| Paul Kelly – Dumb Things Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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this song tells the story about the way in which a man lives his life care-free without thinking of the consequences. By the end it shows the way he regrets his actions and wished he lived his life differently and considered the consequences before his actions. The song is written in the perspective of the man who seems to have little friends, if any. The lyrics of the song tell us that he doesn’t take any advice or doesn’t listen to people trying to help him. The lines of the song that were memorable for me were: “I lost my shirt, I pawned my rings. Iv done all the dumb things”. It really sums up the way in which he didn’t care for his life. That the man lived recklessly with no regard for the future. It gives the listener the image of the man standing there topless wishing he hadn’t made the decisions he had. The lyrics that also tells the story is “Saw the knives out, turned my back. Heard the train coming, stayed out on the track”. It shows us the way the man never took life seriously at the time and which he later regrets. The lyrics “I melted wax to fix my wings” relate to the Greek mythological character Icarus, who is commonly known for his attempt to escape Crete by flight. Icarus’ father made him and his son a pair of wings out of wax which were covered in feathers to fly out of the island they were imprisoned on. Before leaving the island, Icarus’ father warned him not to fly too close to the sun or too close to the ocean. Overcome by the overexcitement that flying lent him, Icarus soared through the sky curiously, but in the process he came too close to the sun, which melted the wax. Icarus kept flapping his wings but soon realized that he had no feathers left and that he was only flapping his bare arms. And so, Icarus fell into the ocean where he drowned. Paul Kelly does this to compare his character to Icarus, showing the way they both live with reckless abandon. This shows how being reckless and care free can even end up in serious injury or even death in some cases. The theme of the song is that one day you will look back on all the things you have done during your lifetime and wished that you had done them differently. The key message of the song would be to think about the consequence of the actions you make before you make them. That you shouldn’t live your life as it comes because in the end you will end up regretting it and wished that you never lived that way. |
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