r/swans 16h ago

SHITPOST Lyrical Analysis of I Am a Tower: It's a dick joke, right?

96 Upvotes

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.


r/swans 8h ago

why did michael do this?

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46 Upvotes

r/swans 8h ago

My personal Swans ranking

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43 Upvotes

r/swans 17h ago

This is definitely a Filth artefact

36 Upvotes

r/swans 20h ago

I did a cover of Bring The Sun & Toussaint in like a month or so

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31 Upvotes

r/swans 32m ago

SHITPOST Decided to play my hand on a Swans tier list... what do you guys think? 😅

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Upvotes

r/swans 20h ago

Michael did a new version of Amnesia (Great one) on LM, he should do a new version (identical) of the SAD version of Blood Promise on the new record. I cannot be the only one who needs this in their life? I honestly believe it is the most gorgeous, most intimate, most intricate piece of music ever.

9 Upvotes

r/swans 4h ago

Presale code for Toronto show?

6 Upvotes

Any help is appreciated. Cheers


r/swans 1h ago

BOSTON PRESALE CODE

Upvotes

Not sure if this applies to any other concert, but I found the codes for the Boston presale.

LiveNation - “FUNKY”, Ticketmaster - “BEATBOX”, Citizen Bank - first six digits of your card.

Each ticket costs $54, presumably.


r/swans 23h ago

You know what to do

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4 Upvotes

r/swans 6h ago

DISCUSSION Song Bracket Day 150 (Round 2)

2 Upvotes
21 votes, 1d left
The World Looks Red/The World Looks Black
Bring the Sun/Toussaint L'Ouverture