| Yellow Ostrich – Marathon Runner Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I feel like this is a song about someone compulsively motivated for success in the entertainment industry but loses sight of his goals and can't find meaning in the pursuit: "When I was a boy of seventeen, I know it’s mean, but I I told my friend to give up on her dreams, she hated me, but I I knew that dreams were for the best of us, not for the rest of us, And I I didn’t want to share with anyone" /Here he tells us of a scene where as a child he was so protective of his dreams he shot down the dreams of a friend. He viewed success as a "zero-sum" game where if she "won" he would lose and he didn't want to share. Dreams are for those of us who are good enough and even though he knew it was mean he wanted to thin out the competition/ "I need a way to sing the greatest dance, and make them laugh, I could win the wars, or lose the battles too, whichever’s true I can live in other people’s lives I can’t stop putting on other people’s clothes I love them ‘til I leave" //In this verse he explores his desire to be a successful entertainer. He wants to dance and make people laugh, there are victories and failures in his journey, but they are unimportant as long as he keeps going. He can "live in other people's lives and put on other people's clothes" either by pretending to be someone else while on stage, changing clothes/personas in his personal life, and "loving them till he leaves" his relationships with his audience and peers are superficial and shallow. He could also "live in other people's lives" as a famous person who is well known and influential and has a great impact on his fans.// I am a marathon runner And my legs are sore And I'm anxious to see What I'm running for I am a hot air balloon On a sailboat I would make this my home If I'd learned to float //In the chorus he declares that the work is really hard and the payoff is hard to determine and he's burning out. What IS he running for? A "hot air balloon on a sailboat" sounds to me like a "gasbag blowhard" full of "hot air" running his mouth and being pretentious on a big boat. He could get used to this lifestyle if he could just rise above the shallow relationships of celebrity.// So take my treasures, take my earthly life, I'll try to cry, I will live without the things I love the best So hold them to your chest I will lose my faces, lose my stolen wigs, the heads of kings I will run until I know what to believe //but now harsh reality comes crashing in, fame is fickle and all the things he holds dear are being taken away from him. But he's so numb and tired and disenfranchised by his struggles to succeed that he can't even cry. But he'll keep going until he finds meaning in it.// I am a marathon runner And my legs are sore And I'm anxious to see What I'm running for I am a hot air balloon On a sailboat I would make this my home If I'd learned to float |
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