Cuckoo Cuckoo

i agree with the growing up theory. The king is his imagination when he was younger- remember wen u used to pretend u were king of ur little fort?

he cant see that fort nemore because hes grown up, but he misses it "You can see me, don't go away. I can't see the landscape. Please describe its amaranthine haze"

his friend is his childhood imagination. he feels like hes going crazy because he cant connect with nething nemore and now hes just drifting

This song is about a miscarriage. It's about losing something you've been looking forward to all your life. It's about losing someone you loved and never even had a chance to see and hold and love. It's about going through this pain alone, and feeling more alone than ever before. It's about going fucking crazy with grief.

i agree with hojumcchang.

it hit me about a week ago, through this song, that avey and his wife might have had a miscarriage.

most of the songs on strawberry jam seem a lot clearer to me with this in mind. like why #1 is a song to a son, when panda bear has a daughter...

i mean, there's certain metaphors that none of us will ever understand, but some seem pretty universal:

"People gonna come and people gonna cry He just woke and ate and dreamt and died."

"Where's my friend, I want to hold him tight he's so far away from mountain lights"

to me, this song especially captures the tragic hopelessness and insanity of loss.. it's hit me hard to imagine losing my future child, especially before i even get to know it.. because first i had to imagine even loving something so unconditionally. it's so heartbreaking.

“I think we came from a place that was influenced by that stuff and certain ways of thinking that are aligned with psychedelic drugs or mind-altering moods and that sort of thing, but I think you can come to those ways of thinking through so many different ways...You can go there without the drug.” -Avey himself

Unless they really did have a son who died.... There is no doubt in my mind that this song is about depersonalization/derealization disorder (DP/DR). This even makes more sense to me.

For anyone who's ever had it, these lyrics are dead on for how it feels - hence also the title of the song, Cuckoo Cuckoo. It can often come on suddenly after tripping, never fully returning to reality in a sense. You feel like reality, emotion, everything is just torn away from you and like you'll never be normal again. Inner-death as he's putting it here. Ego-loss too, it's ALL there.

I could list quotes, but its basically the entire thing. It is about dp/dr.

it outlines what he sees as the experiences of a ghost. how when you're a ghost you are tempted by the things that make life so good but you are dead. so you cant experience them.

I don't think it's so much actual dying, but more the metaphorical dying that happens as we go from childhood to adulthood. "How I lost my boy" could mean he's lost the boy that was inside him, his child-like qualities.
"And little kids slide down on steel park slides Little kids can't play with things that died." Now that's he's an adult, he's sort of a dead child. He can't relate to children and they can't relate or (or play) with him. Seeing all these kids having their happy time makes him want to be a kid again and lie in his mother's arms. But she's elsewhere doing her own thing and her kids are already grown up. "Sometimes all I want's one favorite song And two to three minutes don't seem so long"
This line reminds me of how you can form such an intense connection with a song, and how it can take you away from the hassle of everyday life, even if it's only for a few minutes.

Great song from a great album.

i'd have to agree 100% with that

"Life was good now death surrounds Cause you can't feel a thing No heart flutters in late spring You just drift and pray For sun-kissed, golden days"

it seems he's moving away from childhood and not sure where he's going... but certainly going cuckoo

This is my favourite song on the album. I understand the lyrics, but it's not easily said. The lyrics represent short ideas, in a cool ass form. Definately the best song of 07. Love the album!

i think "Life was good now death surrounds" is "Life was good now death's all wrong"