For many people this song is about reincarnation. According to my experience with MM, however, many of Issac Brock's songs are about life, death, and what lays beyond. He also seems to have a very existentialist view of the world and of life (though paradoxically agnostic), so I would doubt that he would believe in reincarnation. What he is describing is how how he actually came into the world. To call them contradictions (such as "I came as gold, I came as crap") would be wrong. Instead, he is showing the possible states that every human being can take on while also exploring the duality of man.
Next, Modest Mouse is a band of lite motifs (techniques that show up again and again, such as the bending of guitar notes). One of them is the line "I don't know, but I've been told, you'll never die if you never grow old." In order to understand the line, you have to move away from the idea that dying and growing old are physical concepts. Instead, think of growing old as ceasing to live life to the fullest and giving up on trying to be remembered. Think of not dying as "being gone but living on." Now when we look at the line it makes sense with the rest of the song. You come into the world with endless possibilities for both utter success and utter failure, but always in shades of gray. And you have to accept that even if God himself is going to die someday, you're going to die first. But if you want live on in memories and books and stories, you have to keep living until the day you die. You'll never die if you never grow old.
For many people this song is about reincarnation. According to my experience with MM, however, many of Issac Brock's songs are about life, death, and what lays beyond. He also seems to have a very existentialist view of the world and of life (though paradoxically agnostic), so I would doubt that he would believe in reincarnation. What he is describing is how how he actually came into the world. To call them contradictions (such as "I came as gold, I came as crap") would be wrong. Instead, he is showing the possible states that every human being can take on while also exploring the duality of man.
Next, Modest Mouse is a band of lite motifs (techniques that show up again and again, such as the bending of guitar notes). One of them is the line "I don't know, but I've been told, you'll never die if you never grow old." In order to understand the line, you have to move away from the idea that dying and growing old are physical concepts. Instead, think of growing old as ceasing to live life to the fullest and giving up on trying to be remembered. Think of not dying as "being gone but living on." Now when we look at the line it makes sense with the rest of the song. You come into the world with endless possibilities for both utter success and utter failure, but always in shades of gray. And you have to accept that even if God himself is going to die someday, you're going to die first. But if you want live on in memories and books and stories, you have to keep living until the day you die. You'll never die if you never grow old.