I'm sitting by the window of your 32nd floor apartment
Waiting for your phone calls all to end
I'm sitting, watching wind blow
Watching time go, watching cars go by
I'ma waiting for these memories to begin
If I threw my guitar
Out the window so far down
Would I start to regret it?
Or would I smile
And watch it slowly fall, fall, fall?
Garbage trucks and taxi cabs
Don't seem like they can reach me here
The clamor of jackhammers seems so faint
Well, the way you treat me
Like the only slightly brings me down a lot
I don't think that I'll ever be the same, yeah
If I threw my guitar
Out the window so far down
Would I start to regret it?
Or would I smile
And watch it slowly fall, fall, fall,
Fall, fall, fall
Fall, fall, fall?
Fall, fall, fall
Waiting for your phone calls all to end
I'm sitting, watching wind blow
Watching time go, watching cars go by
I'ma waiting for these memories to begin
If I threw my guitar
Out the window so far down
Would I start to regret it?
Or would I smile
And watch it slowly fall, fall, fall?
Garbage trucks and taxi cabs
Don't seem like they can reach me here
The clamor of jackhammers seems so faint
Well, the way you treat me
Like the only slightly brings me down a lot
I don't think that I'll ever be the same, yeah
If I threw my guitar
Out the window so far down
Would I start to regret it?
Or would I smile
And watch it slowly fall, fall, fall,
Fall, fall, fall
Fall, fall, fall?
Fall, fall, fall
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In the first verse, he's waiting. He's growing impatient with the nonsense and bureaucracy and the entire process. He's so annoyed that he wants to quit and do something else with his life - a rash decision like throwing his guitar out the window.
In the chorus, he contemplates whether he would actually enjoy watching the career he has worked toward crumble.
This is all pretty simple and I think everyone can probably agree up to this point. However, the second verse is where he tries to calm himself down, reassess his anger, and take a step back from the situation.
In the second verse, he mentions garbage trucks and taxi cabs being unable to reach him. If he weren't in this office right now, he would have a different career altogether - one which would place him way down there (literally and figuratively) with the banal and riff-raff. He's inconvenienced by the situation he's dealing with, but he's also starting to realize that he has things pretty good "up" on the 32nd floor.
And that brings us to "the way you treat me lightly only slightly brings me down a lot". It's a beautiful line full of contradiction and emotion. He wants the person to pay attention to him; he wants to throw a temper-tantrum about it. But he's realizing that this life he's living, even though the current situation is enraging, is what he wants, and there are certain compromises he must make.
"I don't think that I'll ever be the same." It's a humble realization that there are people and processes bigger than you, that you can't have a big head and demand attention all the time, and that you are small no matter how big you think you are.
I agree that the guitar is a self-referential metaphor, but it is common to anyone who would be performing a song written for guitar -- not to people with high-rise recording contracts in particular.
Antidecontstructionalist arguments aside, I think any work of art deserves to be interpreted beyond the confines of the artist's personal contexts.
As I say though, I like your interpretation a lot, and I think your narrative really fits the poem well.
I like the line "slighty brings me down a lot" lol.
Slightly brings me down a lot"
I can't figure out if it's "like the only" or "lightly only"; are these lyrics 100% confirmed? I can see both ways making sense ("the way you treat me lightly" could mean not being taken seriously, and "the way you treat me like the only" could mean being treated well).
Either way, I just love those words, and I don't know why. "Only slightly brings me down a lot" sounds like he's trying to downplay the problem. Which makes me think of when someone asks you if you're okay and, though you're not, you say you're fine, and it sort of comes out like, "Yeah I'm fine, except, well, not at all really"
I always heard it as "like the only." I think it's more open-ended that way, and that it fits better in the structure of the rest of the lyrics. However I agree, either way, that the line is profound.
For instance, he is immune to the clamoring of the jackhammers and taxi cabs, but he still doesn't know how strong he is or would be if, for instance, he were to lose his guitar.
I'm talking about all kinds of tolerance to discomfort, including physical pain though.
I think that television's Hugh Laurie of "House" has experimented with the same type of tempering that the lyrics portray. To quote him, "...I remember at school, I used to sit in class and just to while away an idle hour, I would induce cramp in my, I still to this day do it, I would induce cramp in my feet and legs just to see how long I could stand it..."
Ultimately, if Mr. McCrea did end up throwing his guitar out the window, I think he would not regret it...in the name of science... and tempering thyself.
"i'm sitting by the window of your thirty-second floor apartment "
is one of the coolest lines I've heard. =D