Josh Ritter, in an interview explained it, as how when someone who hasn't had their heart broken finds someone who had just been heart broken. And so as the unbroken (woman) brings love and life back to the broken (mummy), her love (and literal heart) makes him feel good again. So as he is brought back to life, he doesn't return her love so she is instead now broken, as he heals. He then goes off to win back his lost love, while she stays behind heart broken as she gave her heart to him, and he used it selfishly. The metaphor for pyramid is explained as it attracts people to find what is beneath like a broken person attracts kind hearted people to fix them.
THE saddest song I've ever heard. First one to actually get me teary-eyed and I generally cry for nothing. Not at funerals, not when visiting hospitals, not when receiving bad news. Josh Ritter is an exceptionally talented songwriter.
I've read several explanations for this but to me it will always remind me of a mother's relation with her child. He learns from her, he starts to speak her language, he takes life from he and loves her above everyone else . Eventually the tables turn and he begins to correct her instead, support her instead; she grows old and becomes a burden to him.
I am a 8th grader. We read the poem in class. And we talked about what we thought and stuff. We ended up having a debate about who he was, who the girl was, and everything. It was awsome because we found out he was a mummy and the girls traits like if she was an worker at a museum or a curator. Every one participated. This poem is a great thing to talk about in class. We watched the music video (this). And every one felt so smart. Alot of people liked the song after. Great song!!!!!!
OMG HI GUYS! I am 24 years old now. Just graduated with a degree in Elementary Education. I still remember this video! Haha. It's still so interesting omg. Thanks for the support!
@@TheNitendoDude Neat! Congrats on graduating. Good luck in your career. I remember "songs as poetry" from grade school as well, so perhaps you'll be able to use some song or another to reach your students.
If it helps, the coffin she finds him in has a picture of herself on it. He was her destiny. Then at the end he places HER into the same coffin, with the brass horn that she will play for him in the next life, when he finds her.
He was using her for the whole story. Josh Ritter said in an interview that, though the Mummy did feel love in his life, he was ultimately using her to pass on the curse that the song’s title is referring to. Near the end of the song, these lines go by: “Long ago on the ship, she asked "Why pyramids?" He said "Think of them as an immense invitation" She asks "Are you cursed?" He says "I think that I'm cured" Then he kissed her and hoped that she'd forget that question” When they kiss, the curse passes on. The reference to pyramids being an invitation as well as the coffin at the end shows that this was destined for her. The two most important parts of this are one, when he says he’s cured after they kiss, curing him of the curse but cursing/ passing on the curse to the woman in the process. The second part is when he hopes she will forget question about him being cursed. She doesn’t want her to know or suspect that she’s being cursed so that her destiny can be fulfilled.
@@FuckYouWhosNext I was feeling like the same way. We first think this is a curse but when you listen back to the song you think maybe it's just life. We may never know.
Michael. I saw him in Pittsburgh with my sister on Wednesday and like you, I was blown away at hearing this song for the first time. This is an amazing poetic song. Would be a wonderful song for the the younger generation to analyze and as well older students as well. Amazing.
Such a lovely story, it seems like a tribute for those who give their lives to history and research ... the dream of reanimating the history by the fact of telling ...
It's not that he wanted to take her life away from her, but he loved her and accidentally did this to her. The curse is that he has to live forever while his one true love has died...
Normally stuff on the internet gets a lot of hate, it's great to see people bonding over a love of music like this,the song captured me as well a couple of years ago,came back to hear the symphonies again, I was not at all disappointed
I first listened to this a broken older man It is so very beautiful And absolutely true You can choose life But life will always choose you In it's lonely trifles
Even though I know it's meant to be about romantic love I will always interpret it as a rather morbid metaphor for a mother-child relationship. At the beginning of a childs life they are helpless and just watch the world and take it in like the mummy with the porthole, and the mother gives them life, his heart beginning beating. Children learn to speak their mothers language from their mother speaking to them just like the mummy in the story, learning coordination, and even the imagery of him touching her hair reminds me of how infants seem to love grabbing hair. And infants do have instinctual unconditional attachments to their mother aka love at first sight. But then as the child and the mother age together the child gets stronger and more independent and stops being under guardianship of their parents and get up and leave home like the mummy getting up and leaving the museum. The child then goes on to live their own life and be their own person meeting partners (other women) who are now more important than their mother and although there are fond childhood memories (speaks of her fondly, their nights in the museum) they're just childhood memories now that he carries around with him. He then has to take care of her as she moves into old age as she took care of him in infancy and eventually she passes away and the torch of life has been passed on and the cycle of mortality has completed another round. Even the fact he come out of a coffin with her on it in this video simulates birth with him coming from her. Although I'd never seen the video until today and never interpreted the kiss as a romantic kiss, just a kiss on the cheek but I still like how I've always interpreted it.
