Question Everything

This song is always in my head. The singer has a very nice voice.... it kind of reminds me of that cats in the cradle song, from back in the day.

i think this song is just so honest and powerful. people can relate to it on so many different levels, thats why i like it.

good song

I believe this is about a the guys who is losing his dad. And wasa jerk to him when he was a kid but now that he is older he has realized how bad he treated him but it is too late to rebuild because the father is on his death bed.

very touching and emotional song

good song...makes me happy when im happy...and sad when im sad. perfect.

The song is about a man and his dying father, as Emericanskater put it. However, I think it was both the father AND the son who had acted harshly toward each other. The father treated the son badly, and the son reacted, creating bad blood between them.

The song picks up with the father on his death bed asking forgiveness of the son. The song paints a vivid picture of the father on the death bed in tears witht he son at his side apprehensive and confused about what to do. He needs time to think about it, and he has to take in many factors. This is the first time he's seen his father cry ad he is finally listening to what the father has to say, but his old feelings from his bad memories make it hard for him to decide whether to forgive him or not. He's bitter and surprised at what the father is asking.

Later, though, when the son starts to ask a question, the father cuts him off with what seems to be a plea for forgiveness that he sems to have been practicing for decades. The son finally listens, and he realizes that his father finally realizes what it was like "to be his size," or what how the father really affected his son.

Though a resolution is not declared in the song, the repetition of "Just what he means to me" seems to imply that he forgave his father before he passed, and he now seems to actually miss him.

It's a bittersweet ending to quit a sad story. This song is full of emotion and fueled by great vocals. The lyrics are masterfully crafted and the story is told to perfection. 8stops7 shoukd have found much more success with this song. It is an awesome song and I'd reccomend it to anyone.

yeah this song is so powerful, the music, lyrics, his voice, everything. I wish I had known about this band sooner.

I really think these guys were overlooked by the media and under-appreciated when this album was released. My band played with them once in San Fran two years ago. I commented to the singer how great a song this is and how much I identified with it. He was very gracious, shook my hand and told me "thank you" in a very heartfelt way.

I wrote an essay on they lyrical interpretaion of this song so i will just post part of the essay:

This song is about a dysfunctional relationship between a son and father. It is written from the son’s point of view, when his father comes home to die and is on his deathbed. The father is asking his son for forgiveness for the years of bad feelings between the two, the son does not know what to make of the situation.
“This old man comes rolling home to die Old feelings make it hard to decide just what it means to me.”

It is not easy for the father to talk about his feeling like this, and the emotions from the father surprises the son, because he does not usually see an emotional or sincere side from his father, as seen in the following lines: “If I seem surprised to see you lying here in front of me Just consider what you're asking and give me a little time I'm still having trouble breathing 'cause up to now I've never seen you cry” The father has wanted to articulate his feeling for years, but has never been able to, especially because of the distant relationship between the two, and the alcoholism by the father, but the son is ready to hear what his father has to say now. The wall he puts up through drinking has always fogged the truth. “He's been practicing for decades But I am listening this time He flows in and out of riddles Stories change without the wine But at least he seems much clearer on how it feels to be my size” A lot of time has passed since the two have had feuds, but it is not completely clear if the son forgives his father before he dies. The repetition of “Just what he means to me” at the end, makes it seem as though the son forgave him, and his father is more important to him that he first realized.