Warren wanted a Beach Boys thing for this one, and Carl Wilson and Billy Hinsche came in, with Carl arranging the vocal parts. The other harmony vocalists (credited as the "Gentlemen Boys") were Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, Zevon's longtime backers Waddy Wachtel and Jorge Calderon, and Linda Rondstadt/Stone Poneys guitarist Kenny Edwards.
It's one word, cover-to-cover
It's an endless fuse
Chain-repeater never seems to get any smarter
I'm always marking pages
So that I don't get confused
End up in a fight I never had any part of
Listen, naïve plaything
Coming over, clueless
Every time you call
An accident just waiting to happen
Still hasn't found out
How to take a fall
Make me a present
Make it something sweet
Small enough to go unnoticed and big enough to compete
With this massive past that keeps
Blocking up my street
Looking for a new contender to disassemble
Listen, naïve plaything
Coming over, clueless
Every time you call
An accident just waiting to happen
Still hasn't found out
How to take a fall
How to take a fall
How to take a fall
It's an endless fuse
Chain-repeater never seems to get any smarter
I'm always marking pages
So that I don't get confused
End up in a fight I never had any part of
Listen, naïve plaything
Coming over, clueless
Every time you call
An accident just waiting to happen
Still hasn't found out
How to take a fall
Make me a present
Make it something sweet
Small enough to go unnoticed and big enough to compete
With this massive past that keeps
Blocking up my street
Looking for a new contender to disassemble
Listen, naïve plaything
Coming over, clueless
Every time you call
An accident just waiting to happen
Still hasn't found out
How to take a fall
How to take a fall
How to take a fall
Lyrics submitted by dragonflower44, edited by myheadisfullofflames
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Like a lot of the other comments are saying, I think this mainly about voyeurism. If the song was about his girlfriend, then why would he use the word spy. If you are a spy it means you shouldn't be caught, that is kind of the whole point, and if you are a voyeur, the whole point of the pleasure you get from it, is the fact that the other people don't know you are watching them. See a bit of a connection there?
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The way this song speaks to me🥺🥺when I sing it I feel like I relate
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
I think it's just about somebody who has put themselves into something that's way over their head. This is one of the first songs I heard by him, I really like alot. Or, it could be like Jabba said, somebody in a relationship, not nessesarly with an older woman, but just maybe too caught up in the relationship to pay attention to anything else around them and not knowing what they would do without being with that person.