Turn On Me

First the complete lyrics as I hear them:<br /> <br /> "Turn On Me"<br />

• The Shins<br /> <br /> 1 You can fake it for a while,<br /> bite your tongue and smile<br /> like every mother does an ugly child.<br /> But the stars are leaking out,<br /> 5 like spittle, from a cloud--<br /> amassed resentment, counting ounce and pounds.<br /> You entertaining any doubts?<br /> 'Cause you had to know that I was fond of you<br /> (Fond of Y-O-U),<br /> 10 though I knew you masked your distain.<br /> (La-la-la-da-da.)<br /> I could see that change was just too hard for us.<br /> (Hard for u---s.)<br /> You always had to hold the reins.<br /> 15 Where I'm headed you just don't know the wa-y.<br /> <br /> <br /> 16 So affections fade away,<br /> and do adults just learn to play<br /> the most ridiculous, repulsive games?<br /> All the favored, ruddy sons<br /> 20 and your double-barreled guns.<br /> (You better hurry, Rabbit, run-run-run.)<br /> 'Cause meeting you is fu-n.<br /> And there's a lot of hungry hunters,<br /> and this one said, "I'm taking it over."<br /> 25 Like brittle, thorny stems,<br /> they break before they bend.<br /> 27 And neither one of us is one of "them."<br /> <br /> 28 And the tails will never mend<br /> 'cause you had it in for me so long ago--<br /> 30 boy, I still don't know;<br /> I don't know why, and I don't ca-re<br /> (Well, hardly anymore).<br /> If you'd only seen yourself hating me<br /> (Hating me--)<br /> 35 when I've been so much more than fai-r.<br /> But, then, you'd have to lay those feelings bare.<br /> One thing I know still got you scared:<br /> You're all that cold ire<br /> and never once aired out the dead.<br /> <br /> 40 You had to know that I was fond of you<br /> (fond of Y-O-U),<br /> so I took your licks at the time<br /> (da-da-da-da-dum).<br /> And a change like that is just so hard to do.<br /> 45 (Hard to do--.)<br /> Don't let it whip crack your life,<br /> and don't bow out from the fi-ght.<br /> Those old, pious sisters were right:<br /> The worst part is over.<br /> 50 Now get back on that horse and ride.<br /> <br /> Now, for my interpretation: There are two childhood friends. But, like most such friendships, their relationship is based more on association than deep emotional compatibility. The simile of the mother kindly biting her tongue about the ugliness of another mother's child might indicate this association had its origin in the friendship of the speaker's and addressee's parents. At any rate, now that the two are adults, the insincerity of their affections is just too apparent. To extend the metaphor of the mother noting the weight of her friend's hideous baby, all the while wishing to escape from this creature and hating her friend for subjecting her to such an ordeal. So each moment of interaction between the two friends has become increasingly tiresome to the point of both parties nearly exploding.<br /> <br /> The speaker, then, clarifies that he was genuinely fond of the addressee, though his "friend's" attention toward him was more like belittling disgust. Inverting the social standing of each was too much of a shock for the latter however. Apparently the ugly wimp who always tagged along with him has now made good in life and he (the addressee) has a hard time accepting that the person he always felt was inferior to him is now, in fact, his superior. He (the addressee) felt he always had to be in charge, but now that the person he once thought was his lacky is now the one in charge, he has no clue how to progress in both their friendship and his own life.<br /> <br /> Now the speaker cuts in, reflecting that friendships do break down over time, and that adults are just like children with more contemptible pass times (and modes of social interaction). All the "golden boy," all-American types (favored, ruddy sons) with their traditional aggression (the double-barreled guns)--we can fill in the blanks here of how cliche this archetype personality is, so the speaker turns his attention back to the addressee, telling him to run, as a sarcastic gibe about the addressee's being in the proverbial rat race that alludes to John Updike's Rabbit Series (a generally tragic series of realistic novels about an American everyman who achieves success after a lot of struggle, only to have his son piss it away once he retires.)<br /> <br /> We might wonder, too, if the speaker's comment, "meeting you is fun," is another sarcastic gibe, implying the addressee has attempted to use his connection to his childhood friend to underhandedly achieve some pecuniary gain in his own professional life. The speaker, then, reminds his one-time friend that there are a lot more skilled and cunning players in his realm, the speaker's being one of them. In fact, those he is obliged to favor in his own career are so good they "break before they bend," meaning they're almost inhumanly tough--unlike both the speaker and addressee. Presumably, one particular other person the speaker has already awarded whatever favor the addressee is seeking was just too tough for the speaker, so he already gave away the whatever before his friend asked for it.<br /> <br /> Of course, the "tails will never mend" means the addressee's reaction to his losing out will always be a point of resentment. But, really, the since he actually always disliked the speaker, the speaker wonders what difference that makes. (Though he does admit he still somewhat cares for some reason.) The speaker apparently did try to save the addressee's feelings in some way, while he reflects, the addressee reacted to his decision with obvious hatred. If only the addressee could have seen himself, maybe he wouldn't currently be trying to maintain his mock friendship and toadyism. But, then, he's also have to admit to himself, really, what a terrible, conniving jerk he is.<br /> <br /> The "One thing [the speaker] knows still got [the addressee] scared" is the hatred and frustration he's kept bottled up in himself for so many years. This high amount of antipathy, the speaker reflects, has kept the addressee from being happy. And the addressee, the speaker knows, fear that in clinging to old grudges and not "airing out the dead" (or clearing the proverbial skeletons from his closet) he is wasting his life.<br /> <br /> Finally, the lyrics end on a happy note: The speaker reiterates that he genuinely always cared for the addressee, which is why he quietly endured the addressee's abuse "licks" for so long. Again, the speaker grants that the fact that addressee can no longer cast him as inferior could have blown his friend's mind. And he admonishes his one-time friend not to let this shock destroy him or make him quit his own struggles. Just because the speaker can't offer whatever the addressee came for, the speaker seems to say, that doesn't mean good things aren't still out there for the addressee. In ending, the speaker recalls a memory of "old, pious sisters" he shares with the addressee, probably referring to nuns at a Catholic School or at Sunday School. We can only conjecture here what lesson he's referring to, as it might be correction of pride or insincerity, but in confronting the truth, at any rate, "the worst part" is always in bringing it to the fore, after which catharsis can set in. So, the speaker seems to advise the addressee, with this new-found truth of the two never having actually been friends, courageously confront the world again (like a cowboy getting back on his horse).