| The National – Slow Show Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I've always looked at this song from a very literal stance. I imagine the narrator being at a party, invited as the +1 of a friend who knows everyone there and you don't. You end up standing in every corner uncomfortably; 'Looking for somewhere to stand and stay I leaned on the wall and the wall leaned away' because everyone is already familiar with one another and you are an outsider. You get drunk; 'Standing at the punch table, swallowing punch' because you don't have anything else to pass the time. The more time you spend not talking to anyone the harder it becomes to start. Can't pay attention to the sound of anyone A little more stupid, a little more scared Every minute, more unprepared' I made a mistake in my life today Everything I love gets lost in the drawers I want to start over, I want to be winning Way out of sync from the beginning' Everything being lost in the draws for me is about how all the things the narrator is passionate about suddenly seems uninteresting and he's ashamed of talking about it because he feels so uncomfortable. The chorus is about how he has a partner at home and all he wants to do is leave the party, go home to her and relax. 'I wanna hurry home to you Put on a slow, dumb show for you and crack you up' I think of a slow, dumb show as something he doesn't have to think about, or worry about, just being natural. Cracking up the narrators partner is effortless, slow and dumb, because he doesn't need to make impressions. Then as the song progresses I feel as though he gets more and more nervous and socially inept. The 'not thinking about my dick' line I've interpreted more that he's spending a lot of time in the bathroom to hide away from not being able to socialise, rather than anything crude, but that's because it fits best with my own appreciation of this song as a whole. The final two verses; 'You know I dreamed about you For twenty-nine years before I saw you You know I dreamed about you I missed you for, for twenty-nine years' I interpreted that twenty-nine years is a long time and the length of time he's been at the party feels like forever, or at least 29 years. I understand this is where my comparison falls apart a bit because I believe this probably has a different meaning. I love this song. It's a banger. |
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