In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
now if you think i'm wasting your time again
i'm wasting your time
when you pick me up in duty free
that's when i thought i'd be the cross in your t
or must see tv
but if you think i'm wasting your time again
no, you're wasting mine
when you're playing for a prime-time dream
the c n b scene
now i'm just another split in your seam the i in your team
ooo please don't get too excited
oooo maybe you're not invited to my action adventure
my action adventure dream
so when you think you're on the fast track
you find it's just a cul-de-sac back
in that adult lifestyle community
where all your little boys, your action toys are duty free
ooo please don't get too excited
oooo maybe you're not invited to my action adventure
my action adventure dream
so i wonder what you got your persona for
cause there's a 2-for-one down at the corner-store
and i wonder could ya pep it up a bit
you know throw a fit
you go ahead and dance
i'll just sit
but if you think i'm wasting your time again
no, you're wasting mine
when you're playing for a prime-time dream
the c n b scene
now i'm just another split in your seam the i in your team
so i'm looking at the back of my hand again
i'm looking at the back of my hand again
to what end if i can't even find a goddamn pen
i'm wasting your time
when you pick me up in duty free
that's when i thought i'd be the cross in your t
or must see tv
but if you think i'm wasting your time again
no, you're wasting mine
when you're playing for a prime-time dream
the c n b scene
now i'm just another split in your seam the i in your team
ooo please don't get too excited
oooo maybe you're not invited to my action adventure
my action adventure dream
so when you think you're on the fast track
you find it's just a cul-de-sac back
in that adult lifestyle community
where all your little boys, your action toys are duty free
ooo please don't get too excited
oooo maybe you're not invited to my action adventure
my action adventure dream
so i wonder what you got your persona for
cause there's a 2-for-one down at the corner-store
and i wonder could ya pep it up a bit
you know throw a fit
you go ahead and dance
i'll just sit
but if you think i'm wasting your time again
no, you're wasting mine
when you're playing for a prime-time dream
the c n b scene
now i'm just another split in your seam the i in your team
so i'm looking at the back of my hand again
i'm looking at the back of my hand again
to what end if i can't even find a goddamn pen
Lyrics submitted by girlboyrevolt
Action/Adventure Lyrics as written by Andrew Bird
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Standing On The Edge Of Summer
Thursday
Thursday
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
Personally I also have thought it was about him and a girl. A girl who is with him because she thinks of him as a celebrity, and so thinks he must live some kind of action/adventure life. She wants to be with him because his life must be exciting, and she can see and be seen by all the other people in the business, in the scene. It's her taste of celebrity. But once she's gotten into this scene, she kind of ditches him so she can be in the spotlight or just do her own thing, acting as though he's a split in her seam, the I in her team.
At some point, he catches wise to this. He stops doing anything that would help her in her ends of just being among the right "crowd", the scene she's looking to be with. So she starts accusing him of wasting her time. But he says no - you're wasting my time, because he knows what she's up to. She's not in it for a relationship at all. Here he thought he'd be the cross in her t, or must see tv - but she picked him up in duty free... no strings attached. So now he's teasing her saying maybe she's not even invited to his action/adventure dream anymore anyway.
All the while, she's realizing that what she thought was the fast track into a new exciting life with new, maybe even powerful people, is just a cul de sac back to the same old. Same experiences, just a different crowd. But she's still using men as little boys or action toys - pawns to be played with.
And as cooltobehip commented earlier - she's got these multiple personas. She'll be whatever you want her to be (at least at first), she'll be whatever the situation requires for her to get what she wants.
The only part I can't decipher (at least for my interpretation, lol) is the hand/pen part. Like, staring at the back of his hand - that makes me think of the expression of knowing something "like the back of your hand". He's not talking about the palm of the hand, where people normally write stuff down. So I thought maybe he was thinking in terms of how well he really knows himself, or knows something. But the pen would suggest the writing of a phone number. IDK, that last part does get me!!
At any rate - LOVE this song! But then again, I love them all. ;)