Dorothy

Like the flutter of your fingertips, Like the flickering of lights, They've got their bright ideas but we've got bigger fish to fry.

Still cannot figure out the first lines to this song.. Maybe everything that we do has an innate reason behind it whether we choose to make it known or not.

Found you out there on your doorstep, Undressed to the nines. From your Sunday best, black and blue velvet dress. Your head's a mess and so is mine.

I remember screaming this verse when my parents were in the car, back in middle school and they kept giving me funny looks.. now I know why. Matt finds the girl outside, completely "naked" both mentally and physically (down to her size 9 heels..) And he draws parallels to this by describing her best Sunday dress as "black and blue velvet..." symbolic for her bruised/tattered dress. Her head (hair/demeanor..) is a mess.. It's obvious that she's either had a run-in or was raped.

Oh Dorothy, I'm coming home, I hope you're waiting there. I know times have been tough on you, It's all downhill from here. Oh Dorothy, inside that dreadful place deep in your heart, It's beckoning, I'm racing to your doorway Dorothy. Dorothy.

The first chorus is seemingly innocent. Matt wants to see Dorothy and he can feel the deep secrets in her heart beckoning him. Considering the previous verse, it would appear that she has many other secrets that she does not disclose to anyone, ever. But Matt seems to see through her, which is why he states: It's all downhill from here.

Like the scratching sounds of insects, Beneath the blades and soil. We'll begin the plot to get away, To ends as black as oil. Now it's bounding in the ear, Left in left field for you to find. Outside of your peripheral vision of this never ending night.

Matt and Dorothy want to get away quietly and in plain view, just like the insects under the grass. Plot has a double meaning.. plot as in plan to get away, and plot as in a plot in a graveyard, alluding to suicide or immolation [To ends as black as oil]

The phrase "left field" is popular vernacular (first attested in 1961) meaning "wildly unrelated to the subject being discussed", and "out in left field" means "a little crazy". Matt has hidden "something" that he doubts that she will find. This is further described as "outside of her peripheral vision," "of this never ending night."

The last line, to me, has two meanings but one is a bit more hinted judging by his voice. Dorothy is consumed by her broken world, her own never ending night, and she can't seem to ever see any good in it because in her peripheries, is more darkness.

In other words, Matt has hidden something that she simply cannot see/fathom.

[Chorus]

It's a strange world isn't it? Such strange times to be living in. I had a change of heart tonight, When I watched her walk into the light. It's a strange world isn't it? Such strange times to be living in. I had a change of heart tonight, When I watched her walk into the light.

I watched her walk into the light.

I've come to accept how messed up this verse is and I absolutely love it. Matt describes the world as strange and the times as strange but never considers him or Dorothy to be "different or worse than everyone else." He's almost hopelessly accepted the fact that this is reality. "I had a change of heart tonight, when I watched her walk into the light." Instead of feeling "x" emotion, he feels "y". What he was feeling before, about her walking into the light, was different from what he is feeling now, about her walking into the light.

Walking into the light can be infinitely interpreted. I see it as walking into the light at the end of the tunnel, where you supposedly see "lights," after you die, and if you walk toward them, you surely will not awaken.

I believe that Dorothy killed herself (with or without Matt's assistance, we don't know.), with Matt observing nearby and him witnessing a change within himself. Instead of feeling sad and agonizingly watching her die, he simply feels that everything is "strange," and that he had a change of heart, allowing him to feel nothing when Dorothy died, because based on the previous verses, Matt knows and sees through Dorothy unlike everyone else. He realized that night, that she has been living a broken life and that standing there and letting her die, instead of preventing it, was everything that she needed.

Now the conclusion: The final chorus.

Oh Dorothy, I'm coming home, I hope you're waiting there. I know times have been tough on you, It's all downhill from here. Oh Dorothy, inside that dreadful place deep in your heart, It's beckoning, I'm racing to your doorway Dorothy. Dorothy.

Even though the lyrics are the same, clearly there is an entirely different interpretation if you consider Dorothy to be dead now. He sounds concerned.. almost desperate to get back to her despite fully knowing that she is gone.