Set the Fire to the Third Bar is a lovely song as well from the same album with the incomparable Martha Wainwright providing support on female vocals . It took me a long time to figure out what this song meant. I literally thought that they were going to set the third bar that they visited that night on fire (though that's not supported in any way by the lyrics). Thank heavens for Wikipedia which provides some insight:
It was written especially with Martha in mind. Lightbody wrote the song in only 20 minutes and described it as the quickest he had ever written a song. The song title describes an electric heater. While writing in the freezing cold and wearing [finger less] gloves, Lightbody recalled that as a child his Aunt Jean had an electric heater, and "if we were very good and it was very cold, she'd let us put all three bars on" and he goes on to say how it represents "a beacon of warmth within a song about distance".That makes much more sense than a song about arsonists!
Please see the video below for music and lyrics!!
If you like the song, please support the artists and buy their music!!!!
Awesome blog. I always thought this song was referring to the third bar on the NYC subway system. Growing up everyone would try to throw pennies at the third rail to see a spark. The song really does not support this idea either, but it does talk about traveling so there seemed to be a slight connection to burning your only mode of transportation.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the explanation. The lyrics in the video really helped to piece it together too.