Here is my take on Remedy Lane concept. Let me assure you, it's been rather emotional and stressful journey trying to get into characters and situations... It's a long read but I hope you like it...


[b] REMEDY LANE ESSAY[/b]


First of all, the songs are not chronologically lined up...in other words they are jumbled up. :)
The way I see it chronological order would be like this:

1. Dryad Of The Woods
2. Fandango
3. A Trace Of Blood
4. Rope Ends
5. This Heart of Mine
6. Undertow
7. Second Love
8. Waking Every God
9. Ending Theme
10. Of Two Beginnings (first part)
11. Remedy Lane
12. Beyond The Pale
13. Of Two Beginnings (second part)
14. Chain Sling

So, I'll try to summarize this masterpiece song by song....


[b]1. Dryad Of The Woods[/b]

[b]2. Fandango (Earth, 1993-?)[/b]

According to above stated year HE (assuming that HE is Daniel Gildenlow) is 19 or 20 years old. This question mark probably represents something that is still going on, something that has unknown time of ending...or maybe there will be no ending. I suppose it's about beginning of their love and its unknown path at the time...
They were both looking for love to make them whole, but with a different start points in a physical aspect of the same. They found each other and themselves in that pure, honest and deep love. They are trapped in the dance of love (fandango)... But love is quite fickle and they aren't aware of that at the time, they are to busy enjoying every second of endless happiness they feel.
They did have some obstacles at the beginning, but they surpassed them realizing they feel whole only when they are together.
At this point I would like to emphasize one verse that seems particularly important for further course of the story:

„Love and Life will give you chances – from your flaws learn to forgive...“



[b]3. A Trace Of Blood (Falun/Malmo , Sweden, March 1997)[/b]

I will only describe this song shortly, I won't go into deep analysis. This song is just too sad, too emotional...It's not that I don't want to, it's just that I'm simply not even closely eloquent enough to put on paper feelings that this song awakes in me. There are no metaphors or hidden meanings in this song, everything is written in simple but bloody painfully honest way.
So, in short, HER newt broke and she had to have premature delivery. Unfortunately the baby was born dead. Later on in this song, HE talks to his dead child and he is trying to cope with all that loss... It looks like this is when their problems begin...
„Is it just me, or the turning points always seem to derive from loss ?“



[b]4. Rope Ends (Falun,Sweden, February 1998 )[/b]

The story here is about multiple suicide attempts of one girl (HIS friend or so) that he had witnessed. It is obvious that life was pretty rough on her, she feels empty, drained, weak... She isn't able to look at her life and world optimistically, so she decides to do the worst move possible, utterly selfish move, to kill herself. Leaving two children without a mom is really cowardice! But she simply can't see the exit and she goes for it!
BUT, there's more life in her than she is even aware of... Her two children live in her, and that life won't surrender that easily...
And so, after four suicide attempts, life still prevails!
I would like to briefly point out the tie with Winnie the Pooh. That pattern of Winnie is intentionally chosen because it gives us excellent contrast. As a cartoon character, Winnie symbolizes youth,childhood,laughter,joy, freedom etc. She is,on the other hand, not able to even remember how it was to laugh,to joy,to run careless, to be young...

*
This story may not be directly linked to love story of HE and SHE (though it represents one more thorn in HIS crown), but it can be used as a picture... A picture in which love is represented with life and death represents two solitary souls... Following this analogy, perhaps Daniel is telling us that Love had won in the end...
(This,as the rest of this essay, is just my point of view...)


[b] 5. This Heart Of Mine (I Pledge) (Eskilstuna, Sweden, June 1999[/b])

The way I see it, HE is expressing his endless love for HER in the most beautiful way. He'll love her forever,no matter what...

„I lie awake, watching the shadows rise and fall on the wallpapers of this room growing colder, the scent of the young woman less present.
Leaving you or not was never a question of not loving, but one of not living...“



[b]6. Undertow (Eskilstuna, Sweden, 25.06. 2001)[/b]

It is very obvious that he is torn apart,battered and bruised... HE just wants to leave everything that makes him miserable and unbearable to himself,everything that chokes him...
Unfortunately, SHE represents all of that...the blackness that has gathered around them,the poisonous fumes that won't allow him to breathe.
Therefore, he leaves to Budapest to find a rest for his soul and mind, to break the chains that are tightening him ,to find himself again...the lost himself.


