Dig For Fire

I think this song is fairly easy to interpret. It is about purpose. Fire is usually associated with desire and passion. The old people in this song are realizing their end may be near and they want to have lived for something because material possesions don't mean anything in the end. Thus they are not looking for the "mother lode" as the naive singer assumes, but fire.

Well, you are only 1/2 right. If you look at the whole song, he goes and talks to a toiling woman, and he talks to a lonely, tired man. Both are lonely and alone, and "digging for fire". The implication, perhaps, is that they are both seeking the same passion, seperately, and alone, when perhaps, they could find it in each other. We are all "digging for fire", or sleeping our lives away (telling ourselves we have no interest or time), or toiling at digging a hole (tending to our commitments/job/family).

Beautiful metaphore.

No idea what it means. But I like to think that it means to stop worrying and when you’re broken, cold and alone on the freezing floor, you remember your worth, and start digging for fire.

I persist in this existence because I choose to. I choose to keep digging for fire.

I’ll keep digging for fire

what a great song. very hard to interpret, as are most pixies song(which is one of their traits that makes them so great to begin with). personally, i think it's just about senility, and how the characters depicted in the song have grown old but still find enjoyment in their own delusions. who knows...

My father smelled my baby daughter's head and said, "Smell that youth!"

He's digging for fire too.

Ok, pretty much both verses are the same, so I'll just quote the second verse.

"there is this old man who spent so much of his life sleeping that he is able to keep awake for the rest of his years"

So the old man wasted a good portion of his life not taking action and doing the things he wanted to do. So now he's making up for it.

"and i often ask him "are you looking for the mother lode?" huh? no. no my child, this is not my desire and then he said

i'm digging for fire [4x]"

So the young man asks him if he's digging for money and gold and riches. And the old man tells him that he's looking for passion in his life that he's never had.

another perfect example of how francis black leaves it to the listener to decide what they want the lyrics to mean... one of the best Pixies songs

i believe that this song is more or less about how most people believe that if a person is doing something the reason they are doing it is to prosper themselves, when actually they're doing it just for the hell of it or to do something people aren't expecting, something origional. Basically why do the same old thing?

I think it's like "Are you looking for treasures?" "No, I'm looking for destruction." Digging for fire...fire has always been something we've depended on, yet so dangerous. Isn't digging for it a way of saying that you desire your own destruction? And enjoy it.

I love this song.

This song is a tribute to Talking Heads... Look them up. Good stuff.