| Loudon Wainwright III – Swimming Song Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I think it's about being an alcoholic, pretty much definitely. First off, he was well known for struggling with alcoholism. And secondly, the metaphor of swimming is so often used to represent alcoholism in songwriting that it's pretty obvious. Here are some points to back it up: 'Salt my wounds, chlorine my eyes, I'm a self-destructive fool'...this shows that he knows it's bad for him, but he still does it anyway 'This summer I swam in a public place And a reservoir, to boot, At the latter I was informal, At the former I wore my suit, I wore my swimming suit.'...this says to me that when he's in public he's being polite and formal by 'wearing his swimming suit', aka keeping his drinking under control, but when he's on his own at the reservoir he's 'informal', which I'm assuming means skinny-dipping, aka being reckless and wild with his drinking. This is again emphasised in the final verse: 'This summer I did swan dives And jackknifes for you all And once when you weren't looking I did a cannonball, I did a cannonball.'..showing that when in public, he does more elegant and sophisticated moves like swan dives and jackknifes, representing him faking keeping his drinking under control, but then 'when you weren't looking' he does a cannonball, suggesting he loses control of his drinking when nobody is around. |
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