Wicker Plane

From the info blurb on PatchMusic: "A pilot crashes down in a city park in a wicker plane in the middle of a hurricane. He is shunned by the locals, except for a little boy. The boy helps him haul his plane to the roof deck of the skyscraper where he lives. It is then up for interpretation whether the boy takes off in the plane by himself and perpetuates the cycle in becoming the pilot who subsequently crashes down somewhere else repeating the scenario or if the boy and the pilot take off together or...(the darker theme) that the pilot was imagined and the boy committed suicide off the building (lovely garden can mean the earth and sky or it can mean heaven)."

[Edit: Quotation marks]

OMG sooo good can't wait for new album

i have no clue what this one is about, but i luv it. also can't wait for the new album

Christian Propaganda .

All I understand is that theres an old man whos flying a little plane through some city, and has never seen skyscrapers or anything and accidentally crashes his plane. I don't really understand much after that. I think theres probably some deeper meaning to it though.

Might I add that I'm so excited to see them on October 4th in Vermont

Basically what i got from this was that there was a pilot, crashed in a city, broke his plane. Then, if you look at the lyrics of the YOTC version its pretty obvious that the boy he meets helps him fix his plane with the rope from the tree, and when the pilot leaves the scene for a second, and the boy takes off in the plane and tells the pilot "wherever you came from, thats where i'm going."

However, there's probly a more analyitical meaning. I kinda got the impression that the pilot crashed his plane, and the city was hell maybe? Its probly wrong but i'm pretty stumped...

I seriously doubt that there's any Christian meaning to the song. (Especially considering that they edited the image on the CD cover to get rid of the cross on the crow's bible; just to get rid of the Christian symbolism. [I saw an interview on patchmusic.info where Chad talked about this.]) I think the verse (where you're probably getting that from) "Wherever I am Lord" is using God's name more like in Railway (by Dispatch; "oh Lord, I think I heard you"); more as an expression rather than to convey any religious meaning.

I think that verse may be showing the pilot's reaction to the city. (Basically he's in awe of what he's seeing, so he's thinking something like "oh my God, where am I" or "only the Lord knows where I am.")

About the song itself:

I am given the feeling that this song is talking about technology; like how fast we're making technological advances nowadays and how these new advances are clashing with the "old ways" of people in third-world countries. Like the "wicker-made plane" could be representing the "old fashioned" technology. The part of the song where he "crash landed in the middle of the middle of the city", could be talking about how abruptly new technological advances are changing the world we live in. The line "just hours ago I took off in my wicker-made plane" would then be talking about just how quickly this is happening.

The line "this tree is a misfit like you and me" is obviously talking about the environment. (They're saying that the fact that the tree is growing in the middle of the city is just as unusual as the guy still using "archaic" technology and the kid who is helping him out.)

So if the stuff I said above is true, then the meaning of the song would be something like "we need to stop focusing on making technological advances for advancements sake" (The part of the song where the pilot "wonders why they didn't lean over and fall" [about the buildings] could be a metaphor for this, talking about all the "bad" ways that our technology could affect us if something goes wrong. [For example you could look at WWI, where so much carnage came out of people not really knowing what to do with all the rapid advancements in military and weapons technology.]

I'm not 100% sure that that's right (actually I think it could be horribly wrong), but that's what the song seems to say to me. I also don't really know what the rest might mean, either.

I agree with ManInTheHall, its just the last line that is kinda confusing "The boy said the place you come from that's where I'll be from too" any ideas? Is it as simple as him sayin he is from the past as well? or maybe from the time when nature was predominant? ie the pilots time.

I think ManInTheHall's thoughts are pretty dead on.

As for the line "The boy said the place you come from that's where I'll be from too", personally I think this means that after "just a few hours" of flying on the wicker plane (a symbolization for being behind the times), the boy will find himself in the same position as the pilot, lost in a world that feels foreign to him. I think the point of this is that society is changing too rapidly to keep up with, to the point where it alienates the people who can't keep up, or don't want to.

As for the ending, "Now you're in a lovely garden, it's such a lovely garden", and "Wherever I am Lord, I know where I am Lord", I'm not really sure what it means but I'll take a shot. It seems to me that the pilot is in a garden, but doesn't know exactly where he is. However, he says "I know where I am Lord, because the garden is something that is familiar to him, unlike the skyscrapers and the city that is foreign to him. He says, "It's such a lovely garden" because he he feels comfortable there and he enjoys living in a more natural world, uninterrupted by all of the technological advances that are basically forced upon people living in modern society.

So in the end, I think it is meant to show how fast the world is changing, and how society imposes these changes upon people who may not even want to live in a technological world, and as a result they feel alienated in the very world they live in.

fact: This song is about a boy in a society where he feels out of place. The pilot is not real. The boy thinks hes helping the pilot go home. Jumps off a cliff at the end unintentionally committing suicide. An interesting point is that he may have felt more in place while he was hallucinating and helping the pilot. I would even argue to say he went to his "heaven" when he died.