Tucked away at the end of Keane’s debut album Hopes and Fears is this beautiful little number with an odd title. What exactly does “bedshaped” mean, either on its own or in the context of this song? I’m open to any and all suggestions.
I’m not sure what to make of the song in general. The opening verse seems directed to a friend or lover who is now estranged. Perhaps the chorus is the dream or fantasy of a reconciliation? “Up we’ll go in white light” suggests that maybe this person is dead… is this a song to a ghost?
The haunting, wavering piano notes that start the tune fit a supernatural motif, as do the backward choir vocals toward the end of the song. But that reading doesn’t quite gel with the second verse, about “holding you down” and not “understand[ing] the same things as you.”
This is a good example of how a song can mean something without meaning anything, if you know what I mean. I’m not really sure what these lyrics mean, but the words and the music affect me emotionally nonetheless.
The rainy roads of our old town
Many the lives we lived in each day
And buried all together
Don’t laugh at me
Don’t look away
You’ll follow me back
With the sun in your eyes
And on your own
Bedshaped and legs of stone
You’ll knock on my door
And up we’ll go
In white light
I don’t think so
But what do I know?
What do I know?
I know
I know you think I’m holding you down
And I’ve fallen by the wayside now
And I don’t understand the same things as you
But I do
Don’t laugh at me
Don’t look away
You’ll follow me back
With the sun in your eyes
And on your own
Bedshaped, two legs of stone
You’ll knock on my door
And up we’ll go
In white light
I don’t think so
But what do I know?
What do I know?
I know
Meet Me In Montauk 
I think this is just a very poteic way of saying that he wants/expects a lover to spend the rest of her life with him–until death, when they may go to the white light (although he doesn’t really believe in an afterlife).
But have no particular idea what Bedshaped means–other than that they fit together well in bed:)
This from Wikipedia, from the song’s writer:
[The song] is about feeling that you’ve been “left behind” by an old friend or lover, and about hoping that you’ll be reunited one day so that you can live out the end of your lives together the way you started them (…) a hope that they’ll eventually want to get away from the bright lights and come back home. it’s a sad and angry song, but also full of hope.
I think i’m right in saying that in hospital when someone is ill and has to spend a lot of time in bed they can become ‘bedshaped’. It sounds a bit depressing (…)but in the context of the song I wanted to suggest old age and frailty(…)[1]
Seems I was fairly on target:)
Nice research, and good analysis. Unless of course you did the research first and then posted your analysis to make it LOOK like you nailed it! Aha!
No, I honestly didn’t. I swear on a stack of bibles (and you know how much that means to me:))
Interesting analysis Dana! I thought the same thing about the bedshaped about being in bed too long (like a hospital, as you suggested), then I had a thought that maybe it was a tombstone with “legs of stone”, and he is singing to a ghost and the white light is when he follows her.
My first thought was the same as Mom’s. I thought the person was dead and bed-shaped from being in a coffin. Rather morbid, I know. Glad it’s Friday:)