Glycerine

it doesn't say nitroglycerine, it says glycerine. it's not about being explosive, it's about the clear, odorless, tasteless substance. basically, "dont' let the days go by" like glycerine, nearly featureless, cold, and unresponsive

,< how many people fail to realize that glycerine is a preservative, much like petroleum jelly, that is often used for both medicines and keeping food fresh (also sweetens foods) not only that, glycerine is most commonly used for medicines that treat burns.

I believe the song is about the up and downs of a fading relationship. The song is sung with a lot of emotion. She's leaving him and he doesn't want her to. As its sung "Dont let the days go by," because the more they do the more the relationship will part. My favorite line of the song is "I'm never alone, I'm alone all the time." Also he sings that they live in a wheel, meaning that there relationship goes around in circles over and over again, but when its right they rise like strawberry fields, meaning its a beautiful colorful thing. And if the days go by then they might become like glycerine; Fall apart and combust.

This song reminds me of the book "The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton. The main character, Newland Archer, is married to someone he doesn't love but married because it was what was socially right. He's in love with another woman, Countess Olenska, who left her husband but is still married to him. He has an affair of sorts with her. They admit they love each other, but then decide they can't be together, and a long time goes by, and Newland goes to her again, and they basically decide that they have to be together and yet not together. Later, she comes back again and she says she'll come to him in two days, but she leaves the country. "Everything's gone white/And everything's grey" is like how everything seems simple when he's with her, but really it's much more complicated than that. "I'm never alone/I'm alone all the time" is basically like how he's always around people, such as his wife, but he's really more alone than he's ever been, as he isn't around anyone he rereally cares about. "Don't let the days go by" is like how they stay apart and just let things sit unresolved, although they long to see each other. "Couldn't change though I wanted to/Our old friend fear and you and me" is like how he wants to break free of social restraints and be with the Countess, but he can't make himself do so because he was afraid. "I needed you more/When we wanted us less" is like when he really needed her to help him change and not be so restrained by society, but he didn't want them to get into anything that would be against social dictations. "I could not kiss just regress" is like how, at the end of the book, he went to her house in Paris, after her wife was dead, but he couldn't go to her and he walked away.

Well, you probably had to read the book to get what I'm saying about it reminding me of the song.

This is by far, hands down, my favorite song of all time. I did read Gavin say, in an interview, for, I believe YM, that this song was about unrequited love. For me, though, it has far too many meanings to mention. Every memory of yesteryear has this playing in the background. And she falls around me...

Ok, here's the deal with Glycerine, it's volitale, if you leave it alone nothing happens, but shake it, and it'll blow-up in your face. Now, how does it relate to the song? The repeated theme "Don't let the days go by" and the sense that things were going wrong, but nothing was done about them is symbolic to just letting the glycerine sit, too afraid to shake it. But, things got to a point where the explosion was inevitable, and they were both badly scared when it went off. Now, looking back, he sees that that hurt could have been avoided if only something had been done earlier. This is only my view, and I want to read many others.

if i had to choose only one song to listen to for the rest of my life it would be Glycerine. This song has been by my side through many many things in the last 10 yrs. It's one of those songs that can mean anything you want it to and has always catered to all of my different emotions.

I've always thought it was about the passage of time and how it changes things. When you think about it, there are a lot of opposite lines placed next to each other in this song (I'm never alone/I'm alone all the time, now you're here/now you're away, etc.). I think the narrator of the song wants time to stop so they can slow down and feel that the world is dependable for once. But there's also a sense that it's going to be ok, because if generations of people have gone through life, then you can do it too.

I think I actually know how the chemical glycerine might fit in. Glycerine itself absorbs water from the surrounding environment, and it can be made in to nitroglycerin, which is used in both explosives and heart medication. So we have something that absorbs, combusts, and fixes the heart. Or something with different effects. Or something that can either heal or destroy.

I think it ends on a sort of sad note, where in the end, the person loses the abiltiy to connect with others and lives for their nostagia and old memories ("I could not kiss, just regress), and they know that they need people more than ever to bring them out of it, but they accept that, in the end, their inability to cope with time/change/aging will overtake them and destroy them.

(Which is sort of scary for me, because I sometimes feel like that could happen to me, since I'm afraid of change and the passage of time and tend to brand certain periods of my life as my Halcyon days while feeling like the present just gets more and more confusing and unpleasant.)

I like this song, but seriously. The song is called Glycerine, and pronounced "Glic-er-eene." Someone mentioned Nitroglycerin which is an explosive, but is used for CHEST PAIN.

On another note, "glycerine" suppositories are used for constipation, so I have no idea what this song means, but I like it anyway.

Its pretty staright forward to me. Glycerine is used in food photography to preserve and enhance the look of food, its a preservative. Now you don't want to eat the stuff after you use it, so when I shot something I really wanted to eat, I misted it with water. So he is saying he wants the relationship to stay the same forever, to always be good. "Don't let the days go by". In the lyrics he alludes to trouble in the relationship, but every relationship has its faults and he admits he could have been better at holding up his bargain. It sounds like a guy on the cusp of losing the best relationship he has had.