This Side

my favorite song. it's not literally about being foreign, but Nickel Creek is a band up for interpretation.

It's about transition, he's terrified in the beginning, and content at the end.

It would seem to me this song is about unrequited love, which for some is their first experience in love. One day you'll find a girl that you like, she's not interested in you so she doesn't try to "buy you with her time". "Nothings the same as you will see when she's gone" I think this refers to her being absent, and your world is changed by your new feelings.

you begin to see love in a new way, but this is exciting and not really all that scary. This would seem to be a bit of a segway into the next verse. When she's gone you begin to make up things that never happened, like you imagine fictionalized meetings with her, or build up fantasies that never happened. These made up events begin to convince you that there really is "love", but in reality you're only finding this "love" because you are looking for it

Then you find that the love you thought you had was nothing but a fantasy, but the real world is better than one made up, even if it doesn't feel good.

Most often this first love experience leaves you bitter, with at least some of it directed toward romance. The first entrance to the world of love is more often than not, a painful one. Once you’ve learned all this there really are no directions on how to deal with love. You’ve just went about it the wrong way, building the relationship up in the mind, and then trying to act it out, when it should really be the opposite.

Though I think this is a metaphor for love, it can also be applied as a general coming of age song, because the imagery can be taken a step further to also be relevant to general life, as lessons in love can be used in general life and vice versa.

To me, it's a song about experiencing new things in life and how some of these experiences can be terrifying at first. Like your first love (or the loss thereof), as chronicled in the first four lines.

"You dream of colors that have never been made/You imagine songs that have never been played" defines the ambition to want to create something new and wonderful.

"Your first love blinded you left you cursing the day" basically means the first time you tried this new thing, it didn't go so well and you got a little discouraged. Then the next line goes on to say that it's okay to try and fail, it happens to everyone.

"Climb up the slide and then you'll slide down the stairs" is probably my favorite lyric in this song because it shows how attempting a new feat could get confusing and you feel like you're doing it all wrong, like a little kid climbing up a slide and then sliding on down the stairs.

But by the end of the song, you discover, "Hey, this isn't all that bad and it's not so scary anymore. In fact, I'm feeling more comfortable with this thing I'm doing."

I was just in philosophy class the other day and it make me think of this song. If anyone ever reads Plato's Cave from his Republic, you will know what I mean. It says that once the person leaves the cave (which is their oblivion and ignorance), this will happen to them: "And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take and take in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him?" This reminds me exactly of: "your first dawn blinded you, left you cursing the day entrance is crucial and it's not without pain there's no path to follow, once you're here you'll climb up the slide and then you'll slide down the stairs" I guess you'd have to read the whole Cave allegory to know what I'm talking about it. But I definitely see a correlation!

This is a fantastic song and I was sad when Nickel Creek split up.

I'm guessing this song is about a first love. The first trauma of falling in love changed the lyricist forever, awakening him. As painful as it was, the experience expanded his mind/emotions and made him an inspired artist. Now that he's had a taste of it, he would never go back. He sees new possibilities on every horizon.

I'm fairly certain that this is what the song means:

When the song opens with "Someday you'll see her and you know what I mean", it is addressing the listener, describing what the girl you fall in love with will seem like.

-She won't be dependent on your approval -She won't try to make you be with her by hogging you -You are going to feel like something's missing after she leaves

"This side" refers to how drastically alien being in love feels from not-being in love.

This so is a great song...but if anyone reads this and has the lyrics, it would be good to change this one because it is not accurate. Just a fyi.

I love this song. Some of the words are hard to understand, but I love the beat and the strings.

Not many changes....you're pretty darn close.

2nd Verse ".........buy you and your mind"

3rd Verse "Your first dawn........"

good job w/ the lyrics, kids!! Nickel creek is a way amazing band- ive seen them twice, not knowing much about them either time. but they kick major ass!! they're so talented, and different. yay them!!