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Miner At The Dial-A-View Lyrics

I found your house and I saw your car
But I've no idea where you are
From the Dial-A-View
Tire scraps on the federal roads
Look like crash landed crows
From the Dial-A-View

<i>Hello, welcome to Dial-A-View. To locate the area in which you wish to observe, you must program in the longitude and the latitude. For a closer, more detailed picture, use either the zoom or the micro-zoom controls... good luck</i>

I dream at night
Of going home someday
Somewhere so far away
So dream, alright
I know it's gonna take some time
I'm going home someday

Fifteen years is almost done
And I don't recognize anyone
From the Dial-A-View
My home, my friends, and you
I watched them fade but what can I do
From the Dial-A-View

<i>Hello, welcome to Dial-A-View. To locate the area in which you wish to observe, you must program in the longitude and the latitude. For a closer, more detailed picture, use either the zoom or the micro-zoom controls... good luck</i>

I dream at night
Of going home someday
Somewhere so far away
So dream, alright
I know it's gonna take some time
I'm going home someday

I dream at night
Of going home someday
Somewhere so far away
So dream, alright
I know it's gonna take some time
I'm going home someday

I dream at night
Of going home someday
Somewhere so far away
So dream, alright
I know it's gonna take some time
I'm going home someday

I dream...
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Cover art for Miner At The Dial-A-View lyrics by Grandaddy

God, the sighs after '..at night'; just beautiful. the guy's isolated and with no contact to his old life and slowly it forgets him.

Cover art for Miner At The Dial-A-View lyrics by Grandaddy

"tire scraps on federal roads look like crash-landed crows" always seemed to signify to me that the miner was looking at earth, or wherever he used to live, from above. grandaddy has always had some space-age-type content in their songs, so i always imagined the miner on the moon or some planet. however, i believe that the closer-to-home meaning of this song is more about living a life so detatched that you have to look at it through some sort of machine, as if you're not really living it. or, of course, that you've just not been home in a really long time.

Cover art for Miner At The Dial-A-View lyrics by Grandaddy

I see this song as an expression of nostalgia, but not as much for other people, as for the other life he might have lived.

I see this song as a beautiful little metaphor of the longing felt for the other life, the other one that might have been lived. And I believe we all can relate to that, because, as we grow older, we see how the people we know tend to live their own little lives as so do we all... similar I guess to the feelings expressed by Lennon in "In My Life".

Cover art for Miner At The Dial-A-View lyrics by Grandaddy

Isn't the title a very obvious pun? "Dial-a-view" - remove the D, say it out loud and see what you get...

I don't really see the album as post-apocalyptic; it's about today. Alienation, reliance on technology, experiencing life not through your own eyes but through machines that choose what you get to see...

Of course, you could argue that this world IS post-apocalyptic, or at least apocalyptic, but that's another discussion.

@beer good - I never caught the "I love you" bit... Interesting...

Cover art for Miner At The Dial-A-View lyrics by Grandaddy

Pretty self-explanitory. Some sort of miner who is kept down in the mines for years at a time, and uses a device called a "Dail-A-View" to see place where he used to live. He dreams of going back to home.

Cover art for Miner At The Dial-A-View lyrics by Grandaddy

It definately makes me imagine a miner on another planet, who was sent there to mine for more resources to send back to earth, so that we can continue "progress". Meanwhile, he's looking back at his home, and his old life, looking for those he loves and will probably never see again.

Cover art for Miner At The Dial-A-View lyrics by Grandaddy

A thought... If you take this as being part of some future, that doesn't necessarily mean the miner is underground... Science Fiction is FULL of stories of people signing long contracts to mine one resource or another in some far away sector of space, very often asteroids (capturing/processing) from a ship or EVA suit... just putting that out there...

For me the feeling of longing is what I always get, whatever it's for... it drips from this song... another amazing one from a truly awesome album.

Specifically, the story "Lulungomeena" by Gordon R. Dickson comes to mind... long contracts far away from home, I could see a Dial-A-View being there...

Cover art for Miner At The Dial-A-View lyrics by Grandaddy

[Edit: .]

Positive
Subjective
Enjoyment
Comforting
Nostalgic
Rebuilding
Home
Supportive
Cover art for Miner At The Dial-A-View lyrics by Grandaddy

I love this song (I love this entire album actually). But the meaning of it seems to be overpowered by the feelings it conveys. I guess I can see it as a view of ... ya know, actually, it's a struggle to put the meaning of this song into words. I'll just go back to enjoying it for what it is...just a great song.

Cover art for Miner At The Dial-A-View lyrics by Grandaddy

Its strange and has an element of irony because although it sounds like he is looking from a "birds eye view" if you will..he is a miner..and miners are underground. ironic.

I also believe that the Emmdithy is right--maybe the lyricist was trying to convey the feeling of when you are living your life but you dont feel like you're living at all even though...you are...

 
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