“For a song like this, the goal was to try and tell a full story. You try to leave something to the imagination but you can only leave so much. It was really important to get the character just right. The narrative was simple but I really wanted the character to have a serious interaction. The fact that he was a mummy was the funniest part.” - Josh Ritter “The Curse” can be found on the album So Runs The World Away, which takes its title from a Hamlet quote. That’s telling, because the song flows like iambic pentameter as Ritter sings over a lilting piano waltz. Some dreamy keyboards add atmosphere and a mournful trumpet makes an appearance late in the track. What could have been a fanciful story about a mummy falling for the archaeologist who digs him up after eons of slumber turns into an examination of the way some people use love as a springboard to a happier self, even if that means leaving behind the person who gave them the loving boost in the first place. As the song progresses, the mummy slowly returns to humanity through the beneficence of her affection and attracts hordes of outsiders who are amazed at his transformation. By contrast, the archaeologist seems to age prematurely as he drifts apart from her, until she essentially becomes mummified at the end in a tragic turnabout. Hiding between the lines yet evident in Ritter’s wistful vocal is a sad commentary on how the best intentions of love are often undercut by the fickleness of human nature. The mummy’s “dried fig” of a heart is reanimated by the girl’s attention, and the romance in the beginning is undeniably pure: “The days quickly pass, he loves making her laugh/ The first time he moves it’s her hair that he touches/ She asks, ‘Are you cursed?’ he says, ‘I think that I’m cured.’” When she asks that question a second time in the song, he has already started to move beyond the cocoon of their initial bond to bask in the attention of the wider world. As a result, she can’t even hear his answer. The transformation is complete soon after: “He gets out of limos he meets other women/ He speaks of her fondly their nights in the museum/ But she’s just one more rag now he’s dragging behind him.” Her heart is now the “dried fig.” The final verse returns us to the couple’s happier times in the museum, when he explained to her, in a bit of foreshadowing that she overlooked in the bloom of new love, that his pyramid was in essence the bait to lure her. Josh Ritter’s inventive, enchanting song makes it clear that “The Curse” of the mummy actually did exist, and that the archaeologist discovered too late that it was always meant to be visited upon her.
this is a masterclass in storytelling, a fragment of a mind that is, imaginative, soulfull, and heartfelt. a beautiful song that will be missed by most but should be heard by all.
I never knew that I am true, are they cursed or is it me? But who is who? How do I ever trust again 🥵 So frightening kicked when you're down, shout out!! Be Unseen. Left in the dark. Keep trying again! again? Keep faith, until they say: "why didn't you reach out?" "You need to get professional help" And then you: "RUN!" .... they say "why didn't you reach out" but "I did! Don't do this to me please!! It's too late... The 🎭 MASK ...it can't be real!!!"
As others have said, this is about a mummy, but it's also not. It's every love story. And it's mine. I met my wife 25 years ago "what a face to wake up to"! After dating for just a few weeks she had a medical episode and was diagnosed with MS. Not too intrusive at first but then it really took hold. As the song says, "She is using a cane, and her face looks too pale, but she's happy to see him, as they walk he supports her...then one day her heart stops its beating." This was our love story, as my wife passed just 8 months ago. Such a beautifully sad song.
i sit here at my computer trying to find words to explain my love for this song , but i am speechless , josh ritter i have loved you for so long , but i can honestly say , this time you have made me utterly speechless ! :')
I randomly ran across this over internet radio based on other music I listen to. This song grabbed a hold of me in the first few cords...what a hauntingly beautiful creation...then I was looking for a lyric video and found literally the most perfect artistry of this song that could of ever been done. I have listened to this and read everyone’s take on the meaning. Obsessed and can’t seem to stop yet. Just beautiful and tragic at the same time. Art at its best.
They genuinely loved each other. She built him up to be what he became and then he "outgrew" her. She couldn't handle his being put on display. It changed their relationship and it killed what they had. Her heart grew old and stopped beating because she couldn't take his moving on.
I remember I saw this video two years ago back in seventh grade in my English class and at the time I didn't understand the lyrics nor did I appreciate the art of the song/video, but now that I look back at, I find it more beautiful than before. This reminds me of seventh grade (which was a really good year) so it also makes me sad. Lovely video and song though.
Rigo Hernandez We had to find out what it was about and I guessed it was a mummy! HA I guessed it was a mummy who cursed her on accident, and ended up turning her into a mummy.
@NervousDreamer1 What he means is that the mummy's curse is that his life is eternal, but hers isn't, and he's doomed to watch her age and wither away. That's why he never gives her a straight answer, so she doesn't feel guilty. That's just what I think though :)
The true nature of love is parasitic. We idealize it as symbiotic. That's what it should be, but very rarely is. Heartbreaking but very relevant to human nature. The piano is haunting. Just bloody brilliant.
Exactly right, except that you are also wrong. I'm pretty sure he is sapping the life out of her, getting stronger while she gets weaker. Maybe I'm wrong though.
