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Oceanside Lyrics
Sweet Annabelle
As seen reclining on an ocean swell
As the waves do lather up to lay her down
'Til she's fast and sleeping
Oh, well
I guess I'm something of a ne'er-do-well
Who fell asleep at the pealing of the steeple bell
I'm on track and keeping
But oh, if I could only get you oceanside
To lay your muscles wide
It'd be heavenly
And oh, if I could only coax you overboard
To leave these lolling shores
To get you oceanside
Oceanside, oceanside, oh
At rising tide
You're looking fresher than a July bride
We're picking up what our mothers always stigmatized
The field is right for reaping
Oh, well
I guess I'm something of a ne'er-do-well
Even though that's something I could never do well
I'm on track and keeping
But oh, if I could only get you oceanside
To lay your muscles wide
It'd be heavenly
Oh, if I could only coax you overboard
To leave these lulling shores
To get you oceanside
Oceanside, oceanside, oh
As seen reclining on an ocean swell
As the waves do lather up to lay her down
'Til she's fast and sleeping
Oh, well
I guess I'm something of a ne'er-do-well
Who fell asleep at the pealing of the steeple bell
I'm on track and keeping
To lay your muscles wide
It'd be heavenly
And oh, if I could only coax you overboard
To leave these lolling shores
To get you oceanside
Oceanside, oceanside, oh
You're looking fresher than a July bride
We're picking up what our mothers always stigmatized
The field is right for reaping
Oh, well
I guess I'm something of a ne'er-do-well
Even though that's something I could never do well
I'm on track and keeping
To lay your muscles wide
It'd be heavenly
Oh, if I could only coax you overboard
To leave these lulling shores
To get you oceanside
Oceanside, oceanside, oh
Song Info
Submitted by
_aeronautical On Nov 25, 2004
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I think this might be a reference to Poe's "Annabel Lee":
"It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee"
At first I thought it was a Nabokov reference, because in "Lolita" the narrator talks about loving a girl named Annabel by the sea... then I learned that Nabokov was making a Poe reference... heh, I love references.
Fantastic outlook! Can't say that was the first thought to come to mind for me, but I can definitely see where it could be a strong possibility! :)
Fantastic outlook! Can't say that was the first thought to come to mind for me, but I can definitely see where it could be a strong possibility! :)
He wants to do her on the beach! Okay I guess that's all I can say about it. These guys are such staggeringly good storytellers, the song really speaks for itself.
Anybody else hear "lolling shores" instead?
ultimately, i think this song is about a guy who is pleading with a girl he loves to take a chance with him despite the fact that he might be not the best guy in the world and makes mistakes.
Is the Annabelle in this song the same as in California One do you think?
Might be the same Annabelle... Definitely a Nabakov/Poe reference, since Colin adores his work.
I don't know...it wouldn't be like Colin to spell the name incorrectly. Also, the song isn't really about a girl who lives by the sea, it's more of comparing the ocean more to her chastity or indifference to sex than using it as personification. She waves "lather up and lay her down 'til she's fast and sleeping": they protect and comfort her, but all the narrator wants is to "only get you oceanside", in which case she would no longer be IN the comforting ocean, but out of it. This is obviously the fact that he wants to have sex with her, "lay your muscles wide, it'd be heavenly". To "coax her overboard" is the same idea. I get the image of a beautiful girl relaxing calmly on tall, softly rolling waves, just floating happily and a man standing on the sand and staring up at her on the waves longingly. I like this song. However, I don't understand the line at the end of the song "the field is right for reaping" because it changes the imagery and symbolism from oceans and water and beaches to fields. Peculiar, yeah?
I agree with about 90% of your interpretation, Words&tricks. But Oceanside would actually refer to IN the ocean, not out of it. The ocean--as opposed to the land--makes for a much better sexual metaphor (undertows, tides, movement, etc. Earth just stays put.). The whole "lather up and lay her down" line: think of someone sleeping on the beach as the waves gently lap at her legs. What should be stimulating (the ocean/sex) she's ignoring (sleeping through it). As for "the field is right for reaping," that actually works fine, on two levels. ...
I agree with about 90% of your interpretation, Words&tricks. But Oceanside would actually refer to IN the ocean, not out of it. The ocean--as opposed to the land--makes for a much better sexual metaphor (undertows, tides, movement, etc. Earth just stays put.). The whole "lather up and lay her down" line: think of someone sleeping on the beach as the waves gently lap at her legs. What should be stimulating (the ocean/sex) she's ignoring (sleeping through it). As for "the field is right for reaping," that actually works fine, on two levels. 1)Fields are where things grow, so the whole reaping and fields thing is a fertility (sex) reference. Secondly, there's a pretty steady and well-acknowledged literary history of comparing the ocean to endless windy wheatfields, and vice versa (see "Moby Dick"). This is because, in the earlier parts of US history, when someone from the coast came to the Midwest and saw these endless fields of wheat swaying in the breeze, it reminded them of the ocean, and when inlanders came to the sea, the only reference point they had to compare it to was wheatfields.
i always though of th esong as a aphrodite reference - seeing as how she was birthed from the sea
My interpretation is a bit crass but, delicacy aside, it seems to me that the speaker sees this girl, Annabelle, asleep on the beach and contemplates raping her, hence the "ne'er-do-well" line. His lack or moral judgment is further illustrated by the confession that he never paid attention in church ("..fell asleep at the pealing of the steeple bell"). It looks like he decides to not do it, though:
The field is right for reaping Oh, well I guess I'm something of a ne'er-do-well Even though that's something I could never do well
In the end, he still wants to, but I guess he just couldn't go through with it. Funny song, I think. Call it what you will.. satire, denouncement.. I just find it amusing.
But I must admit, if the song does have refernces like you guys say, they're lost on me.
I think it is a Poe/Nobokov reference. I also think it is highly sinister. I think he's obsessed with her and she is indifferent. It sounds to me he wants to drown her so he can have her.
While anabel Lee is a respectful and beutiful ode to Poe's wife, Nabokov's use is more sinister as it's sited as the start of his sexual obsession, and Poe's stories repeatedly reference a morbid sexual interest in the dead. Ligea and Berenice anyone?