Let us take a step back to the soulful music of a man with his acoustic guitar.
“Ribbon in the Wind” by My Father’s Son is just that, and between the soothing strum of the guitar and our singer’s voice, the amount of heart put into this piece is clear.
Even though “Ribbon in the Wind” is extremely dependent on its lyrics when it comes to understanding its meaning, there is a deep sense of meaning to the instrumental intro and outro. With that in mind, the structure is three sets of alternating verse and chorus. Since many songs contain the same lyrics for their choruses (or perhaps a word or two of difference in each), a bridge is usually present to separate the final chorus from the one preceding it. “Ribbon in the Wind,” however, does not need one, since its choruses are so diverse (yet consistent in their message) already.
So, let’s look at the first one:
And the moon, she lied to me.
The sky is not as endless as it seemed.
And that space between the stars I’ll never know –
like a ribbon in the wind,
these days come and go.
It is almost biblical in its vast amount of imagery, and if you completely disagree with what I think this chorus might mean, then that means the lyrics are working. Before I get to my analysis though, I want to look at the second and third choruses:
And the moon, she lied to me.
The mountains weren’t as high as they once seemed.
The rocky tips that I was never meant to know –
just a flash in the pan,
these days come and go.
And the moon, she lied to me.
This time was much more fragile than it seemed.
Like a scent of memory I seldom know –
like a ribbon in the wind,
these days come and go.
The triple repetition of the first (“and the moon, she lied to me”) and last (“his days come and go”) phrases are what connect the choruses. What comes in between are the different “lies” told by the moon, and different things our singer is not meant to know. I want to focus on the second to last phrase for a moment though; while the first and last choruses use “like a ribbon in the wind,” the middle chorus strays from that pattern and uses “just a flash in the pan.” This is particularly interesting because “ribbon in the wind” is the title of the song, so why swap it out for a different line, of all things? The aforementioned phrase can be interpreted in many ways, and I think the expression “flash in a pan” clarifies what our singer is going for: futility.
This draws on the sentiment that “everything is meaningless” from the book of Ecclesiastes, and is thus immensely evocative. The sky and the space between the stars, the mountains and their rocky tips, and the time we live in and his memory, are all part of the mundane world and are bound to end eventually. Yet, the moon tried to tell our singer otherwise and distract him from the coming and going of our days. Why?
I believe the answer is simple; even though life is futile, we should not linger on it. Instead, we should focus on the time we have and ride the wave of life without care of the end, just like a ribbon in the wind.
With that in mind, check out this beautiful live performance.
