Thanks a Lot

To me, this song is about the subtle shift of power that happens when a person falls out of love. Though cleverly scrambled, this entire album's songs read like a chronological map of the events that took place within one profound relationship.

Here, the woman has fallen out of love with the singer/author, and now it is she who holds the dominant position... but it is too early in the shift to expose this dynamic outright. It is a secret that they both know in their hearts, yet she is not ready to reveal it and he is too busy focusing on the symptoms to come to terms with it.

"It's all in your mind," she said, "the darkness and the light" [typical female brush-off: "Don't pay attention to all the ups and downs we're going through. It's normal, and it's all in your mind...we're still in love."]

"The clock, it bleeds for you, but you never got the timing right " [Shifts in focus to the author himself, describing how he got many chances --to the point of time symbolically 'sacrificing itself' --to prove himself worthy of her love and confidence, yet fails]

"I woke you up and I slit the throat of your confidence, and we laughed in the night, and I felt alright" [holding a woman's confidence is the key to winning her love. The author recognizes that he has killed her confidence, yet reveals the very trait that causes the murder....a lack of intuition. The woman has lost confidence in him because he lacks intuition. (She's that good.) Despite this defining moment in their relationship, he falls for her ability to hide their secret, and when she 'laughs in the night' like everything's okay, he is falsely reassured. Her ability to deceive him confirms her newfound dominance.

"All hands on deck boys, 'cause this ship was made to sink; your swabber salutes you now, but I know what he's thinking" [Symbolizes the shift in power. The Captain, who is in the dominant position, has somehow lost the confidence of his lowest-ranking subordinate--the swabber. The swabber now deceives the Captain by alluding to formalities (a salute) to keep the peace while the ship is still afloat. But he's thinking, "you're not a very good Captain anymore."]

"Thanks a lot" [A sarcastic condemnation of both partners' actions, simultaneously aimed at each other. The woman says, 'thanks alot for killing my confidence and not being the person you said you were,' while the man says 'thanks alot for pretending everything was fine after you had decided I wasn't someone you could look up to.' At the precise moment when this sentiment is dually expressed, the downward spiral of the relationship to the end of the album begins. This leads to new relationship dynamics, and a whole new readjustment to the newly defined roles of each partner, which takes us to the last verse:

"The clothes she wears misfit, and she's nervous when she speaks...Her zombie mom and dad live in a separate house of freaks" [Now, the stress of falling from leader to subordinate is wearing on the author. No longer does he feel the sentiments expressed in "Good For You" and "I Want You," tracks #9 and #11. Now, his disappointment in himself is projected onto the source of his anxiety: his woman. He ignores the things he'd loved about her and focuses on the things he dislikes. Her clothes don't fit. She lacks speaking skills. Her family is screwed up. These are complaints that pave the way for fear, pain, and hostility, expressed in the bi-polar on/off quality of the next songs "Burning Man" and "Semi-Charmed Life."

"I'm the one for you, 'cause I know all the dirty things you like to do...I'm the fear in your eyes, I'm the fire in your flies; I'm the sound that's buzzing 'round your head" [The attempt by the author at re-establishing his partner's love by appealing to the memory of their past experiences. Written into this attempt is also a display of its inherent futility; a good leader does not have to convince a willing follower. At this point, we know she is less than willing to follow him. We know she's made up her mind.]