Lyrics I Love #28: Past Lives
About the Song
Track: Past Lives
Length: 4:21
Album: The Way We Move (2012)
Artist: Langhorne Slim & The Law
Songwriters: Sean Scolnick, David Moore, Jeffrey Ratner, & Malachi DeLorenzo
Favorite part:
“But nothing lasts forever
Maybe that’s fate
When you’re alive you’re all right
When you’re dead, you’re a saint”
© Langhorne Slim Music, Zinc Round Hill Music Compositions
Here’s Why I Love It
Just because I have a new book coming out tomorrow, doesn’t mean Lyrics I Love has to pause. Quite the contrary, actually. The show must go on!
So, I’m surprised it took me so long to share this song with you. It actually took my (mistakenly) seeing Langhorne Slim for the third time. Recently, he was a last-minute opener for a band I went to see. Suddenly I found myself as “that guy.” The guy who is more excited to see the opening act. For good reason(s), though. This song is one of them.
I guess there are a lot of ways you can interpret it. For me, it’s about finding the person you once were before the world made you into whatever the hell it made you into. It’s about recovering that child. The innocence. The fun. He literally starts the song with a depiction of being born. As in, we all came out of our mothers as babies who don’t know anything. Not that you don’t have control of anything, but there are many things you don’t. Even the stuff you do, sometimes you just look back one day and say, “Man, how did I get here?” This song (to me) is about remembering those “past lives.” He plays with the idea a bit, too. Is being dead where they should stay? Maybe—probably not, though. In the song, he seems to be speaking to someone directly. Maybe a past partner. Or possibly the world, considering Sean Scolnick morphed into Langhorne Slim at some point in his life. But there’s one thing he’s insistent about: “When they said that I was dead / It wasn’t true / I was just dead to you.”
The song is pure passion (so is Langhorne). In fact, I found a video of a performance of this song that officially turned me into a Langhorne Slim fan. I couldn’t believe I found it (and the quality of the video was actually good). It’s totally, totally worth watching. If you’re not a Langhorne fan after watching it, you might not be a human being. And I’ve never been more serious about a statement in my life.
*** Read the lyrics and Listen to the song ***
*This article is part of the ongoing Lyrics I Love series: short interpretations of the meaning and story behind one song with lyrics that move me.