Phantom Limb

I bought Wincing the Night Away on pre-release / iTunes 7 years ago and this was my favorite song. It has taken me 7 years to get around to posting my interpretation, but here it is…

Phantom Limb

[The title has multiple meanings - (1) the narrator of the song and her female partner, the two outsiders in the song and likely intended to be in a lesbian relationship, are like phantom limbs of the tree of society, due to their different lifestyle and sensibilities, and (2) “phantom limb” alludes to the phallus which is so present in the conventional society represented by Eldorado High School (EHS) and the town, but absent from the world of the narrator and her partner. In my mind, it is incidental that the narrator is specifically lesbian; the theme of the song works just as well for any sensibility that deviates from the conventional male-hero-worshipping mainstream.]

Foals in winter coats

[Third person references in the song refer not to the two outsiders but to the mainstream students at EHS. high school. ”Foals" is a term of generic, conventional beauty.]

White girls of the north

[I see this as a dismissive reference, almost a slur, referring to the mainstream high school girls.]

File past one, five and one

[Whether you walk past one of them, or six of them, they all look the same]

they are the fabled lambs

[the conventional young beauties are fabled by the broader society around EHS which glorifies conventional high school beauty and status.]

a Sunday ham

[but in an ironic twist Mercer gives the “fabled lambs” a derogatory spin in this line, contrasting their conventional beauty with the image of being like pieces of meat]

the EHS norm

[reinforces that this stanza, and other third person references, refer to the mainstream conformers]

And they could float above the grass in circles if they tried a latent power i know they hide

[As with the last stanza, “they” refers to the mainstream female student at EHS. The singer is introduced as a first person narrator “i” in the third line of this stanza. The narrator is saying that the mainstream beauties have magical and possibly lesbian sides of their personalities which they hide. This is thinly veiled if not explicit wishful thinking on the part of the narrator, showing she feels more comfortable in a world of magical and/or lesbian sensibilities, where her non-conventional self would connect better with others.]

to keep some hope alive that a girl like i, could ever try could ever try

[If the mainstream beauties showed their magical or lesbian selves, the narrator would have real hope of fitting in with them.]

So we just skirt the hallway sides

[Narrator and her friend walking along hallway side to avoid the mainstream crowd…]

a phantom and fly

[…one totally invisible, the other almost invisible like a "fly on a wall.”]

Follow the lines and wonder why there's no connection

[Narrator and her friend go through conventional motions, but don’t connect with others.]

A week of rolling eyes and cheap shots from the trite

[Even though the two outsiders skirt the hallway sides, hide their powers and try to "follow the lines," they cannot hide the fact that they are different, and that draws rolled eyes and verbal bullying from the trite lambs of convention]

and we're off to Nemarca’s porch again

[Nemarca is the narrator’s female partner.]

another afternoon of the goat head tunes and pilfered booze

[These lines speak for themselves. I assume James Mercer is referring to songs from the album Goat Head Soup by the Rolling Stones.]

we wander through her mamma's house

[Nemarca’s mother’s house. Begs the question of where the father is.]

the milk from the window lights

[Light coming in from outside.]

family portrait circa ’95

[The family portrait is old, presumably meaning that the father was formerly but is no longer part of the family.]

this is that foreign land of the sprayed on tans and it all feels fine be it silk or slime

[Another take on conventional beauty, in contrast to the magical / outsider sensibilities of the narrator and her partner.]

So when they tap our monday heads two zombies walk in our stead

[When the week starts at school, the narrator and her partner go to school like zombies, lifeless because they are so alienated from the experience and social atmosphere of school and the parochial town they live in.]

this town seems hardly worth our time and we'll no longer memorize or rhyme

[this is a change from the first chorus when the narrator was “following the lines” - this is defiance]

too far along in our climb stepping over what now towers to the sky with no connection

[the narrator and her partner have made enough progress “climbing” beyond social convention of EHS and the town, which is represented here as a phallus towering to the sky, to the point that they can “step over” it. It’s a cool way to end the song - recognition that the phallus-worshipping sensibility of conventional society is a towering thing, but that they have come to the point that they can simply step over it.]

So when they tap our Sunday heads

[the second time the final chorus is sung, we move from Monday, which starts the official work/school week, to Sunday, which represents something deeper and more spiritual and cultural. It isn’t just in the particulars of her student-ly duties that makes the narrator feel out of place, it is also the “religion” / culture of the town that is stultifying to the narrator.]

two zombies walk in our stead this town seems hardly worth our time and we'll no longer memorize or rhyme too far along in our crime stepping over what now towers to the sky with no connection