My high school science teacher directed me to this video years ago. I only listened to him because he said he shared a sandwich with Josh Ritter outside a venue in Seattle. I'm so glad I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Still my favorite video.
By the way, @dansenders... the symbolism in each would be, for the former explanation: how people can grow apart and how tragic it is when love withers. the latter: a caretaker in the relationship is being used and drained, without real reciprocal love between the two.
I actually have thought for two years that it was (superficially) about a mummy and archaeologist who fall in love, but his curse is that now he can live forever and she's still subject to mortality, so he keeps moving forward, leaving her behind. Tragic. This video, though, makes me think that he's sapping her energy, trading spaces with her so to speak. It's incredibly cruel. I much prefer my original interpretation. :(
@tinit63 He didn't want to take her life because he fall in love with her but when the priests did the curse so he had to still the life of the one that came into the tomb and disturbed him.
I want to know, 11 years later, what happened to the person who listened to this song every day for 3 years. If you are out there and you see this comment, please report back and share your journey! Thanks
From the moment, a few years ago, that I heard this song, I was immediately drawn to it. Then to watch the video and get all the feels...it’s so beautiful. I’ll never stop loving this and the meaning behind it ❤️
He holds back a sigh as she touches his arm She dusts off the bed where 'til now he's been sleeping Under miles of stone, the dried fig of his heart Under scarab and bone starts back to its beating She carries him home in a beautiful boat He watches the sea from a porthole in stowage He can hear all she says as she sits by his bed Then one day his lips answer her in her own language The days quickly pass, he loves making her laugh The first time he moves, it's her hair that he touches She asks, "Are you cursed?" He says, "I think that I'm cured" Then he talks of the Nile and the girls in bullrushes In New York, he is laid in a glass-covered case He pretends he is dead, people crowd round to see him But each night she comes 'round and the two wander down The halls of the tomb that she calls a museum Often he stops to rest, but then less and less Then it's her that looks tired, staying up asking questions He learns how to read from the papers that she Is writing about him and he makes corrections It's his face on her book, more and more come to look Families from Iowa, upper Westsiders Then one day it's too much, he decides to get up And as chaos ensues, he walks outside to find her She is using a cane and her face looks too pale But she's happy to see him, as they walk he supports her She asks, "Are you cursed?" but his answer's obscured In a sandstorm of flashbulbs and rowdy reporters Such reanimation, the two tour the nation He gets out of limos, he meets other women He speaks of her fondly, their nights in the museum But she's just one more rag now he's dragging behind him She stops going out, she just lies there in bed In hotels in whatever towns they are speaking Then her face starts to set and her hands start to fold And one day the dry fig of her heart stops its beating Long ago on the ship, she asked "Why pyramids?" He said, "Think of them as an immense invitation" She asked, "Are you cursed?" He said, "I think that I'm cured" Then he kissed her and hoped that she'd forget that question “The Curse” was the first song Ritter wrote for the 2010 album So Runs the World Away. After his prior album, 2007’s The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, he fell into a bit of a slump that he’s described as a “cold shadow,” in which he was blindsided by writer’s block and self-doubt. “The Curse” came to him all of a sudden. He describes it as such: Then one night, lying awake and looking at the ceiling, with the sound of taxis and garbage trucks trolling the streets outside our window, a story came. It wasn’t just a verse, it was a story, whole, ripe for the writing as if dropped from some apple tree down on my sleepless head. It was, strangely enough, about a mummy and his malign love affair with an archaeologist. I got up and wrote it in the bathroom, sitting on the edge of the bathtub. I thought the story was fiendish and tense and sad and funny. I was proud of it. The pride I had in it propelled me forward in a rush. I couldn’t stop writing after that. From there, Ritter has said that the song served as “the pallet by which the other songs [on the album] can be painted.” It propelled him forward on the themes of 19th- and early 20th-century scientists, exploration, and varied relationships that carry throughout the other songs on the album.
@MrsHouseTakeNewVegas I agree :-D The song alone is so beautiful and moving, but coupled with this stunningly powerful video-WOW!!!! :-D I'm not embarrassed to admit that I too shed a tear.
Imagine having a man that loved you with all he had and more, sing this to you without you ever hearing this, and then you realise you now relate to her more than you ever thought you would.
@tinit63 Basically what is happening here is that the mummy was cursed, until she disturbed his sleep, and then the curse was transferred to her. I am sure you noticed how as the mummy gets stronger, she gets weaker... until finally she succumbs to the curse, and the mummy puts her in the pyramid so that, some time in the future, someone will come and investigate the pyramid and she will get to live again...
@Froggy711 I considered it more that she got older as he got more used to being alive and that while he was immortal, she wasn't, so his curse was that he had to see her get older and die, but I don't feel like consuming the comments section anymore. Everyone has their own opinion, and that's fine. :)
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