Men of Wood

This is among one of my favourite PT-songs, partially because it is shrouded in mystery and it's sheer visual lyrics.

I think it's in part about death (returning back to the earth, as roots from a tree),

There's nothing more for me to say (Because you can't?) Men of wood turn white to grey (Aging?)

An old man sitting beside the pier Prepared himself to disappear He raised his head for one last look Then closed his eyes and left the book (Poetic description of a man's last moments...)

But there are plenty of hints that the 'men of wood' are the good guys. 'Sweet men of wood', underlining their good intentions
'There's nowhere left for you to go', implying that they are trapped as well.

That's what I can make of it, but as I said, it is shrouded in mystery and mysticism, like many of Duffy's lyrics.

Yeah...wtf at this song.

Surreal if I've ever heard it.

I don't like this song much. It's reminiscent of Syd Barrett, but just way too pretentious and forced. Actually most early Porcupine Tree music is, yet usually it's justified by the quality.

I am kind of stumped with this one too, other than I get this weird sort of ritualistic pagan-ish feeling from the song. It makes me think of men in the woods that are part of a cult performing rites involving seasonal changes, but other than that...really, I haven't an idea. Maybe I'll just go with the default meaning of Porcupine Tree songs and say it's really about serial killers.

It sounds to me as if it's about growing old and dying: Nowhere left to go, turning from white to grey, and especially the last stanza.

It personally gives me the feel of a old man reading a weird comic book of, I.e., super heroes. As in the start: "come together, men of wood it makes me think of a team coming together. But that's just a basic and childish way of interpreting it.