In 1999, Rocky Votolato branched out from his work with Waxwing, having written a handful of songs which did not really fit in with their more aggressive, fast tempo syle. Along the way he has toured with the likes of Damien Jurado, Small Brown Bike, The Get Up Kids, The New Amsterdams, Owen and The Casket Lottery, members of the latter having provided assistance as backing musicians on occasion. His studio albums have also been littered with appearances from some of Seattle's finest musicians (including players in the bands Red Stars Theory, Sharks Keep Moving, The Blood Brothers, Death Cab for Cutie, Pedro the Lion and Sub Pop solo artist Rosie Thomas). On the production side, Votolato has worked with Matt Bayles (Pearl Jam, Botch, Murder City Devils, Hayden), along with Chris Walla (of Death Cab for Cutie). It is a creative input which has helped see Rocky progress sylistically with every release, from his low key self-titled album released in 1999 - all pretty much recorded live, right through to his recent, alt-country, folk-esque offering, 'Makers'. A video was shot for the first track of Makers, "White Daisy Passing", a song which also appears on the soundtrack of the forthcoming Seattle indie feature film Cthulu.
Rocky also starred in the film 'The Edge of Quarrel', which he worked on with Dave Larson from Excursion Records. It also includes members of the Murder City Devils and Botch, and is about a gang war between straightedgers and punk rockers.
He is married with two children, and lives in Seattle.
Where We Left Off
Rocky Votolato Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Pink Flamingos and light flickering
From the TV screen
Come lay down here with me
Your mom and
Dad are right outside
So we climbed up here so we can hide from
From all the lies that we've lived beneath
Let's pick up
Where we left off
Let's string up everything that we've been afraid of
We've been living under, we've been taught to remember
And let's
Learn how to love
There's a hotel in your memory
Pink Flamingos
And light flickering from the TV screen
Come hide up here with me
Thinking it up is making it real, you create the scene
You've lived in
For years, it's scary to think
What some lies will make you believe
The lyrics of Rocky Votolato's song "Where We Left Off" describe a moment of escape from the pressures and deceptions of everyday life. The singer invites someone to lie down with him in a hotel room that exists only in memory, marked by pink flamingos and the flicker of a TV screen. The two are hiding from the world outside, personified by the presence of the other person's mom and dad, and seeking refuge in a shared space where they can be free from the lies that have defined their lives. The singer suggests that they pick up where they left off, indicating that they have a connection that predates their current circumstances, and that they should confront what they fear in order to learn how to love.
The lyrics are metaphorical in nature, using the hotel room as a symbol of memory and the TV screen as a symbol of perception. The pink flamingos could represent the kitschy, artificial aspects of memory, while the light flickering from the screen could represent the fragmented and unreliable nature of perception. The idea of climbing up to hide from the world could also be interpreted as a way of rising above the limitations of everyday life and seeking a higher perspective.
Overall, the lyrics of "Where We Left Off" use vivid imagery and emotional intensity to create a sense of shared experience and mutual understanding. The singer invites the listener to join him in a moment of vulnerability and openness, suggesting that by confronting their fears and learning to love, they can find a way to escape the lies that have held them captive.
Line by Line Meaning
There's a hotel in my memory
I have a memory of a hotel that I often recall.
Pink Flamingos and light flickering
From the TV screen
The hotel memory I have is vivid, having pink flamingos and flickering lights from the TV screen.
Come lay down here with me
Let's lay down together and spend some intimate time.
Your mom and Dad are right outside
Your parents are outside waiting for you.
So we climbed up here so we can hide from
Everything
We climbed to the hotel to hide from the things that keep following us in life.
From all the lies that we've lived beneath
We have been living under lies, and we need a break from it all.
Let's pick up
Where we left off
Let's continue from where we paused and start again.
Let's string up everything that we've been afraid of
We've been living under, we've been taught to remember
We need to confront everything we fear and fight back against the teachings we have been told and live under.
And let's
Learn how to love
Let's learn how to love each other and ourselves even more.
There's a hotel in your memory
You have a distinct memory of a hotel too.
Pink Flamingos
And light flickering from the TV screen
The memory you have is also vivid, it's got pink flamingos and flickering lights from the TV screen.
Come hide up here with me
Join me in this hotel memory and let’s hide here from everything we can’t handle for now.
Thinking it up is making it real, you create the scene
Just by imagining the scene, it becomes real, and you bring that memory to life again.
You've lived in
For years, it's scary to think
You've been living under some lies for so long that it’s scary to think about what you have believed all this time.
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Rocky Votolato
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind