Meaning of “Gloria” by The Lumineers
First off The Lumineers’ lead singer Wesley Schultz has explicitly stated that the song “Gloria” “is about the love between an addict and her family”. In other words, the addict is the titular “Gloria”. The substance she seems to be addicted to is alcohol. And the singer plays the role of someone – presumably a family member as stated above – who is advising her to change her ways before she ultimately kills herself.
At the beginning of the song, we see that Gloria indeed has a preference for “booze”. The singer is alarmed by the affect that such a habit is having on her. However, there does not seem to be anyone else who is advising her that “enough is enough”, as in she has to stop before something terrible happens.
The chorus of the track is a bit more-difficult to decipher. However, the general sentiment being relayed is that the singer is worried – indeed even praying for the wellbeing of Gloria.
The second verse finds Schultz basically accusing Gloria of torturing herself. And the process is made more painful in that those who love her are forced to bear witness to her self-crucifixion.
The song ends with Schultz admonishing her to take a stand against eventually dying due to drug abuse. And he has come to the solid conclusion that she is indeed killing herself – albeit slowly and painfully – through her actions.
It is noteworthy to mention that the theme of this song is quite similar to Tom Walker’s “Leave a Light On“.
SPOILER ALERT: I reference the video content a bit, so if you haven’t seen the videos for III and want to puzzle together the characters, visit my comments afterward and let me know your interpretation. It took me awhile. And it seems in a number of the songs that more than one character is narrating and/or referenced. So it took me some time to figure out who was who and how their pathology emerged and manifested. At first I was familiar only with Gloria and Life in the City as they get more radio play on the more inspired stations… (in Albany NY, the wonderful WEXT, 106.1, or 97.7 FM) But as I listened more and more to the songs, I liked them and understood their placement in the narrative. And the piano parts are exquisite. The Salt and the Sea… even April, the short instrumental. And Jimmy Sparks will haunt you…
So according to the CD insert and video series and the dates of births and deaths, Gloria dies at age 32, in 1983, a year after her son Jimmy is born. So neither he nor his son, her grandson Junior, ever really knew her. Jimmy is shown to be doomed to the disease, and it’s absolutely chilling to see him left alone as an INFANT! as the husband races his seizuring wife to the hospital and again when Gloria races her bleeding husband to the hospital with a Gloria-inflicted bottle wound to his head…This time it’s even more foreshadowing and devastating to see the baby pick up a whiskey bottle and drink out of it! Again, seemingly unattended! And then with Junior being born in 1998, the math shows that Jimmy was not even 16 when he fathered his son. And that’s a heck of a situation to end up a single father even in the best of mental conditions! Note also that Gloria’s mother Donna had Gloria at (for those times) the very late age of 35 (born 1916) and I assume that it was she who was the “first of 7 children” and probably didn’t want to continue caring for kids as an adult. She called her daughter “ordinary” and wasn’t a mother to her. So that set Gloria up to have a low self esteem and make poor life decisions as a young woman in her “Life in the City.” It’s a very moving story and as you can see, the characters absolutely come alive in the ten short videos.
I am wondering when the entire short film will come out for the general public to see, as it got high accolades in various film festivals. It would be nice to see it made seamless instead of having to click on each video. .