[b]7. Second Love (Eskilstuna, Sweden, 1984-1990) [/b]

Though chronologically (time line –wise) this song should be the first, I decided to put it right here because it just feels right to me...
This is a song about his second love (didn't have to be genius to conclude that). It fits in perfectly in this concept because this is the thing he wants to look for...
This is „himself“ that he is searching for: innocent, naive, honest, unbroken, and dedicated to love...


[b]8. Waking Every God (Budapest,Hungary, midsummer 2001- Budapest pt I)[/b]

This is his first arrival in Budapest where he meets young Hungarian girl. He feels happy, carefree in her presence, though he is still telling himself that he loves HER.
He suddenly feels light again, he is in love... But, who is he in love with? In this girl he sees Her as she used to be...he even sees himself as he used to be and that makes him content and relatively fulfilled ...
He thought he found what he has been looking for and so he returns back home...


[b] 9. Ending Theme (Budapest,Hungary, 31.07.2001 - Budapest pt II[/b])

He arrives to Budapest once more...and once more, he is worn out, quite sodden....
He is feeling locked within himself, trying to bring out to the sun the child that lives inside.
He seeks comfort, rest, warmth and understanding in young Hungarian girl once again. She provides him the sense of youth, carelessness and freedom. He comes back to her to find out if she is the reason why he feels so free...why he feels like someone being released on a vast plain after being long forgotten in cold dungeons of life...
However, it seems that he realizes that he is actually running away from himself instead of toward...filling his holes with superficial feelings and illusions...


[b] 10. Of Two Beginnings (first part) (Budapest pt III)[/b]

He remembers his past,when he was only ten....this reminds him one more time on the innocence, shyness etc. of a child that he used to be. Still he is full of questions that have not yet been answered....

[b]11. Remedy Lane (Budapest, Hungary, 2.-7. 08. 2001)[/b]

[b]12. Beyond The Pale (Budapest,Hungary, last night)[/b]

On his last night in Budapest, he makes love for the first time to this young girl... She is 19, the same age SHE was when they had met. This is the first time having sex for her,and it is first time being unfaithful for him. Therefore he feels unclean, sickened...
At the end of an album it is revealed that SHE cheated on him, and that was the last drop for him...he's not able to cope with such pain, not able to bear that burden anymore so he seeks the remedy for his wounds in other's touches and bosoms...

„And then after all it lead me here to wake up again
Seeking a love that might make me feel free in myself but then it proves to be
Something that hurts inside when we touch, so I move on, I lose my way
Astray I'm trying too much to feel unchained, to burn out this sense of feeling cold
And every day I seek my prey: someone to taste and to hold
I feel alive during the split second when they smile and meet my eyes
But I could cry 'cause I feel broken inside!“

Hunger for passion, touches, and sex is always present in us no matter how hard we try to have it under our rational control.

„WE WILL ALWAYS BE SO MUCH MORE HUMAN THAN WE WISHES TO BE...“

[b] 13. Of Two Beginnings (second part) (Budapest pt III)[/b]

In his hotel room in Budapest, after a lot of time questioning him and everything else, he finally finds out that freedom he’s been looking for is a state of mind... No one can lend, sell or give you freedom. You can’t act freedom. It's only in your heart and mind, and therefore, if you truly feel free, then my friend, you are free...


[b] 14. Chain Sling (Eskilstuna,Sweden, 12.08. 2001)[/b]

He's back from Budapest, but he hasn't found his old self,and that may not be even possible... SHE loves him,she wants their love back,but he isn't sure when, and if, he'll be able to completely forgive her and himself.



„Then came a girl
A dryad of the woods
with a sing over her door saying
“If you enter
You must forgive me everything!” “

„Sometimes forgiving is too much
like self abuse“


„Even if I could one day learn
to forgive you everything
Could I learn to forgive myself?“


„Probably I simply didn't understand
the full notion of the word
“forgive” “


“I can feel the pain you have inside
I see it in your eyes
Those eyes that used to shine for me
I can feel the wildness in your heart
That's tearing us apart
My love how can I help if you don't want me?”

I think this pain is more so a result of him being unfaithful to her and of the awareness that he won't be that child ever again, than it is of pain that she had brought on him...


„There is nothing you can do to help me now
I am lost within myself as so many times before
There's nothing you can do to ease my pain
I am so, so sorry but if you love me you must let go“

I am under impression that he doesn't want to tell her what has exactly happened in Budapest. At first this may seem cowardly and unjust, but I think that is the only right choice...To tell and admit something like that (adultery) only makes it easier for you because ,in a way, you just hand over your burden to that person. And usually you end up hurting her... I'm quite sure he is in a temptation to hurt her, but it looks like he manages to have it under control.
HE loves HER, and I don't think he really wants to hurt her. That is his sin, his load, and only he is supposed to carry that load... And I think he is that kind of human. At least I hope so.

And,now in the end, they are both walking their Remedy Lane together, quietly hoping they will find the love that had brought them together in the first place...




THE END



So,this would be it... I hope most of this makes sense...I don't know, we'll see in a year or two,maybe my point of view will be changed by then...


[b]NOTE: [/b]

Daniel Gildenlow hasn't actually defined the end,he left it untold so it's our turn to make up one.
Analogously, that picture I mentioned earlier in Rope Ends can lead us on the „right“ ending.
If we will consider Remedy Lane to be an autobiographical work of Daniel Gildenlow, then we all know that this story has a happy ending. :)

My first thought was that this is really jumbled and out-of-order, but if the dates are correct then I guess it should be like that... I'm just confused about the sudden shift from "Heart of Mine" to "Undertow". Sure, it's been two years, but it's like something is missing (THORN CLOWN, YAY).

Also, I had always thought of the chorus in "Chainsling" to be of the woman. Huh. Kind of turns the album upsidedown with the man singing it. Makes more sense, though :)

edit: Haha, I've edited this reply like four times now... Haven't really thought this much about the concept before =P

[quote]
My first thought was that this is really jumbled and out-of-order, but if the dates are correct then I guess it should be like that...[/quote]

Seems to me someone didn't buy original Remedy Lane... :)
The dates are correct, it's all there in booklet...


[quote]
I'm just confused about the sudden shift from "Heart of Mine" to "Undertow"[/quote]

There is 2 year period between those two... The verses I quoted in This heart of mine (again from the booklet) lead into Undertow....


[quote]
Also, I had always thought of the chorus in "Chainsling" to be of the woman. [/quote]

I'm quite sure it's him... Daniel uses feminine kind of voice for verses and manly for "chorus"....

Don't worry, I have the booklet. I'm just too lazy to open it.

Regardless of that prose-part you quoted, it's still a weird shift. Though, you have the background from his childhood, detailing his wild spirit, and the gap of two years. On second thought, I guess it makes for a pretty cool cliffhanger, actually. "This Heart" leaves us with that quote and an inkling that something is not 100% right here, regardless of what he's actually singing in the song, and then we come back two years later and everything is a chaotic mess. On third thought, I think I might just very well love that! :D I've never thought about it before, but that's really cool...

I've never heard anything feminine on any PoS album, really. I don't know where people here that. Some people even thought that there was an actual woman singing on TPE (song). I have to raise an eyebrow towards that... No, I was thinking about the lyrics. I always just assumed the woman said those things - that she was the wild and crazy one, whereas the man was just depressed and lost.
Doesn't really matter that much, though. In "my" version, the woman cheats, the man is saddened, then the man cheats, the woman is saddened, then the man wants to get back together after reconciling with his demons, but the woman is too heartbroken from his betrayal. In "this" version, the woman cheats, the man cheats, then the woman wants to get back together without knowing of his betrayal (probably), but the man has realized that he can never find peace and has to move on. Good stories, either way :p

That's all pretty cool..But, hasn't Danny himself given us an analysis?
[url=http://www.painofsslvation.com/lyrics/RemedyLane-Analysis.html]here[/url]?

