| Toad the Wet Sprocket – Walk On The Ocean Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I'm an introvert. And more than a little self-centered. So naturally, I took this song as describing the arc of an introvert who once had and lost a group of friends. "We spotted the ocean at the head of the trail where are we going so far away?" "We" meaning not so much a split/multiple personality as meaning a kind of gaining control of unsettled emotion. Because our hero is already tense about what is to come, as indicated by his asking the question before the journey begins. Think of "we" as reassuring one's self: "We're gonna get through this" And what is the ocean? It is vast, beautiful, and dangerous - like humanity. Especially to one so far from it as an introvert would be (at the head of the trail). "Somebody told me that this is the place where everything's better everything's safe" "Somebody" is not a trustworthy soul, necessarily. "Somebody" sounds like the mysterious "they" who perpetuate rumors, at least it does in this context. The unspoken addition to this stanza: "I don't know whether I believe that." And introverts are notorious safety-seekers, right? They don't socialize because they have an inherent fear of it, right? Well, "somebody" sold the ocean to our hero as "everything's safe". We all know humanity, for all of its virtues, can be very dangerous. "Walk on the ocean Step on the stones flesh becomes water wood becomes bone" The chorus is temptation beseeching our hero to give it a try. Do it! Walk on the ocean! Step on the stones (complete your journey)! Flesh becomes water (the great reward for your journey, the pleasures of the flesh, will be commonplace)! Wood (the forest you live in now) becomes bone (petrifies and dies, unlike the eternal ocean)! Sounds like a deal, right? "Half an hour later we packed up our things said we'd send letters and all of those little things" Half an hour not being literal of course, but a symbol of how fleeting the oceanic experience was. We packed up our things? Emotional baggage, anyone? Our hero brought it with him to his oceanic destination and never let it go. Promising to keep contact? When friends part for good without rancor, they never say goodbye, even when it's obvious that this is the end. At least, that was true in my experience. "They knew we were lying but they smiled just the same it seemed they'd already forgotten we came" They knew our hero was retreating into his safe little world, but didn't talk him out of it. And, our hero imagines, they were prepared to go on as though nothing really happened. CHORUS "Now back at the homestead where the air makes you choke people don't know you trust is a joke" Solitude isn't as great as it used to be, even if it's familiar. And of course no one knows our hero - the only people he bothered with in the first place aren't his friends anymore. Naturally, after a brief fling with friendship which didn't end so well, our hero is more paranoid than he was previously. "Don't even have pictures..." I have to stop right there. I personally have no mementos of my old "gang". So we're still on theme: "...Just memories to hold grow sweeter each season as we slowly grow old." Time of course has a way of weeding out the bad stuff, and of course on occasion I remember the good times. But I'm young enough where the bad stuff is very much still in my head. Significantly, on the album cut, the song ends RIGHT THERE - there is no reprise of the chorus as in the radio edit. So. Whaddaya think? |
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| Leo Kottke – Parade Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Line #1: "Problems in a little town, disrupting a parade" is the line. | |
| Paul Simon – The Late Great Johnny Ace Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I was reading a magazine And thinking of a rock and roll song The year was 1954 And I hadn't been playing that long When a man came on the radio And this is what he said He said I hate to break it to his fans But Johnny Ace is dead, yeah, yeah, yeah Are there songs dealing with flashbulb memories? This one does. Look at the amount of detail related in the lyric leading up to Johnny Ace's death: Reading a magazine, thinking about a song, the year, radio broadcast. We all have flashbulb memories, and usually there is great significance attached. As we will see, our hero isn't especially a fan of Johnny Ace - so why does he remember this so well? Well, I really wasn't Such a Johnny Ace fan But I felt bad all the same So I sent away for his photograph And I waited till it came It came all the way from Texas With a sad and simple face And they signed it on the bottom From the Late Great Johnny Ace, yeah, yeah, yeah So our hero is not really a fan, but the death hits him enough to send for a memento. I assume our hero is roughly the same age as Paul Simon himself, so in 1954 he would have been 12-13 or so. Hadn't been playing music for long? What our hero is expressing indirectly is Ace's death reminds him that he, too will be dead one day. After all, here's a young, popular musician who died young; our hero is an aspiring musician himself. It was the year of The Beatles It was the year of The Stones It was nineteen 1964 I was living in London With the girl from the summer before It was the year of The Beatles It was the year of The Stones A year after J.F.K. We were staying up all night And giving the days away And the music was flowing amazing And blowing my way It happens just like this: at a young age, we realize that the end will come one day, we grieve for ourselves for a while, then we move on and live. Our hero cannot describe with much specificity what is going on in his life - even a flashbulb event like the Kennedy assassination gets just a quick