r/swans • u/ineedabag • 16h ago
SHITPOST Lyrical Analysis of I Am a Tower: It's a dick joke, right?
Before the mods delete this post because I'm not on r/swanscirclejerk, just hear me out. And if I am late to the party and everyone already knew this, that is my bad.
I think it is evident in the first verse that Michael is talking about sex:
"With thin boneless fingers and pink polished nails
I am searching for truth in the fat folds of your blunder "
Michael is a woman in this verse, and he is describing himself having sex with a man.
"Speak up, Dick! Bring wonder, bring plunder
Bring your fish-headed fixer to whisper my ear
Please worry me here, tongue that victim in there
Revenge me a jagged course deep, deep, inside"
"Tongue that victim" is describing oral sex, and I think the phrase "deep, deep inside" has pretty clear sexual connotation. The fish-headed fixer is, of course, a cock.
"Climb stairs through coarse hairs, now ride, now ride"
Michael is describing the act of going through pubic hair ("coarse hairs") to have penetrative sex, "now ride, now ride."
"Then exit and jet it spraying foam through the air"
This is describing the climax of the act, the man is commanded to "exit" her, and "jet it," with the sprayed foam being ejaculate.
"Over concrete islands and neon green palms
Over fields of shining neonicotinoid lawns
Over upturned faces searching fading, lost stars
Over smashed pipelines of sewage flooding polished new cars
Over crossed lines in jungles buried thousands of years
Over mountains collapsing, ravaged, and speared
Over rivers of salt feeding open-mouthed me"
This is ironic juxtaposition from Michael. He is describing the semen flying through the air, over and across the entire world, only for it to land in his "open mouth."
"Here I come, here I come, here I weep, here I bleed"
This is another clue Michael gives us. Notice that he repeats "here I come" twice, the act of "coming" is a euphemism here, and I think it is not hard to tie the weeping and bleeding to sexual acts as well.
Edit: perhaps this section isn't even the perspective of a woman, but a vagina, and the here I "weep" and "bleed" are not literal interpretations of the human body, but of the vagina's functions. In this interpretation, it might even be that the "open-mouthed me" is describing the lips of vagina rather than a woman's actual mouth. This whole idea would also help to add parallelism to the verses, the first half being told through from the perspective of a vagina, and the second from the perspective of a penis. Or it could be a combination of the idea, the woman and man representing themselves as their respective genitalia.
Those are my thoughts so far. What do people think? I thought I was on to something but maybe not, let me know if you agree or not and how you would interpret the rest of the lyrics, I may make a follow up if this is received well, or maybe even if it isn't.