Edit: I still think it's cool what you did Niguevara ;) I can't get myself to dig so deep into this concept. It's emotional enough as it is ;)

[quote]
"This Heart" leaves us with that quote and an inkling that something is not 100% right here, regardless of what he's actually singing in the song, and then we come back two years later and everything is a chaotic mess. [/quote]

:) The way I see it, it didn't all crushed at once...it was an ongoing process ever since she had delivered a dead baby...It reached it's climax with her cheating on him...therefore, da daaaah: Undertow. :D


[quote]
but the man has realized that he can never find peace and has to move on. [/quote]

Something like that...but move on together with her... I'm quite sure it's like that. On the other hand, maybe I'm just a sucker for real love and its power! :D

[quote][i]Originally posted by niguevara[/i]
The way I see it, it didn't all crushed at once...it was an ongoing process ever since she had delivered a dead baby...It reached it's climax with her cheating on him...therefore, da daaaah: Undertow. :D[/quote]
I don't see Her cheating on Him anywhere in the lyrics. Only an old girlfriend. (Second Love)

[quote]
I don't see Her cheating on Him anywhere in the lyrics. Only an old girlfriend. (Second Love)[/quote]

Beyond the Pale:

"[u]And I remember when you said you've been UNDER him[/u] - I was suprised to feel such pain
And all those years of being faithful to YOU despite the hunger flowing through my veins
And I have always tried to calm things down - SWALLOW down swallow down
"It's just another small THORN in my crown" "

[quote][i]Originally posted by niguevara[/i]
Something like that...but move on together with her... I'm quite sure it's like that. On the other hand, maybe I'm just a sucker for real love and its power! :D[/quote]
Yeah, I don't see that happening. Why would he tell her to let him go if he wanted her to stay...? Makes no sense, at all.

[quote][i]Originally posted by Nenya[/i]
That's all pretty cool..But, hasn't Danny himself given us an analysis?
[url=http://www.painofsslvation.com/lyrics/RemedyLane-Analysis.html]here[/url]?
[/quote]
Daniel's "analysis" is shallow as all Hell. It touches upon some deeper meanings, but generally, it's more of a description than anything else.
For example, "Chain Sling": "It's about love and breakup." Very clear and deep.

[quote]
Why would he tell her to let him go if he wanted her to stay...? Makes no sense, at all.[/quote]

That's something I've been bothered with,but after I had read it for the millionth time, I finally got it (I think :) ) . The thing is...he doesn't tell her to let HIM go...he says "let go", as if "leave it be" or "let go of it,nothing good can come out of it" etc...
Now,when you look at it this way, it makes a lot of sense!

"There's nothing you can do to ease my pain
I am so, so sorry but if you love me you must let go"

As I said in the essay:

[quote]
And,now in the end, they are both walking their Remedy Lane together, quietly hoping they will find the love that had brought them together in the first place...[/quote]

Yeah, maybe

[quote][i]Originally posted by niguevara[/i]
"[u]And I remember when you said you've been UNDER him[/u] - I was suprised to feel such pain
And all those years of being faithful to YOU despite the hunger flowing through my veins
And I have always tried to calm things down - SWALLOW down swallow down
"It's just another small THORN in my crown" "[/quote]
Might just as well be (and to me it makes more sense for it to be that way) about the old girlfriend. Beyond the Pale is about the male character's whole life with sexuality.

[quote][i]Originally posted by Onoffknapp[/i]
Daniel's "analysis" is shallow as all Hell. It touches upon some deeper meanings, but generally, it's more of a description than anything else.
For example, "Chain Sling": "It's about love and breakup." Very clear and deep.[/quote]

Don't blame me.|I

[quote][i]Algselt postitas: Onoffknapp[/i]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Nenya[/i]
That's all pretty cool..But, hasn't Danny himself given us an analysis?
[url=http://www.painofsslvation.com/lyrics/RemedyLane-Analysis.html]here[/url]?
[/quote]
Daniel's "analysis" is shallow as all Hell. It touches upon some deeper meanings, but generally, it's more of a description than anything else.
For example, "Chain Sling": "It's about love and breakup." Very clear and deep.[/quote]

Well.. maybe we're all overestimating the amount of storytelling in the album and the deep meaningfulness? Maybe Daniel thought there wasn't really much analysing needed?


One thing I never understood was just why RL isn't in chronological order. It would most certainly be more logical for the storyline's sake.

