| Primus – The Toys Go Winding Down Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Ignore that last paragraph. I was refering to a home made Youtube video of the song for a class essey. |
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| Primus – The Toys Go Winding Down Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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My personal interpretation of the song is that it's about growing up in a working class factory town and facing(or not facing) the decision to let go of youth and go to work for the "company." The members of Primus hail from a San Pablo Bay town called El Sabronte. San Pablo Bay is primarily known for two things; fishing and oil refineries. Just about every popular fishing spot in the bay is within spitting distance of an oil refinery. You can find many a reference to local fishing in Primus's music, most notably The Fisherman Chronicles, a three part song trilogy that explores commercial fishing (john the Fisherman), sport fishing (Fish On!), and fishing from the perspective of one of the bay's piscine residents (Ol' Diamondback Sturgeon). Many of the people who live in the region are working class folk who work for the refineries. Like in any factory town it can be difficult for youth to break free from the working class cycle. Youth is often spent on fishing, partying, getting stoned and watching a lot of T.V. and perusing the holey grail of rock stardom. At some point many adolescents face the fact that they need to start making money but have no marketable skills. So they bite the bullet and take up a friend or relatives offer to get them a job at the refinery. Some take longer than others. I think this song is about grown up slackers holding on to the glory days of youth for as long as possible. The protagonist at the beginning of the song is stepping out from the wing of his parents house at the age of thirty-nine. The fact that he's thirty nine and "plagued by society and insecurity" line makes me wonder if he may have been a moderately successful for a time. Once he may have felt on top of the world but now he faces having to join working class society and be judged by their standards (a rat race that must be won). The first verses of the second stanza are rather interesting. One of the animals has left its cage today in search of better things so it seems to be They seem to be a repeat of the first stanza's theme but this time he's referred to as an animal leaving his cage for better things (or so it seems to be). The mother's wing or nest can also be a cage. The animal might be content and not have to hunt for it's food but it's brain turns to mush as it never receives new stimuli. The next two lines of the stanza refer to the dangers of refinery work. But in this land of polyurethane, Things are apt to get a bit hot One of the reasons people with little skill can make good pay doing refinery work is because it can be dangerous. Every one of the refineries in the bay area has had some kind of toxic leak or big fire. The chorus "As the Toys Go Winding Down" refers to the toys of youth losing their great luster. At some point you either need to put them away or they will simply wind down and cease to give you satisfaction anymore. Which is exactly what the last two stanzas are about. Sitting around talking about the halcyon days with an old friend, reminiscing about the same things again and again. I'm sure everyone here has had a friend who never talks about anything but the good 'ol days. On a side not, C.G. the Mexican is a real life friend of the lead singer Les Claypool. You'll often times see references to real life friends in their music. We used to pull the stripers out of Sand Pablo bay Now the delta waters go down So. Cal. And the stripers start to fade away. This alludes to a realization that even the last great bastion of youth, fishing, is winding down. The rivers that feed the bay are being pumped down to southern California, and killing off the fish population in the bay. It's pudding time! It's pudding time! Such a great line (it's also used in another song of the same name) but people often wonder what the heck it means. Claypool once explained that it alludes to having to work through all the nasty vegetables so that you can get your pudding. This lyric is thrown out in a resigned guttural spit. I see it as meaning, "I've wasted my youth and young adulthood and now I'm going to have to eat the worst garbage (work in the refinery) in order to enjoy my deserts." This is the only decent free audio stream of the song I could find. It's not made by Primus but in an interesting way it plays into some of the themes of the song. Instead of a refinery life the boy goes into military service. But judging by the pictures of him holding a baby it seems he's found one of the great rewards of adulthood. Todd |
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