This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
It's hidden far away
But someday I may tell
The tale of metal tangle
When into your world I fell
Without you now I wander soaking
Secretly afraid
'Cause in your grasp the fears don't last
(And some of them have stayed)
I wheeled around because I
Didn't hear what you had said
And saw you dancing with Elihu
Up on Leemor's bed
And I was foggy rather groggy, you helped me to my car
The binding belt enclosing me, a Sample in a Jar
And on the market stands unfolding
With all their willies and their wares
I shuffle by alert but numb
To all the glances and the glares
And I think of you unheeding
All the times I raise my cup
It's now I know that you knew that
I'd soon end up end up
I wheeled around because I
Didn't hear what you had said
And saw you dancing with Elihu
Up on Leemor's bed
And I was foggy rather groggy, you helped me to my car
The binding belt enclosing me, a Sample in a Jar
You tricked me like the others
And now I don't belong
The simple smiles and good times seem all wrong
But someday I may tell
The tale of metal tangle
When into your world I fell
Without you now I wander soaking
Secretly afraid
'Cause in your grasp the fears don't last
(And some of them have stayed)
I wheeled around because I
Didn't hear what you had said
And saw you dancing with Elihu
Up on Leemor's bed
And I was foggy rather groggy, you helped me to my car
The binding belt enclosing me, a Sample in a Jar
And on the market stands unfolding
With all their willies and their wares
I shuffle by alert but numb
To all the glances and the glares
And I think of you unheeding
All the times I raise my cup
It's now I know that you knew that
I'd soon end up end up
I wheeled around because I
Didn't hear what you had said
And saw you dancing with Elihu
Up on Leemor's bed
And I was foggy rather groggy, you helped me to my car
The binding belt enclosing me, a Sample in a Jar
You tricked me like the others
And now I don't belong
The simple smiles and good times seem all wrong
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Here's a quote I've heard from a reliable source: Sample in a Jar is about a time Trey got really drunk at a bar. The "Sample in a Jar" is Trey on the ride home from the bar as all his buddies were taking car of him. The "binding belt enclosing me" is a seat belt. "The glances and glares" probably refer to people being worried about him, and to those who are angry at him. If anyone has ever taken care of an extremely drunk friend it can be very annoying and frustrating. He speaks of being "foggy, rather groggy," which probably describes being intoxicated. All the other strange lines are about things he saw on the ride home, staring out the window. "The marketplace unfolding with all their willies and their ware" could mean the ride home took them through a main strip/town square/strip mall/center of commerce. "Elihu," and "Leemor" and other strange nonsense in the song refer to signs and stores he saw on the ride home.
I think the most definitive lines are towards the end of the song: "And I think of you unheeding All the times I've raised my cup It's now I know that you knew that I'd soon end up end up."
Basically, this seems to say: "I know you don't like drinking, but I've been drunk a lot in my life. I guess now I know you were right, I did end up flat on my face."
The person to whom he is speaking could be someone who disapproves of drinking, a friend, or Significant Other. Lastly, "The simple smiles and good times seem all wrong," tells me that boozing can be a good time, although sometimes drinking can make you miserable. Of course, if I am wrong and this is a Marshall song, not an Anastasio song, then this whole thing applies to Tom Marshall. However, I remember hearing that Trey personally really liked the song, and that's why it why played so often in '95, right after it was written.
You know this is a cover of a little feat song, right?
First of all, you all claim to be Phish fans, and yet you don't give Tom Marshall credit for the lyrics.<br /> <br /> Secondly, I'll take a stab at the meaning:<br /> <br /> It's about a guy who gets hammered and leaves a party angry (perhaps after watching his love interest flirt with other men) ((Dancing with Elihou. . .)). She helps him to the car, and he ends up crashed, trapped ((binding-(seat)belt enclosing me) upside-down ((end-up)), in his car, just thinking about how the night went wrong. <br /> <br /> And now he's still with this woman in a serious relationship, and he has to look at her and wonder how, if she loves him, she allowed this to happen to him so long ago. <br /> <br /> Think of a frong suspended in formaldahyde, just stuck there without being able to move. . .waiting futilly for help. . .a Sample in a Jar.<br /> <br /> God Bless.
This song hits home - and maybe someday I can tell how it does. RagTimeBlue's interpretation is about right - except I'm not with her anymore. But she sure did help me into that car - and I sure did end up end up. And I sure did wheel around feeling foggy as she went into a room with two guys. It's a sad sad story. I am a sample in a jar. Now I have panic attacks and the only thing that helps me through them is thinking about all the smiles and good times "we" had. Yuck
Thank you JarSample. There's nothing wrong with looking at the positive side OR the negative side. Some make for better songs, and some for a better night's sleep. Neither is more true than the other. In the end, memories exist only in our minds, and do not repeat in reality. I wish you improvement with the panic attacks. God bless you, and thank you again, Tom.
Gives me the impression of a handicapped person going home from a party slightly drunk and alone.
"wheeled around" doesn't necessarily mean he's in a wheelchair, but I used to get that impression as well.
I don't know where you got that from, but to each their own. I look at this like looking back on a relationship gone bad. Sounds like the writer is slowly coming to terms with what the other person put them through. Now, the chorus, on the other hand kinda paints a picture of maybe running into that other person at like a party or something. Something gets said, there's some degree of animosity, but that other person still helps him/her to their car to end the night....
...the Elihu and Lemore thing is totally foreign to me. Best I could dig up is that they're both modern-era philosophers....
i think it's about getting a drug test
driving drunk is in there somwhere
I think it's about hooking up with someone at a party when the singer was drunk, and he's confused why she doesn't have lasting feelings for him (and she seems to just be helping him to his car/from the party out of sympathy). Or something like that.
i dont know relationship probably like alot of phish songs
"...the Elihu and Lemore thing is totally foreign to me. Best I could dig up is that they're both modern-era philosophers...."
That would make some sense that two philosophers' names were used because I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that Trey had a degree in philosophy. Although...I would bet that Tom Marshall probably wrote this (if so, maybe Trey helped with the chorus).
I'm pretty sure Trey had a degree in music but he might have minored in philosophy i dunno. I think it could be about losing someone but it's kind of vague to me.