Death Cab For Cutie: I Will Follow You Into The Dark Meaning
Song Released: 2006
I Will Follow You Into The Dark Lyrics
But I'll be close behind
I'll follow you into the dark
No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white
Just our hands clasped so tight
Waiting for the hint of a spark
If heaven and hell decide
That they...
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It is about a lover dieing so he will comite suicide aka following her into to the dark. If you saw the music video he is very depressed then jumps into a hole aka hell or the afterlife and following her into the afterlife
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From what I can see the protagonist in this song isn't quite sure about what will happen after he and his love die. He sort of hints that he may be leaving his religion when he mentions the bit about the catholic school. It implies that his "special someone" does believe in the traditional ways of heaven and hell. But, he is saying that no matter which is correct he will follow her always, in life, after death, for eternity always loving her.
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I feel like a lot of people are misinterpreting the verse about Catholic school and the nun. I think this is the most important verse in the song, especially the "FEAR IS THE HEART OF LOVE" part. He disagreed with the nun, as anyone with ration would. In fact, I am Catholic, and I can find proof in the bible that would disprove or disagree with the nun, in John 4:18: "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."
Just because he never went back to Catholic school does not mean he abandoned his faith, it meant he had questions about what was being taught, because the teachings did not align with his own experience of love.
He is not even implying that Heaven and Hell do not exist, but rather quite the opposite. There may be undertones of sarcasm about the Catholic faith, or just Christianity in general, when talking about the "no's on their vacancy signs", but he is aware that they exist. In fact, the whole song is simply saying he would give all this up to be with the person he loved.
I would not. However...this is not my song :)
All in all, there are parts I disagree with, parts that speak to me, but it really is an interesting song with a beautiful melody. -
Well, I honestly think this song is about a guy who loves his girlfriend/wife so much and unconditionally and he's willing to do anything for her no matter what it is and that he'll always be with her through thick and thin no matter what happens he'll always love her and he'll never leave her by herself and by the way this is me and my ex-boyfriends song I cry every time I hear it :/
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When he's talking about the catholic nun I think she is a symbol of a relationship maybe a parent who physically abuse him, he had to keep his mouth shut or the abuse would be worse. The abuser even told him "fear is the heart of love" in other words, that he loved him and he should understand that this violence/fear that he experienced was true love--of course he runs from this abuser and never goes back--I had an abuser once try to teach me this lesson and I ran too---do you think the abuser was in the catholic church, not necessarily a nun, maybe a priest in black?-just a thought
I also think that the person he is singing too he loves with all his heart, and when he says that they will go first and he will follow later, I think it means they are older than him, and when his time comes he will join them since there is no sense of time in the afterlife so they won't be alone even if it takes years on earth for the singer to die naturally...
i also think that the singer thinks they may not be good enough for heaven or hell...since they rebelled from the teaching that fear was the heart of love....and so the singer is saying that he is not good enough either and they will be ok by themselves in the unknown than with everyone else (the conformists) in heaven and hell... -
I think his lover has cancer or something and that's why she's scared of dying. he's going to follow her into the dark, into death. they've been together and seen everything, their soles oftheir shoes are worn, saying that they've had a good life. everyone dies, it's alright. I'll follow you. thy sorta thing. and I think this song is MOSTLY about religion. he abandoned christinity because he didn't agree with it. FEAR IS THE HEART OF LOVE. fear hell, fear god, and obey him. love him so you don't go to that horrible place called hell. that's such an importnt line. so if heaven and he'll don't take them they'll be together. in darkness, nothingness.
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The meanings of this song are actually really obvious, it's just a matter of interpreting the details.
He has a good relationship with his girlfriend/wife and she's afraid of dying so he's comforting her. But in the beginning he's telling her that she will day "some day", like it's a natural thing and we all die someday (which is true). Later on it goes:
"You and me have seen everything to see
From Bangkok to Calgary
And the soles of your shoes are all worn down
The time for sleep is now
It's nothing to cry about
Cause we'll hold each other soon"
Maybe they have aged through the song and she is now dying (the lyrics above are suggesting that she's going to die before him, so she might have cancer or something). You can tell that she is afraid of the after life, maybe because she hasn't been a (good) Christian and doesn't know what awaits her. He isn't religious either (it says that he "rejected" Catholic School), so he comforts her with the fact that they've lived a happy life, and no matter what awaits them, at least they'll have each other. He actually seems to find life more important than eternity, so he might not even believe there's an after life; "the dark" might just be darkness, nothing else. -
I honestly think it goes like this:
"Love of mine some day you will die
But I'll be close behind
I'll follow you into the dark"
Meaning that when his lover dies, he will follow her into death.
