Interpretations:Contrecoup (Demo)
- Song
- Lyrics
- Interpretations
- Credits
- Guitar Tab
- Bass Tab
- Chronology
If you listened to the radio show or if you know the meaning of the word "Contrecoup", this song is fairly straightforward. The singer suffered a brain injury, which awoke old feeling of limerence (although we're not sure about whom.)
What I find interesting though, is that when I heard this song, I immediately saw it as a follow-up to South Carolina. Possibly the narrator is the same person from that song, who fell off his bike, causing the injury? Of course, that is probably a big stretch. --Duke33 09:37, 20 Jan 2005 (EST)
The first thing I noticed about this song is that it has interesting paralels with Unsupervised
- Please explain (and sign your posts! =P). I don't really see them besides the hitting of one's head.--tehbagel ( o ) 12:36, 20 May 2006 (CDT)
In this demo, Linnell takes a project involving an obscure word for a queer head injury and an even more obscure word for infatuation and forges a nice metaphor out of a horrific two-stage medical accident: countrecoup! Representing a break-up, the first injury left the speaker numb ("inert"); the countrecoup, a rebound injury by which the brain smacks into the skull, represents the painful shock of loss. Much like the countrecoup is often worse than the bruise, the realization of loss can be worse than the actual event of loss ("worse by far than the first").
The narrative seems unclear, and no amnesia play (ala "Broke In Two") is distinctly evident. In the first verse, the speaker addresses his ex-lover, who allegedly "knows what's wrong," implying that she's expressed some complacency about the break-up. The seperation is the actual problem, but the brain injury itself may not be metaphorical. Is there a real wound to parallel the emotional one? Is there an actual narrative related to the injury, a sort of horribly unfortunate coincident with or harbinger of the break-up? At this point, it's no more or less likely than "They'll Need A Crane" involving an actual house. Linnell is, of course, no stranger to weird medical play (consider the very real, yet quite unorthodox bicycle wreck of "South Carolina") -- however, this injury was simply assigned to him, and not an invention of his own imagnation.
I would say that seeing how this song progresses, how its narrative expands, how the verses are sharpened, and how the metaphor of contrecoup develops will provide some great insight into Linnell's songwriting. Let's hope he doesn't forget about "Countrecoup" anytime soon. - wittytirade
I think this song is about the speaker's recent break-up. It seems as though there has been some shakiness since the break-up, and that their relationship continues to be emotionally difficult on the speaker. Possibly he and the girl had already had a rocky relationship and this time he knows it's really over. I think he's coming to realise just how much he loved the girl.
"'Cause the first just left me feeling inert / but the contrecoup woke my feelings for you"
This lyric gives the feeling that maybe the song is just about the speaker's grief after the relationship. The initial shock of losing her gave him a surreal feeling, but once he realised the finality of what had happened he felt the full pain of the loss. - Raythine
- But what about the mentioning of the brain? Linnell defines what a contrecoup injury is in this, and seems to be very literal. He even mentions "You can tell just by looking at my skull". Obviously some kind of accident and his head is in pretty bad shape.--tehbagel ( o ) 12:39, 20 May 2006 (CDT)
The mention of the skull is in direct reference to the word craniosophic which means "skill in phrenology." Phrenology is, of course, the study of the shape and protuberances of the skull, based on the now discredited belief that they reveal character and mental capacity. --Mr. B. 12:51, 6 Jul 2006 (MDT)
No, sounds more metaphorical. To me, it seems like a break-up song. Sounds like he broke up with his girl, they got together, they broke up again, and each time, he only wants her more and vice versa.