Because jumbled storylines CAN be much more interesting and dramatic than straighforward ones (Pulp Fiction, anyone?). I think the story in RL is made better by not knowing everything as it happens, but to hear the lyrics to one song and be "WTF?" and then when you listen to the last song, all the pieces come together. You basically hear the ending first (second half of first song), which makes you very curious about the story. As you go through all the pieces, it makes you think about it. It's genius.

[quote][i]Originally posted by glurk[/i]
[quote][i]Algselt postitas: Onoffknapp[/i]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Nenya[/i]
That's all pretty cool..But, hasn't Danny himself given us an analysis?
[url=http://www.painofsslvation.com/lyrics/RemedyLane-Analysis.html]here[/url]?
[/quote]
Daniel's "analysis" is shallow as all Hell. It touches upon some deeper meanings, but generally, it's more of a description than anything else.
For example, "Chain Sling": "It's about love and breakup." Very clear and deep.[/quote]

Well.. maybe we're all overestimating the amount of storytelling in the album and the deep meaningfulness? Maybe Daniel thought there wasn't really much analysing needed?


[/quote]
Or maybe he just wanted fans to have their own interpretation of the concept.Those are just hints,something that comes to everyone's mind when listening to the lyrics.If someone needs deeper analys,he can make it on his own,like niguevara ;)

I think it's a mistake to assume that Daniel gives us the whole truth in that analysis.... or in anything, for that matter u.u

Think DG said somewhere that all albums, save BE, are told through the eyes of their respective narrators at a specific point in time (this was part of an explanation of why BE is more stylistically diverse, less aurally coherent, than the others, I think). In the case of RL, it's probably HE sits in that hotel room and thinks "What led me here? Where do I go from here?" The song order of the album is then the answers/musings on these questions, in the order they come to the narrator.

I could be wrong, of course. But, I could also be right, right?

Yeah, I like that idea.

Entropia = The father as the homeless man, dying
Concrete Lake = The man sitting by the lake, dying
TPE pt.1 = The man lying on a floor, dyi-... no wait =P - lying on a floor, mentally collapsed
Remedy Lane = The man sitting in that hotel room, thinking about freedom
BE = N/A
Scarsick = The man falling, after having thrown himself off a rooftop

What do you think?

Scarshizzle - The mofo cruisin', thinkin about the hot-ass bitches on the backseat, who could't resist the call of his 21" alloy wheels

[quote][i]Originally posted by Onoffknapp[/i]
Yeah, I like that idea.

Entropia = The father as the homeless man, dying
Concrete Lake = The man sitting by the lake, dying
TPE pt.1 = The man lying on a floor, dyi-... no wait =P - lying on a floor, mentally collapsed
Remedy Lane = The man sitting in that hotel room, thinking about freedom
BE = N/A
Scarsick = The man falling, after having thrown himself off a rooftop

What do you think?[/quote]

That doesn't make much sense.. I mean Entropia has a couple of character's perspectives, as does TPE.

But I've been awake for 32 hours so this thread is hurting my head.

Ah, yeah, didn't think about that. Though, the only song I can imagine being from the woman's perspective in TPE would be In The Flesh, but that's not TOLD from her perspective... so... it's not :p But, yeah, I can't imagine it being the man thinking those things... maybe trying to imagine what her life once was?

But Entropia is directly told through the words of someone else so that doesn't make any sense.

I noticed that you didn't write about Dryad Of The Woods because it's an instrumental. For some reason, I have the feeling that I read or heard in an interview that that song is about his unborn/dead child...

Hasn't Daniel said it's another love song he wrote for his wife? And the title doesn't really insinuate any connection the the stillborn child either.

Yeah, I think that's right because that makes a lot more sense, but I still feel like I've heard the former explanation before.

Sure you're not confusing it with Trace of Blood? -.-

Daniel has personally said that he wrote that song for his wife, as one of those romantic things people do.

And yeah, seeing as how A Trace of Blood is already about the miscarriage, it would be rather lavish to have the instrumental be about that, too.

[quote][i]Originally posted by Marinaen[/i]
Sure you're not confusing it with Trace of Blood? -.-[/quote]

I'm certain!

But maybe I'm just crazy and really never heard anything about it. :p

I swear I did though...

So weird.