Long Time Running

I interpret this song as being about a cheating husband who finally comes clean.

Verse 1: His mother-in-law thinks he's a great guy, but he knows that it's not true. That being with him is a grave mistake, because he knows that he ultimately will betray her.

Verse 2: He cheats on his wife. He compares himself to a weatherman because he knows what is going to happen, but he feels powerless to stop it.

Verse 3: The cycle repeats again and again. He never makes progress until...

Verse 4: He finally decides to come clean to "tell on" his addiction, no matter the price. While others have interpreted "drop a caribou" as using a payphone, I interpret it more generally as paying a small price. His wife forgives him, he ends up paying for his sins far less than he deserved or expected to.

Verse 5: The man scolds his addiction before he leaves it out in the cold, finally kicking the habit. The chorus is now fulfilled. His addiction was a long time running. Its end was a long time coming. It was well worth the wait.

I heard Gord say Live "Long time Running, its a love song about breasts and vaginas and penises."

The Chorus goes, "It's been a long time running It's been a long time coming It's well worth the wait"

I always took this song as a father's point of view on a divorce with an impossibly manipulative woman.

The first verse seems to be directed towards the child, whom the mother has been trying to turn against the father.

I have no idea what the weather man thing is about, but that's why the hip is great.. you'll find meaning to verses even years after hearing the song. All I know is this verse expresses a lot of frustration.

The 'just on trips' is probably about how futile a little family vacation is...as in it can't patch an apparent void between the parents.

The final verse seems to be directed towards the woman herself. Call her out for what she is and shut her out in the cold.

"We don't go anywhere Just on trips"

my all time favorite line from any song.

i like to think it's about the people in the song wasting time sitting around getting high...'tripping out' not accomplishing anything and time continues to pass them by

I don't know about everybody else, but for me, this seems to be a song about a relationship that has well long run it's course and that the guy singing it knows this and he is actually glad its over, I know that much. Absolutely beautiful song, my favourite Hip track of them all, really touching.

In 1991, Amsterdam - Paradiso, Gord introduced the song with following comment :

"This is a song for a guy who believes that prostitutes should wear wedding rings, because they get way more business"

It accents Fully completely´s meaning.

'Drop a caribou' means that the protagonist is suggesting that he might put a Canadian quarter into a payphone and tell on his ex.

Overall, the song is basically the ramblings of a man who is speaking to a former lover with a lot of bitterness but also a kind of awe. It's like he has just lost all the vestiges of affection that he had for her and he is hyper-conscious of this. I always picture him saying all of this out loud in an empty room. He knows that nothing positive can come out of saying these things to her but he has to say them out loud to move on.

FaV: Weatherman wetfingers the sky

K im pretty sure I understand this right and have not seen anyone get it yet.

This song is about time and karma (in a way) and that people should enjoy the present moment - that's the worth the wait part, its like ironic, its not worth the wait as in what comes later is better like that phrase usually means.

Each verse is about different people and situations or ways the mistake manifests and perpetuates. It's not one single story of one family or something.

I think it starts out about a girl whose mom is telling her to marry this guy who is long long gone, and he says that's a grave mistake, cause he's not even in her life. And he's wide awake (aware), he knows it's a mistake to let other people tell you what to do or to listen to them instead of being in the present moment and looking at your situation and knowing for yourself.

So the next part about the weatherman (and this is the most easy for me to understand the message of the song), is an example to explain how her situation is a mistake. He describes that and says it's the same. And what he described was that the drive in's rained out - so it's obvious t everyone that it rained a lot/is raining a lot. The weather man does the finger thing and doesn't know why. He didn't need to do that. He can see just like everyone else very plainly what the weather is. But he did that without thinking. Probably from habit. He didn't need to, he could see for himself, he already knew. And the weather man is someone people always listen to, feel comfortable listening to, instead of just looking for themselves. But he doesn't even think about what he's doing. So Gord is saying, look at the situation for yourself and you will know what is what. Don't listen to other people to tell you what to do in life cause they probably don't even know anyway.

goes on about going on trips and not seeing a thing, not knowing where it is. That's cause we're all looking for the answers out there, not right in front of us. We are missing everything because we are chasing a life in the future making plans. The only real thing we have is right now. So if you're not relaxing and enjoying the waiting part before you get to your thing you're waiting for, you miss everything.

the other verse i think is to show the pain we get from living like that. Expecting others to do what you want, not accepting that people should do what they want. People agree to things others want instead of what they want, following some idea of what life should be like instead of working with what is right in front of them, is a betrayal, and betrays the other too. And then everyone is hurting each other. It's all a mistake.

People get all mad and would say like your karma was a long time coming. The choices we make as to how we live our life will bring us our karma. It takes a long time. But we get it no matter what, its worth the wait, its good to wait. And the waiting part is your life. It's where the worth is.