nod - because good things are happening and happening fast. 1964 is specified, but he can't get a handle on it beyond just mentioning a few noteworthy and general events. On a cold December evening I was walking through the Christmas tide When a stranger came up and asked me If I'd heard John Lennon had died And the two of us went to this bar And we stayed to close the place And every song we played Was for The Late Great Johnny Ace, yeah, yeah, yeah The stranger was obviously a musician and the bar had an open mike. Because they played for Johnny Ace, I'm guessing that Ace's death had hit the stranger the same way back in 1954, and Lennon's death had had a similar impact on our hero and the stranger. But look at how youth copes in the former case and experience copes in the latter: in an early stage of the journey, our hero brooded upon one musician's death. Present day (in the song, of course), he mourns by bonding with another person. A sort of "denial into acceptance" story here, I think. |
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| Paul Simon – Have a Good Time Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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A liberal's (Simon) view of the conservative's mindset. As a conservative, I don't agree with most of it, but Simon is more fair than most liberals with this characterization. He can hate my politics/worldview all he wants - I'm still a huge fan of his. |
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| Paul Simon – Still Crazy After All These Years Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This song is about regret and the sort of impotent rage we sometimes feel as we get a little older. This song was released in 1975, so Simon would probably have been 31-33 when he wrote it. I'm almost 33, and while 33 is by no means old, it's definitely "older". At this age, you're less inclined to take risks or take on something new, and it bothers you. "i met my old lover on the street last night she seemed so glad to see me, i just smiled and we talked about some old times and we drank ourselves some beers still crazy after all these years" Here's our hero with having a brush with the past. This is the sort of thing that can send us down memory lane, wondering what we could have done different. In the case of the lyric, an ex-lover would have a definite impact. Consider the lyric "She seemed so glad to see me - I just smiled." Obviously, he was less happy with it than she was. He knew what opening up the past would mean - and in the very next verse, he starts thinking back. "i'm not the kind of man who tends to socialise i seem to lean on old familiar ways and i ain't no fool for lovesongs that whisper in my ears still crazy after all these years" Antisocial, predictable, and cynical. Obviously, he's bitter about his lot in life - symptomatic of this regretful state. Is he feeling old? You bet. "Still Crazy After ALL THESE YEARS", as though he's been around forever. "four in the morning, i'm tapped out and yawning, longing my life away i never worry, why should i, oh yeah, it's all gonna fade" Insomnia - the affliction of choice for the depressed. And there he says it, "longing my life away" - paralyzed in the present because he's thinking about the past. Sure, he claims nihilism in the end, but clearly this is a sour grapes, not sincerity. "now i sit by my window and i watch the cars i fear i'll do some damage one fine day but i would not be convicted by a jury of my peers still crazy after all these years" And here is the impotent rage I referred to earlier. Just watching the world, existing apart from it - mad that the bloom of youth is gone, the threat of violence clearly hollow. He's too beaten down to follow through with it. And he's right - people just like him would understand what he's going through. While I wouldn't threaten a violent act, even in solitude, I understand that sentiment. I love Paul Simon. |
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| Paul Simon – I Do It for Your Love Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This is a wonderful song. It should be meaningful to anyone who went through a bad break up. "We were married on a rainy day The sky was yellow and the grass was grey We signed the papers and we drove away I do it for your love" The signs were there that the relationship was not going to work out. Many of us have been in that situation where you can see the trouble ahead, but go forth anyway. Why? Belief in the power of love. We operate under the assumption that love conquers all, despite the bad weather and the red tape. "The rooms were musty and the pipes were old All that winter we shared a cold Drank all the orange juice that we could hold I do it for your love" More admirable persistence in the face of adversity. Why? For love, of course. "Found a rug in an old junk shop Brought it home to you Along the way the colors ran The orange bled the blue" This rug, ostensibly an antique, turned out to be junk. "Along the way, the colors ran..." suggests that he thought it, at the junk shop, would be well-recieved. The rug was an antique at the store, junk at home - showing how making an effort can go unappreciated when love is over. "The sting of reason, the splash of tears The northern and the southern hemisphere Love emerges and it disappears I do it for your love" "The sting of reason, the splash of tears" - that horrible feeling of finality when it's over. "The northern and the southern hemispheres" - the realization that he and she were just too different to work. "Love emerges and it disappears I do it for your love" This is how it goes. Over and over again, we try until we get it right. All for the sake of love. I love Paul Simon. |
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