So Much to Say

If you've ever been depressed you would relate to it as being in a depressed state...I say my hell is the closet I�m stuck inside Can�t see the light... You get trapped in your own mind. Wishing you could talk to someone, but not being able to explain what's going on in your own mind. You have so much to say...but you keep it locked up inside. Just like being a little baby...you would imagine they have so much going on in their minds but aren't able to talk to tell you...The only escape you have is to go to your comfort zone within your own mind...my heaven is a nice house in the sky Got central heating and I�m alright...treading trodden trails for a long long time...because it's continuous...so it's much easier to pretend you are someone else at times. That's how I relate to it anyway...and I'm sure there is a totally different meaning to everyone that listens to it...it's how it affects your own thoughts. There are so many different things it could actually mean...but it would be really cool to know what he was actually thinking when he wrote it and the true meaning behind the song...regardless...I love it!!! Dave Matthews Rocks!!!

Believe it or not, we spent a whole day in a college course on Child Developement disussing this song. Although certain parts may mean different things to different people (and some of my interpretations may be a stretch), the main gist of the song is the gradual developement of a child into a thinking, speaking individual.

      I say my hell is the closet I’m stuck inside
      Can’t see the light

Is a reference to being trapped inside the womb, with

         ...my heaven is a nice house in the sky
         Got central heating and I’m alright

representing the exit from the womb.

      Keep it locked up inside don’t talk about it...
    Open up my head and let me out, little baby

Refers to baby's frustration at not being able to communicate yet.

Now, once baby reaches speaking age--and of course Dave Matthews, being a "deep" musical artist, talks about the shallowness of one's conversations once we can speak, despite baby's earlier yearning to communicate, having had "so much to say." And what does baby talk about when he can finally speak?--after he had, "so much to say?" and was stuck in his own "hell" of muteness? The bloody weather! And not just that, but other mundain topics over and over again, as represented by the lyrics

 Here we have been standing for a long, long time
 Treading trodden trails for a long, long time

The "trodden trails" (Nice alliteration by the way) are topics that have been disussed ad neaseum. Basicaslly, nobody has anything new to say, making Dave Matthew's repetitious chorus "so much to say" all the more ironic.

Pretty clever song for an ex bartender who never went to college.

I'm not sure but I think at least part of this is about how in our society we train ourselves to stay superficial in our conversations and not talk about what is really on our mind ("keep it locked up inside, don't talk about it, talk about the weather") I really like this song because it addresses something that bothers me in everyday life.

The most powerful line to me in this song is "I find sometimes it’s easy to be myself / Sometimes I find it’s better to be somebody else." I think Dave goes through the same dilemma as everyone else. Everyone feels uncomfortable in certain situations but comfortable in others. Sometimes you feel like you can speak your mind, but then other times you fear rejection and speak the mind of someone else.

the last line "open up my head and let me out" you know where its just the voice is really really cool to me...

good song dave :)

if you get a chance to dl the video for this song but it is awsome and bringsa whole new life to the song

plus the sax player smiles...he never does but in this video he did :)

I think that Dave is talkin about how sometimes it is just easier to put on a facade than to actually be yourself. It is one of my favorite Dave songs.

one thing i love about the song is the complete contradiction it makes - while stating that there is "so much to say," dave is, for the most part, repeating the same lines over and over. i adore the paradox that creates.

I'm not sure about the song as a whole, but the last part where he talks about "One year of crying and the words creep up inside" he's talking about a newborn child and how after a year or so, they start to talk. And they have so much to say! :p Maybe one theme of the song is that he feels a sort of lament for the child that he has to go through all that Dave describes in the first half of the song, although the upbeat tune to the song might contradict that :p

I think NateKalbach is correct about the meaning and I HAVE to agree with Deathbear abot the last line "Open up my head and let me out Little baby" Its just awesome. I love this song and Love the video especially at that last line part; While Dave is singing it he's looking around the room and when he plays that last note it shows Leroi Moore smiling in Daves place for a split-second. Its funny.