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Whole Wide World Lyrics
The last of the repercussions
Died off real slow
The sky was still
The cold sun sank down beneath the snow
I hung by my hand
From the tree outside
I looked on
The Whole Wide World
The voices came quietly
I shut them down
Tricky young southerly wind
Came at me with it's high whistling sound
I turned around to face it
With real arrogance burning inside
And I drank in
The Whole Wide World
Died off real slow
The sky was still
The cold sun sank down beneath the snow
I hung by my hand
From the tree outside
I looked on
The Whole Wide World
I shut them down
Tricky young southerly wind
Came at me with it's high whistling sound
I turned around to face it
With real arrogance burning inside
And I drank in
The Whole Wide World
Song Info
Submitted by
ruxxell On Jan 15, 2002
More The Mountain Goats
No Children
This Year
Dance Music
Dilaudid
The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton
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It's pretty plainly about acceptance and opening your mind to new ideas.
Only a child would hang from a tree by one hand. He's outside of the house to avoid the conflict inside it, and shuts down the adult voices - think Dance Music, "so this is what the volume knob's for" - when he begins to hear them. He faces the future, its challenges and possibilities, alone, but with the hubris of youth.
I really like this interpretation. I wrote a novel length comment drawing on my experience with my mom's suicide attempt, but it was just...well, even I would be all "tl;dr" so I held it back. But I'm sure you can imagine how it would have gone like.
I really like this interpretation. I wrote a novel length comment drawing on my experience with my mom's suicide attempt, but it was just...well, even I would be all "tl;dr" so I held it back. But I'm sure you can imagine how it would have gone like.
I definitely like soicat's reading of this piece. Personally, I interpret this song as a vision of Christ on the cross. He's hanging by his hands at Golgotha, looking down on the world He has created, inhabited, and will soon be leaving. The "repercussions" dying off are the pains and imperfections of the flesh with which He has endured. As He loses consciousness, the pain of his reality dies away. Christ baptises with water, and, as His time on earth ends, He "dr[inks] in the whole wide world," the holiness of His presence withdrawing from the world to reside with the Father. The Spirit, residing within Christ at the moment in which this song takes place, baptises with fire, so it is "buring inside" of him, soon to be released.