| Jack Johnson – Symbol In My Driveway Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I went to the Kokua festival this year and Jack talked a bit about this song before he played it. It is a song he wrote about being HS age and that point of view. Some north shore folks are proud of their "symbols" in the driveway...aka nice cars. Whoever said consumerism nailed it on the head. All in all though it is about being mischievious in your youthfull years. Bush bashing...lol |
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| Jack Johnson – All At Once Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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i think the song is about life in general and dealing with things out of your control when the going gets tough. How you handle yourself in that situation. Jack lost his cousin Danny Riley while making this album. Danny actually provided some assitance to this album. He also has also lost friends in the past. He seems to have taken Danny's loss hard in this song. "All at once, the world CAN overwhelm me. There's almost nothing you could tell me, that could ease my mind." The overwhelming feeling of loss....and then the feeling of dispair and helplessness.... "Which way will you run? When it's always all around you, and the feeling has lost and found you AGAIN. A feeling that we have no control." To thoughts of this big ole world and our place in it mentioning biblical ideas...does life on earth feel like hell already? We all know it does at times. "Around the sun, some say it's going to be the new hell, some say its too early to tell, some say it ain't no myth at all." Are we strong enough to handle everything that comes at us in rough times..... "We keep asking ourselves are we really strong enough?" Focusing on things that aren't really important....like pride. "There's so many things that we're too proud of." Add that first part of the song up and he is essentially dealing with the big picture. Life is short and not always in our control. Focus on the things that matter most. Including loved ones. In the second part of the song he talks about changing gears or "take the preconcieved out from underneath your feet". I take that as "you" the listener as his wife Kim. Instead of basking in the darkness of dispair, look at the positives. I take the planting seeds to be symbolic of raising a family and being on the flip side of death-bringing life. He has two kids. With each heart beat they'll watch them grow. Who knows where they'll end up. The real clue is that he keeps mentioning that "sometimes it feels like a heart is no place to be singing from at all".....especially when you have a broken or sore heart due to loss. The third section of the song to me is of hope and the need for love in dark times. I find the lyric "But I'll reach to you from where time just can't go" to mean that love is timeless and there are no clocks in heaven. Really remarkable song. This is just my take on Jack's meaning behind this song. Jack is often very candid with emotions in songs. That is why he is so good. |
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