An unwilling sailor adrift from Artic waters
As the water gets warmer, my iceburg gets smaller
As he pours more petrol on, he feels no fear
As the flames get nearer, its thought gets clearer
A blue-white polar bear arrives at the end
Diverting his attention, his feelings froze over
I'm only a runaway AWOL at the logical start
Not present in the present, overboard with limited future
And I'm standing alone still getting a thrill
While the ship is afloat, he's losing his boat
As the water gets warmer, my iceburg gets smaller
As he pours more petrol on, he feels no fear
As the flames get nearer, its thought gets clearer
A blue-white polar bear arrives at the end
Diverting his attention, his feelings froze over
I'm only a runaway AWOL at the logical start
Not present in the present, overboard with limited future
And I'm standing alone still getting a thrill
While the ship is afloat, he's losing his boat
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The best of Wire. A situation discribed here is just amazing. The best thing is that the end is open. The way he sings "boat" in the last lyric is beautiful.
Not cryptic in the least (something that can always said about Wire and Colin Newman), and pretty self-explanatory. It's just a simple portrait of a situation, like a snippet out of a novel. What makes the song great is the atmospheric music though...it's like ambient punk.
This song, like many on the album Chairs Missing, basically has Wire stretching beyond punk's limitations and finding a new genre called post-punk in the process.
CORRECTION: In the first sentence, I meant to say something that CAN'T always be said about Wire and Colin Newman!
I've always interpreted this song literally.
But in the context of many songs on 'Chairs Missing' being about mental illness/instability, lines like "while the ship is afloat, he's losing his boat" could be a metaphor for madness/dementia.....