Symbol In My Driveway

I think it could be interpreted in many ways. For me personally, I connected with this song as a feeling/meaning to become something better in life. I think Jack's way of life is sometimes "not planned" and he let's things come (he's referenced that multiple times in how songs come about and how he doesn't force it). Hence the "got my plans in a zip lock bag lets see how unproductive we can be"... And then he goes to say he's going to build "somebody else. . . might cost a little more than money but what's man without his wealth?" . . build something that cost more than money, something much different than society "man" deems important. His human value. His potential. Then he goes to say he has a secret, perhaps Jack has found a deep meaning in life and "next thing you know the whole world will be talking" about him but most of the world will get no use from his music or lyrics cause they are caught in the life of money and things that are material. Then he goes on to write one of the best album ever "In Between Dreams" which perhaps is when the world talked a lot about him. Ha i just rambled my feeling and interpretation of it. It motivates me to become a better me, but i totally see how political/social the lyrics can go too.

jack is talking about mr. george dubya bush..."symbol in my drive way"... "phosphorescent secret"..jack's awesome.

ok well im going to go out on a limb here and say that jack makes a refrence to pot... no he tours with Ben Harper all the time and every one knows that ben has been known to "burn one down" but jack never makes a reference...that is until he wrote symbol in my driveway. 'got my plans in a ziplock bag' a baggie filled with pot which he plans to smoke and 'lets see how unproductive we can be' refering to the laziness construde by the effects of marijiuana

i think herbie is right on this one

This song is on an early acoustic album that is not released but can be downloaded in certain places, I don't think this is about George W because I think this early recording was put out around the time GW was entering office the first time and was written befor that....as to the pot ref. I deffinately agree, although in the early acoustic version he says "let's see how productive we can be" not "unproductive", sarcasim maybe?

well it's quite clear what this songs intention was. our boy jack wanted to clarify his pot smoking career.

"lets see how destructfull we can be"

this quickie song is so genius. the take on politics is awesome... of course, before reading this this song was strictly about my lack of productivity as a result of the plans in my ziplock bag. Yup.

I agree with a bit of everyone's opinions. I definitely think that this song is socially and very politically conscious. He seems to refer to the mentality of 'our guy' Bush. Jack makes references to "weapons of mass destruction" , nuclear war (phosphorescent secret), genetic cloning (a perfect set of blueprints), and of course his dear old dad, Osama and family, and his bro with the governor status (million dollar friends).

He may be referring to his pot smoking days when he mentions the ziplock bag. But, I also think that he's calling Bush a dumbass. I mean, if you put in terms of lack of productivity, it makes perfect sense.

I honestly don't understand how you could get that little out of this song. For one, NOT EVERYTHING CAN BE BLAMED ON GEORGE BUSH. The song was written before he was even president, and even if it was, what does a "phosphorescent secret" have to do with him? Do any of you even know what phosphorescent means? It's something that burns without any fire, that lets off this glow. He's personifying the secret he's talking about to make it something important and meaningful and misunderstood. NOT A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION.

Apparently I was wrong to assume that people understood this song was meant to be sarcastic. It's a satire on the world, about how we're going nowhere and people are too caught up it all to realize what they're doing. "jack is talking about mr. george dubya bush..."symbol in my drive way"..." okay no. The song is supposed to serve the same purpose that a symbol in a driveway would, to get a blatant message out in the open for people to notice. I'm sorry you're too preoccupied with attempting to find references to pot and george w. bush to recognize that.

I honestly don't understand why you are throwing a fucking hissy fit. Surely before you posted you read the question that asked, "What does this song mean to you?"