Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Hey, my little baby
Pointing at the sky's amazing
In the lake now
All of this sensation
And no space on earth to place it
Where it's safe now
You've got a big day coming
A big day coming now
Gather, crowd, around me
In the gutter where you found me
Help me stand now
My body, it is aching
And my poor old heart is breaking
And I'm so freaked out
We've got a big chance coming
A big chance coming now
All the little Sadies
And the literary ladies
Wish me well now
A slab upon a plane that
Through the air is silver swaying
Into sun now
I hightail my cool haircut
Through the turnstiles of the airport
On the run now
Flip a couple hundred pages
I was turning thirty-eight
I was a horrible sight
You've got a bad day coming
A sad day coming 'round
I'll wear a white suit and black sunglasses
To the last mass now
Okay
Then give me one last kiss
In your pink silk dress, I guess
Said, "I have lost all will to"
With my face pressed against your breast
And I have pilfered the king's pills
From the palace medicine chest
I cried a quart of crocodile tears
Onto Allison Anne's pink champagne glass
I was escorted from the premises
For being a mess
And it's just like when John Howe told me
How the Force MDs died
Lou Gehrig's disease laid T.C.D. low
Mercury had a heart attack back in '95
And where DJ Doctor Rock went
Nobody knows
I see my grandfather, T. Holmes
"Bud" Moore laid up in his hospital clothes
But I think about Judee Sill dying in some trailer park
Out of cocaine and codeine all alone
It was a big waste
Brother, such a big waste
Yeah, I know
They had some great songs
Must have been a great time
So long ago
But I didn't open up my mouth
Just to piss and moan
No way
All the air is glitter
And I went and hit the
Skating rink alone now
I'll watch the kids all skim across the ice
They look so nice
It was so cold out
And then I coughed into my cupped hands
Across the rink so I could hear the band
Two guitars, a drummer
A chick singer with a Kurzweil
On a keyboard stand
And I said, "Play that cover"
I said, "Play that cover song again"
Pointing at the sky's amazing
In the lake now
All of this sensation
And no space on earth to place it
Where it's safe now
You've got a big day coming
A big day coming now
Gather, crowd, around me
In the gutter where you found me
Help me stand now
My body, it is aching
And my poor old heart is breaking
And I'm so freaked out
We've got a big chance coming
A big chance coming now
All the little Sadies
And the literary ladies
Wish me well now
A slab upon a plane that
Through the air is silver swaying
Into sun now
I hightail my cool haircut
Through the turnstiles of the airport
On the run now
Flip a couple hundred pages
I was turning thirty-eight
I was a horrible sight
You've got a bad day coming
A sad day coming 'round
I'll wear a white suit and black sunglasses
To the last mass now
Okay
Then give me one last kiss
In your pink silk dress, I guess
Said, "I have lost all will to"
With my face pressed against your breast
And I have pilfered the king's pills
From the palace medicine chest
I cried a quart of crocodile tears
Onto Allison Anne's pink champagne glass
I was escorted from the premises
For being a mess
And it's just like when John Howe told me
How the Force MDs died
Lou Gehrig's disease laid T.C.D. low
Mercury had a heart attack back in '95
And where DJ Doctor Rock went
Nobody knows
I see my grandfather, T. Holmes
"Bud" Moore laid up in his hospital clothes
But I think about Judee Sill dying in some trailer park
Out of cocaine and codeine all alone
It was a big waste
Brother, such a big waste
Yeah, I know
They had some great songs
Must have been a great time
So long ago
But I didn't open up my mouth
Just to piss and moan
No way
All the air is glitter
And I went and hit the
Skating rink alone now
I'll watch the kids all skim across the ice
They look so nice
It was so cold out
And then I coughed into my cupped hands
Across the rink so I could hear the band
Two guitars, a drummer
A chick singer with a Kurzweil
On a keyboard stand
And I said, "Play that cover"
I said, "Play that cover song again"
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The theme of a once-cool person getting older is pretty typical for a rocker turning 40, maybe even worse for an Austin musician that remembers how cool it was there in the 90s and doesn't recognize it now. But like all Okkervil songs, it's two sided: getting old and lonely and drunk and defeated is ugly, but he recognizes in the first and last verse the wonder of childhood, the magic of the weather and travel and music... ending on that note, music is amazing, even if it's a new generation's turn to have their minds blown. There will always be cover songs, the perfect symbol of nostalgia and being satisfied with the echo of cool after cool has gone.
The title is funny. "Formerly cool" people often compare turning 40 to dying (see James Murphy, Pete Townshend lyrics) but they're almost always tongue in cheek, obviously there is a lot more time left to have fun and reflect.