Gospel

I was bored and decided to come here and see what people thought of this song.

Wow, I don't agree with anybody here; but then again, the meaning I derived from this song comes mostly from a few key lyrics and kind of disregards the others or doesn't fully explain them. To me, this is one of the most heartbreaking songs I've ever heard. I don't claim to be right; I just want to explain why this song is so powerful to me. Basically, the following lines are the important ones:

I've got two armfuls of magazines for you I'll bring 'em over So hang your holiday rainbow lights in the garden Hang your holiday rainbow lights in the garden then I'll I'll bring a nice icy drink to you Let me come over I can waste your time I'm bored Invite me to the war every night of the summer

As with most of the other songs on Boxer, I came to imagine all the "yous" and "hers" to be an object of affection for the narrator. That's probably why I kept coming back to Boxer, and particularly this song.

Simply put, I think of the above lines as the narrator deeply loving someone but the other not loving him back. He wants nothing more than to "come over" and be with her.

I think of the holiday lights as the narrator's way of fantasizing about this person. If you're like me, your memories of Christmases always seem to have a quality of otherworldliness to them. The "holiday rainbow lights" represent a kind of otherworldly place, a place where everything is ok and there is no reason to be sad. Like memories of an especially good Christmas. In this fantasy, he's walking across the dimly-lit garden to his loved one and bringing her an iced drink, and they sit down together and lean on each other the way couples do.

The fact that he says "Let me come over I can waste your time I'm bored" after already saying that he would come over ("I'll bring 'em over") shows that he is not invited. And the way the lines are repeated without any real resolution to them, and the fact that the narrator continues to ask something of her ("Darling can you tie my string") without resolution shows that he doesn't get to see her. He wants nothing more than to be with her, but he isn't.

When he sings "let me come over I can waste your time I'm bored" the language sounds kind of playful, and it sounds kind of like he's trying to smile, like the idea of seeing her still fills him with such joy, but he is sad because he kind of already knows he's not going over since it's his second (or third) time asking.

I just think the whole sound of the song and the lyrics are all really, really sad. I spent many nights alone listening to this song (and album) wishing I was with a certain someone.