily be extrapolated. I did promise explanations.

If I close my eyes and miss the morning light  - (If I died)

Would you weep for me, love?

Would you weep for me, Red Death of mine?
(Red Death refers to how Sans is addressed to the poem Red Death, which is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's The Masque of Red Death, because Sans is a skeleton and I love Edgar Allan Poe)

If I closed my eyes and met the night - (basically a rephrasing of the first line)

Would you wait still, love? / Would you wait still for that summer shine?
(Would you wait for me to reset. Summer shine here refers to Frisk's smile (I know, cheesy), and hope, which I associated with the sunlight that came down through that little hole and lighted the spot where Frisk was buried and where Sans usually stayed in, waiting for the reset. Summer shine is basically all things good.)

Forgive me please, but the strings/ Have long slipped from my fingers
(I'm not gonna lie, I always think about OFF and I have a think for puppet imagery. Also - Chara in Flowerfell is very, very passive and is incredibly precious and just wants everyone to be okay. So the strings are handed over to Frisk right from the start, and Chara isn't ever interested in taking them. (Unless of course, Frisk has given up that they've gone catatonic in their own head and Chara is forced to move the body to keep it alive - you know that's an interesting thing to think about. Might write if attention holds). However, due to the Flower Curse, Frisk rapidly loses control of the situation.

Also, fuck you, Batter. OFF did some lifelong damage.)

Time has bound us both and faded what hope lingered
(Time = Time loop/Reset/the fluidity and fickleness of time itself)

Buried in forgotten maybes and failures golden on skin
(Forgotten maybes = contingencies, possibilities, what-could-have-beens, and therefore, alternate timelines; Failures = deaths. Frisk is referring to the golden flowers on their skin as forgotten maybes and failures, and how they are covered by them, literally.)

Ghosts whispering of Determination stretched thin
(Ghost = Chara; Chara frequently tells Frisk to stay determined, even if that determination is dwindling)

And I am so tired of pretending I'm alive

Still, I'll lie to myself and think I'm fine

If I chose to carry the world on my back/ Would you let me, love?
(This refers to the part where Frisk chooses to give up their soul for the monsters' freedom. The martyrdom is essentially 'carrying the world on their back'. Sans, however, was notably against such a decision, but this is Frisk's choice and there is nothing he can do about it.)

Would you live for me with faith intact?
(In 'Red Death', Sans is suicidal, and thus Frisk wants to know that their decision will be respected and that Sans won't do anything drastic such as reset the timeline just to see them again or kill himself out of grief.)

If I kissed you farewell and became one with time
(Again with the mention of time - Frisk is giving up the resets and just wants to let the timeline go on without their interference after they die.)

Don't forget me, love/ Don't forget this fabled dream of mine
(Fabled dream refers to Frisk's desire to free the monsters)

Smile for me please

No rain/ can touch the echoed glass/ Memories trapped blue/ We'll always have the past
(Echoed glass = Echo flowers. The 'echo' and the 'blue' refers to the flowers (that trap what they last hear and therefore = memories) while I associated the glass with the lake. Basically, Frisk is referring, in general to the memories that they have shared, and in specifics the time they spent in the lake of the Echo Flowers.) 

(Always be kind/Sometimes kindness is all we can give/Sometimes kindness is enough/If you believe it is)

The Art of Learning How to Choose

This one is supposed to be Sans' answer song to Safe Behind. I mentioned earlier that in the line 'if I chose to carry the world on my back, would you let me, love' that Sans cannot do anything to negate Frisk's choice, and therefore the ability to choose is taken away from him - as is the case with his early life in the Underground, where everything is reduced to a senseless mantra and the threat of execution should you be accused of treason. He didn't have a lot of choices in a lot of things until he met Frisk and chose to be their friend, and thus, the art of learning how to choose. Choices, however, are often painful.

Any re-recording that happens with this song will involve rock. Because it's Sans, and his colors in FF scream theatrical, dark and edgy to me and I want that to manifest in the song.

Plenty of the lyrics in Art of Learning answer and echo Safe Behind's. 

Don't you think you're asking too much of me

Don't put that much faith in rusty sieves, oh love
(Rusty sieve is basically a symbol for things that can't be trusted to do what they're supposed to do, and if they do a thing, they do it badly and the result is a poisonous mess - and Sans believes he is a rusty sieve. Sans also refers to Frisk as 'love', just like Frisk does in Safe Behind)

I'd sooner gather the stars and pin them on your hair
(This is actually a very famous and very frequently used line in my place - locally, it's said as 'Kuhaon ko ang mga bituon para lamang nimo' (I'd gather the stars for you). In Filipino (Tagalog - but fun fact, Tagalog is the name of the people who live in a certain region. Filipino is the name of the language, which also happens to be what people from the Philippines are called. And which also happens to be the name of a school subject.) 'Kukunin ko ang mga bituin para lang sa iyo'. I just added 'pin them on your hair', because what else do you do with stars.

And as I'd said before, I don't really find cheesy lines are sincere. So Sans here, rusty sieve that he is, is not being truthful when he says that, but he'd sooner do that than do what Frisk is currently asking him to do, which is watch them die without having the chance to do anything about it because Frisk isn't letting him.)