"No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white
Just our hands clasped so tight
Waiting for the hint of a spark"
Meaning that if she does not get taken to heaven or wherever people say there is when you die, he will sit with her and hold her hand.
"If Heaven and Hell decide
That they both are satisfied
Illuminate the NOs on their vacancy signs"
Meaning that if heaven and hell say no to them, take it in and accept it and look at the bright side....
"If there's no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark"
The bright side is that if no one is there when she dies, he'll be there and he will go with her.
"In Catholic school as vicious as Roman rule
I got my knuckles bruised by a lady in black
And I held my tongue as she told me
"Son, fear is the heart of love"
So I never went back"
Meaning when he went to catholic school, and a nun bruised his hands(probably smacked by a ruler), he tried not to yell at her as she said "fear is the heart of love", and he took that as good advice. (he never went back, he will follow his love into the dark no matter how scared they are).
"CHORUS"
"You and me have seen everything to see
From Bangkok to Calgary
And the soles of your shoes, are all worn down"
Meaning they've lived life and seen a lot, and now their all worn down
(I thought he could have meant their real souls were worn down).
"The time for sleep is now
It's nothing to cry about
'cause we'll hold each other soon
In the blackest of rooms"
obviously meaning it's time to die or cross over and not to cry because they'll see each other when they're dead, in limbo or whatever you wanna call it, in the dark.
"CHORUS"
i hoped this helped. :) I love this song, and this is what I think when I hear it. -
I feel like songs can represent whatever is meaning to the listener; and what I get from this song is that the darkness he sings about is the unknown. The writer clearly had bad experiences with religion as a child (as many of us had). I myself grew up in catholic schools and was taught of a loving excepting god that on the other hand judges and condemns his children if they aren't good enough in life. That if we don't follow all of these rules he's made up for us, then we won't be allowed into his kingdom when we die. But when you know what love truly is, you see that it's unconditional and that all of these stories just don't add up. SO the writer turned away from those stories (" I held my tongue as she told me son, fear is the heart of love. So I never went back")And now, he doesn't know exactly what the afterlife entails. To him it is the unknown; the darkness. But he does know that he'll be with that one person he loves, no matter where death leads them.
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i think its saying - don't be scared or upset, we've done it all together and now we'll do this together , he's saying that he'll always be there no matter what 'i will follow you into the dark' can say into the dark of death , the dark of the unknown or that even though its dark which symbolises unhappiness, he loves her that much he's willing to go there.
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I think that the romantic aspect of this song is so much more complicated than it seems. The line "our hands clasped so tight, waiting for a spark" suggests that such a spark is not already present, indicative of a lack of true passion or feeling in the relationship. Furthermore, the speaker stating that he will follow this woman into the dark "if there's no one beside [her] when [her] soul embarks" implies that, if they were to be together, it would be settling due to lack of another option.
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This song is so simple yet meaning-full. Yes it could and probibly about uncertanty of after-life. Also he could be saying how is still satisfied with his life so far. "you and me, have seen every thing to see", also being in love while felling fully satisfied. But there is a define Macon hint or tone to this song.
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No. He is not saying that there is no heaven or hell. If heaven and hell have figurative 'no vacancy' signs then they might exist. He is simply saying that he is unsure about the afterlife. Also, because he left Catholic school does not mean he abandoned the Christian faith completely. Again he is saying that he is unsure about a policy run by knuckle bashing nuns. And how it is taught. Not that he has completely lost his faith. It isn't fair to make all the assumptions.
Simply a love song about following his mate 'into the dark'. -
i agree. this song is basically saying that there is no god or that he will follow a girl rather than follow god. to tell you the truth, this song makes me sad for the one who wrote it.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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