A haunting, brilliant song. Even though lyrically opaque, the sense of menace slices through the heart from the opening synth line. Morten's vocal soars in the first chorus like the flight of an angel, which slams to earth with his delivery of "For want of an option..."

A haunting, brilliant song. Even though lyrically opaque, the sense of menace slices through the heart from the opening synth line. Morten's vocal soars in the first chorus like the flight of an angel, which slams to earth with his delivery of "For want of an option..."

SCOUNDREL DAYS, as an album, always felt to me like half of a concept album with some more fan friendly fare tacked onto side two. Tracks 1-5, 10 seem to have a through line, with a narrator who has been driven by some sort of anguish or mental illness to...

SCOUNDREL DAYS, as an album, always felt to me like half of a concept album with some more fan friendly fare tacked onto side two. Tracks 1-5, 10 seem to have a through line, with a narrator who has been driven by some sort of anguish or mental illness to commit a crime of passion. Give the sequence a listen.

Fantastic song, of course. But just to brag about how modern I was, I must point out that I, directly when the song was released, used to switch the genders of the song just to give it an interesting edge when I sang it (alone, at home, with my guitar). Later, I've heard a few female singers do the same ("He's a good boy..." etc). My only minor critique of the song might, namely, be that I feel the bad-boy/good-girl setting might feel a tad traditional, and I think it spices it up to simply reverse the roles. (I'm a long-time,...

Fantastic song, of course. But just to brag about how modern I was, I must point out that I, directly when the song was released, used to switch the genders of the song just to give it an interesting edge when I sang it (alone, at home, with my guitar). Later, I've heard a few female singers do the same ("He's a good boy..." etc). My only minor critique of the song might, namely, be that I feel the bad-boy/good-girl setting might feel a tad traditional, and I think it spices it up to simply reverse the roles. (I'm a long-time, male Petty fan btw. Became a fan when "Don't Come Around..." was released, when I was 11 years old.

I agree with many of the other posters that the nautical disaster is a metaphor for a breakup, but I'll focus on part of the lyrics that I haven't seen anyone else comment on yet - the part about the lifeboat being designed for 10 and 10 only - and anything that systematic will get you hated (when at least 500 more were thrashing about). In the dating world, there are 100's of suitors for your love, but the reality is only one can have it at a time - which means everyone else will be left behind in...

I agree with many of the other posters that the nautical disaster is a metaphor for a breakup, but I'll focus on part of the lyrics that I haven't seen anyone else comment on yet - the part about the lifeboat being designed for 10 and 10 only - and anything that systematic will get you hated (when at least 500 more were thrashing about). In the dating world, there are 100's of suitors for your love, but the reality is only one can have it at a time - which means everyone else will be left behind in the end. I think someone in this song had a very painful breakup when their "love" chose someone else and left them behind... and while it's in the past now (a distant memory - "as faint as a sound in my memory"), that distant memory is still painful as hell ("as those fingernails scratching on my hull"... what could be more haunting than remembering sailing to safety while others clutched at your lifeboat with their fingernails scratching the hull as they drowned)