I'm selfishly unsavable/ But if I could have anything in the world/ I'd wish for you to stay and never leave my side

But happy endings are pretty lies they feed to unborn eyes
(Contrary to what a few people believe 'unborn eyes' here doesn't refer to Babyhell. Unborn eyes here does refer to children, but it refers to their naivety - it's referencing the naivety of a child unborn, because they haven't known how the world truly works, as they haven't been in it. Therefore, happy endings are for the naive.)

And the fools who believe are worse than those who sleep with the flies
(Those who believe in happy endings are worse off than those who are dead.)

How could I forget you when you've carved your name into my ribs
(Answer to the title 'safe behind the ribs of the one I love most' itself.)

And how could you ask such a thing from me if you want me to live
(Again a reference to Sans' suicidal tendencies due to his grief)

Sweetheart, I'm tired of pretending I don't care
(Answer to 'I'm so tired of pretending I'm alive'. Similar syntax.)

And all of my half-bloomed promises are going nowhere
(Flower imagery is due to the fact that Sans brought it upon himself to protect Frisk and every time he failed, they reset and a flower bloomed on them.)

Trace the sins that I've drowned in the water
(The water refers to the Echo Flower lake, which is also referenced in Safe Behind. 'Trace the sins' here is to pull out receipts of Sans' old mistakes, and he's tried to make up for them by being kind and being Frisk's friend, thus associating to the Echo Flower lake.)

But of this madness I won't go farther/ What fabled insanity do you expect from me now?
(Answer to 'Don't forget this fabled dream of mine'. Sans thinks that Frisk's decision is a madness/insanity, and he's already gone so far as to try and be kind, and asking him to sacrifice the one good thing that's happened to him is too much.)

You're the worst ray of sunshine I could've found in this unrequited nightmare
(Answer to 'Would you wait still for that summer shine'. Again, sunshine - Frisk/hope/literal sunshine that filtered into the Underground. 'Unrequited nightmare' because to Frisk, it is honorable to die for the monsters' freedom but Sans can't think of anything worse than Frisk dying.)

But facing the dawn without you is something I can't dare
(Even so, Sans wouldn't change anything, except for the ending.)

The progression of the music is also a thing - in the interval between the first chorus and the second verse, Megalovania plays, which is supposed to be symbolic of Sans' anger and desire to fight Frisk's inevitable decay. So the song starts as Sans's brashness (if you notice, the lyrics in the first verse are just Sans' expressions of disbelief as to what is being asked of him), then it progresses to Sans' anger (megalovania and the accusations, 'worst ray of sunshine', 'what fabled insanity', 'unrequited nightmare', and then finally to giving up and acceptance, and thus the music slows, and megalovania plays to symbolize that slow, simmering anger that often accompanies grief, as some of us know too well.

I'd still go for rock if a re-recording happens. 

More random songs I never finished

I Found Dead Fireflies in the Ruins of Eden [Flowerfell]
(lyrics need work; no instrumental)

Dead Fireflies = light - associate to: hope

Eden = paradise - associate to: home

Dead Fireflies is supposed to be from Chara's POV, and was supposed to be before the Underground. I haven't figured out what I want to do with the full of it, because the whole fallout with FF made me stop all progress I had with everything I had on FF.

Chara is basically just saying that they found crushed hope in their home that they used to love but slowly dissolved into a hell. (Pre-Underground FF Chara had a crap life after their dad died; see, Chara's Theory of Determination)

Also, very choppy latin in here:

Lacrimosa - Weeping

In Tenebris - In the darkness

A memet ipso serva me - Save me from myself

It's supposed to sound very haunting, and I think the Vocaloid program did a very good job of capturing that.

Welcome to Gravity Falls [Gravity Falls]
(no actual demo or instumental; there's a vocal-only recording of it, but it's super low-qual)

There's something in the woods that no one knows
Hidden in a sleepy, backwards town of Oregon
I can feel that someone's watching me
In this forest of mystery
Can I trust you enough?

Summer vacation, all I wanted were peaceful days
But adventure was a breath away
The moment I saw the roadsign:
Welcome to Gravity Falls

I never thought about uncovering long-buried mistakes
Never thought about how my life would change
The moment I let curiousity
Steer my destiny

Because a silent, homesick little Pine Tree
Was all I wanted to be
But I've got danger, death and mystery
As far as the Eye could See

*Oh, nobody ever questions what's around them
When it's normality
But when you've got enough faith to move mountains
You'll see just what's wrong here
The Shadows don't hide
And the Eyes are all watching
Ink and blood are woven into fear-stained pages
Who knows what we'll find on our next step past these walls?
Welcome to Gravity Falls

Why do I feel as if the breadcrumb trail leads nowhere
And everywhere at once?
Isn't the path to hell paved with good intentions?

There's something here that I have missed
But nobody listens
And they refuse to believe
Despite what's right in front of them
Are they actually not what they seem?

All the pages and signs scream at me:
TRUST NO ONE
But how can that be?
Do I use my ears and eyes for judgment
When my heart says:
"Just once, trust me"?

*

**I don't even know what's real or not
Can I trust the facts?
Should I trust my dreams?

I don't even know where what I find will lead
Cause the lies are running free

 ***Oh, nobody ever questions what's around them
When it's normality
But when you've got enough faith to move mountains
You'll see just what's wrong here
The numbers all dance
And the letters all whisper:
'When the Earth becomes Sky
Fear He who Sees everything'
Who knows what we'll find when the One-Eyed Beast then calls?
Welcome to Gravity Falls