Death Cab For Cutie: Portable Television Meaning
No tags, suggest one.
Portable Television Lyrics
In a raggedy van on the side of the road
The night it had frozen through my little bones
So, you took me in your arms, you squeezed out the cold
And oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
Upstate...
-
In the first and last stanzas, the characters are numb, in the wake of either a funeral or a memorial service for the "son's" father. Numb from cold and numb from grief, watching static on a portable television that receives nothing but white noise.
The singer doesn't want to be there at the cemetery, as the symbols remind him of religious themes he has apparently outgrown or discarded. He attends, out of familial/societal/ritual obligation.
The centerpiece is the verse in which the son stands over the father's grave, reflecting on mortality in a field of headstones (rows of teeth) seeded as far as eye can see, to the inevitable conclusion that he, too, will die one day.
The theme of television snow appears in "Long Division" ("the television, was snowing softly), and the image of structures representing teeth is also used in "Crooked Teeth." ("the skyline looked like crooked teeth, devouring us all.)
-
Reminiscence on a required road trip to participate in the funeral of the main character's father, buried in a cemetery in upstate New York.
Family dynamics mingled with meditations on mortality.
More Death Cab For Cutie song meanings ยป
Latest Articles
Trending:
Death Cab For Cutie Song Meanings
-
I Will Follow You Into The Dark
-
What Sarah Said
-
Crooked Teeth
-
Title and Registration
-
Marching Band of Manhattan
-
Cath
-
Brothers On A Hotel Bed
-
Soul Meets Body
-
Tiny Vessels
-
Black Sun
-
St. Peter's Cathedral
-
Sound of Settling
-
Passenger Seat
-
Summerskin
-
You are a Tourist
-
Stable Song
-
Death of an Interior Decorator
-
Underneath the Sycamore
-
I Will Possess Your Heart
-
Your New Twin Sized Bed
Blog posts mentioning Death Cab For Cutie
This is Some Quality Garbage
|
Just Posted
| Made | anonymous |
| I Like It, I Love It | anonymous |
| Me And My Broken Heart | anonymous |
| Smells Like Teen Spirit | anonymous |
| After Midnight (Death Squad) | anonymous |
| Both Sides of the Story | anonymous |
| Laid to Rest | anonymous |
| Ball of Fire | anonymous |
| Fake | anonymous |
| Cover Me Up | anonymous |
| Dollhouse | anonymous |
| Doin' Time | anonymous |
| Diet Mountain Dew | anonymous |
| You Could Be Mine | anonymous |
| The Scientist | anonymous |
Weekly Most Popular
Latest Releases
|
Free Mind Tems |
|
Vette Motors YoungBoy Never Broke Again |
|
Progress John Rich |
|
You Can Have Him Jolene Chapel Hart |
|
That's What Tequila Does Jason Aldean |
|
Y'all Life Walker Hayes |
|
Strange Miranda Lambert |
|
Sunshine Steve Lacy |
