I can see very well
There's a boat on the reef with a broken back
And I can see it very well
There's a joke and I know it very well
It's one of those that I told you long ago
Take my word I'm a madman, don't you know

Once a fool had a good part in the play
If it's so would I still be here today
It's quite peculiar in a funny sort of way
They think it's very funny everything I say
Get a load of him, he's so insane
You better get your coat dear
It looks like rain, yeah

We'll come again next Thursday afternoon
The in-laws hope they'll see you very soon
But is it in your conscience that you're after
Another glimpse of the madman across the water

I can see very well
There's a boat on the reef with a broken back
And I can see it very well
There's a joke and I know it very well
It's one of those that I told you long ago
Take my word I'm a madman, don't you know

The ground's a long way down but I need more
Is the nightmare really black
Or are the windows painted
Will they come again next week
Can my mind really take it

We'll come again next Thursday afternoon
The in-laws hope they'll see you very soon
But is it in your conscience that you're after
Another glimpse of a madman across the water


Lyrics submitted by RainbowDemon

Madman Across the Water Lyrics as written by Elton John Bernie Taupin

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Madman Across the Water song meanings
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    My Interpretation

    The "Madman" lived an idyllic life with his young wife. They moved far away from the rat race- and from their families- to a lovely island on a sound, or perhaps a peninsula or isthmus, where they lived on the shore. There the two enjoyed boating together and relished their own perfect little corner of the world.

    There was an accident. The boat wrecked upon the rocks. Only he survived.

    He lives there still, that place of joy and misery. He cannot move on. He lives shuttered away from the world in the house they once shared. He is a prisoner of his grief. "Their own perfect little corner of the world" is now his own personal hell. What a deliciously vicious, perfect little joke.

    His in-laws blame him for the accident, blame him for the loss of their beloved daughter and did so even before her death. They resented him for stealing her away to this place, for selfishly keeping her all to himself. They visit him weekly. Ostensibly they go to "visit" the man who was once their daughter's husband, see how he's "getting along". That's what they tell him, what they tell their friends, what they tell themselves.

    But the Madman knows better. He knows why they really come to see him in hell. He knows what they truly get out of their little "visits". They are there to twist the knife, to remind him what he took from them, what he took from himself, to see the agony in his eyes as their presence again brings the taste of that poison to his tongue. He knows this, because even from his dark little hole, he can see very well.

    And once they have raised the specter, they can leave, promising to come back the very next week ...and do it all over again. Because they too know... He can see it very well.

    BurningOldSageon July 07, 2015   Link

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