Not a full reading here, but "if I spit it out/before I chew the ring" looks like an allusion to the old trope of shoving a wedding ring into a cake as a surprise--sort of fits with the "ex-magician/That still knows the tricks".
And fuck, now I want to read that line as a double meaning, which means I'm looking way too far into it. "Tricks" as sluts or skanks or something along those lines changes the way that whole stanza functions; basically, that he's a magician of exs, like he can just pull them out of a hat, and that these hos are everything to him. Then, bam, "until it's free"? Like, until he finds someone he doesn't just take out drinking before he drags them back to his place? It's probably far from intentional, but it's definitely in there, and it doesn't argue with the rest of the song at all.
I'd totally write that off, but it fits with the fear of commitment undertone I tend to read into Pavement songs; compare against Rattled by the Rush for instance, and it really paints this idea of SM as being terrified to actually fall into a serious relationship with someone. I don't think he leaves, though. It seems more likely that his weirdnesses (that slow, sick sucking part of him, maybe) eventually piled too high for the other person: "Then you will look at me and say/'I just wish you went away/Today'." That's definitely a rejection, which makes me think he was trying and just wound up fucking himself in the end.
So, verse one's addressing how he's lived his life. The first chorus is about how all that shit's pushed him to a point where he's ready to go--heavy coat akin to Virginia Woolfe, as Charlatan pointed out--but that he's not sure he really wants out or, at the very least, he makes a concession to the notion that he's not ready to.
Then the magician verse--no matter how you look at it, it's another conversation about the past and, either way, it's about something far, far, far less serious than the potential suicide implied in the chorus. Illusions or easy lays, he's laying out just how lame of a background he has. The next chorus seems to almost drop the notion of suicide entirely, though: "trigger cut/and I can't pull it back." It's in his head, but he can't do it. I take the "sha la la" section as akin to Baudelaire's mad dancing in "Seven Old Men," maybe William Carlos Williams in "Danse Russe." He's dealt with a sickened madness and now he's just laughing about it, maybe at it.
Next up, there's an interesting contrast between "I learned the truth," and "Truth I made for you." It seems like it could only be one or the other, that there's a contradiction in terms; the argument could be made that he made the truth prior and finally understood it, but I'm not really sure how to approach that verse at all. "It's just as good" makes me think that he's realizing that he misspoke by saying he learned the truth; maybe that the opening lines talk about two separate kinds of truth. He realized that he made himself feel the way he felt, and that's just as good as if it'd come naturally? That there's something of a lie built into the backbone of the whole thing, but sometimes a lie's just as good as truth?
Definitely the most complicated verse in the damned song.
Then the "if I spit it out" stanza, which I already kinda pored through, so I'm not gonna worry about it again. Seems to make sense overall, though. "Here's where I've been. I think I want out of life. Here's where I've been. I'm not so sure I want out. Here's why I feel the way I do. If I fuck this up before we stick together then, well, I'll fuck around to get the pieces back together--even if you want my ass gone."
And that's way too much written about Trigger Cut. I do love that the vocals kick in at seventeen seconds, though.
...should've been studying for my midterm instead of writing this.
Not a full reading here, but "if I spit it out/before I chew the ring" looks like an allusion to the old trope of shoving a wedding ring into a cake as a surprise--sort of fits with the "ex-magician/That still knows the tricks".
And fuck, now I want to read that line as a double meaning, which means I'm looking way too far into it. "Tricks" as sluts or skanks or something along those lines changes the way that whole stanza functions; basically, that he's a magician of exs, like he can just pull them out of a hat, and that these hos are everything to him. Then, bam, "until it's free"? Like, until he finds someone he doesn't just take out drinking before he drags them back to his place? It's probably far from intentional, but it's definitely in there, and it doesn't argue with the rest of the song at all.
I'd totally write that off, but it fits with the fear of commitment undertone I tend to read into Pavement songs; compare against Rattled by the Rush for instance, and it really paints this idea of SM as being terrified to actually fall into a serious relationship with someone. I don't think he leaves, though. It seems more likely that his weirdnesses (that slow, sick sucking part of him, maybe) eventually piled too high for the other person: "Then you will look at me and say/'I just wish you went away/Today'." That's definitely a rejection, which makes me think he was trying and just wound up fucking himself in the end.
So, verse one's addressing how he's lived his life. The first chorus is about how all that shit's pushed him to a point where he's ready to go--heavy coat akin to Virginia Woolfe, as Charlatan pointed out--but that he's not sure he really wants out or, at the very least, he makes a concession to the notion that he's not ready to.
Then the magician verse--no matter how you look at it, it's another conversation about the past and, either way, it's about something far, far, far less serious than the potential suicide implied in the chorus. Illusions or easy lays, he's laying out just how lame of a background he has. The next chorus seems to almost drop the notion of suicide entirely, though: "trigger cut/and I can't pull it back." It's in his head, but he can't do it. I take the "sha la la" section as akin to Baudelaire's mad dancing in "Seven Old Men," maybe William Carlos Williams in "Danse Russe." He's dealt with a sickened madness and now he's just laughing about it, maybe at it.
Next up, there's an interesting contrast between "I learned the truth," and "Truth I made for you." It seems like it could only be one or the other, that there's a contradiction in terms; the argument could be made that he made the truth prior and finally understood it, but I'm not really sure how to approach that verse at all. "It's just as good" makes me think that he's realizing that he misspoke by saying he learned the truth; maybe that the opening lines talk about two separate kinds of truth. He realized that he made himself feel the way he felt, and that's just as good as if it'd come naturally? That there's something of a lie built into the backbone of the whole thing, but sometimes a lie's just as good as truth?
Definitely the most complicated verse in the damned song.
Then the "if I spit it out" stanza, which I already kinda pored through, so I'm not gonna worry about it again. Seems to make sense overall, though. "Here's where I've been. I think I want out of life. Here's where I've been. I'm not so sure I want out. Here's why I feel the way I do. If I fuck this up before we stick together then, well, I'll fuck around to get the pieces back together--even if you want my ass gone."
And that's way too much written about Trigger Cut. I do love that the vocals kick in at seventeen seconds, though.
...should've been studying for my midterm instead of writing this.
Very insightful. Thanks for taking the time out to write this.
Very insightful. Thanks for taking the time out to write this.