Shallow Days

I think you're underestimating this song and the lyric writing abilities of Mr. Duritz. You see, it's a dual symbol pivoting on the girl's name Mary Jane and its use as slang for marijuana. Let's break it down a bit.

Mary Jane says, it's all right She's just around the corner from the main light Any day now, it's all right She's standing on the precipice of big time

And I know I'm a little uptight I got to go before the sun shines We're just a couple small people squeezing out a life We need a little good time

This introduces two people, the singer and MJ as people They're a "couple of small people squeezing out a life", but MJ is about to make it big time in some way. Maybe they're both struggling singers, artists, etc. It sounds like it may have been a hook up where MJ is saying, "come over, my place is nearby" and Adam, later, is saying how he's a little uptight and wants to leave her place before the sun comes up. Really nothing about drugs at all.

It's not far from here Mary comes and goes Drifting through the scenery Of shallow days below

This is a callback in a way to how her apartment wasn't far, but also an allusion to how MJ is close-by, in and out of whatever scene, probably the local music scene, of whatever town he was in at the time. The next line really goes with the next verse so I separated it.

Now that's everybody knows

You follow trains out of town And they vanish somewhere under the horizon Yeah well, I saw Mary Jane drag her shadow Down the tracks, stare off in the distance

It's not far from here Mary waves 'Hello' Smiling though she's sinking In the shallow days below

To me this is saying that MJ tends to chase things that she can't quite attain. She goes to follow, but doesn't quite make it out after the train. She turns and waves, but she's sinking into these mundane "shallow days". Now, upon first hearing this part you think she may be a dreamer, but based on the rest of the song, I think that the trains "under the horizon" and down the "tracks" may be allusions to harder drugs that MJ is using to escape these shallow days. It will make more sense in a bit.

Oh no, I can't find a way out of here Out on the road again I'm much, much too concerned about Mary Jane

I'm all alone again and I like what she said but not what it means She leaves me drowning Through the shallow days down below

I think this part is the part where the dual use of Mary Jane firms up a bit. Adam is on the road and he's concerned about MJ the woman and MJ the drug. He's smoking and likes how he feels and what "she" says (as the MJ speaks to him), but ultimately the high doesn't last and he's forced to drown in shallow days which is kind of a strange juxtaposition since drowning in shallow water is relatively difficult.

You know I heard a band Playing waltzes in a grange hall The sun is sinking lower People staring, Mary Jane humming softly to herself And nobody really knows her

Any day now it's all right She tells herself that this will be the last time Then Mary Jane pulls her hair back and wonders What she'll do with all her free time

This is relatively straightforward. MJ is at a show for a band and it alludes to MJ as a person and also the use of MJ as a drug at the show (perhaps?). Nobody really knows her true nature. She's high at this show on whatever drugs she was chasing previously, I'm not going to specify what, and she wants to quit this drug and wonders what she'll do with all this free sober time she'll have once she's off. This is very telling, these last two lines, because it's often a number one fear for anyone who is trying to get sober, what do you do with all this time you suddenly have. This time that was spent getting money to get drugs to get high that repeated itself every day, how do you fill that time without drugs. This is how we know that the train tracks that went below the horizon (should really be over the horizon) are referring to something a bit more sinister than a train.

Not too far from here Mary turns to go Smiling while the waltz begins Dancing down the road

Hey, hey, hey, hey, Mr. Freedom What are we supposed to think? 'Cause I'm a very tiny person and it worries me

She leaves the concert and, leaves the town, perhaps leaves Adam. He's left wondering what her deal is because she walked away from this party they were having. It may also point to her leaving her potential success. We know she was on the precipice of big time before, she may have left it all behind and Adam is left wondering what's up with her and, as he said before, maybe he never knew her anyway.

I'm all alone again and I like what she says but not what it means She leaves me drowning In the shallow days way down below

"I'm sorry", she said "I know it's not the kind of thing you want" I'm falling, falling down "I'm sorry", she said "I know I'm not the kind of girl you want" We're falling, falling, falling, falling down

The end is the final breakup, so to speak, of Adam and MJ. It reflects how he may feel from breaking up with a drug (thing) and MJ as a girl since it repeats for both instances of how the term Mary Jane was used in the song. She / it is finally saying that she /it can't keep him above the shallow days because it's not really what he wants and they're both falling from that high up above the shallow days.

That's my take on it anyway. I don't disagree that the use of Mary Jane is purposefully calling back to marijuana use, but it's much more than just the tale of a guy touring in a band and needing weed too much to get through the mundane parts of life. It's about the need for weed, or a girl, or harder drugs go get through and not drown in these shallow days. Ultimately, they all end up falling down.