To me, this song is about trying to describe the most religious experiences of life in palpable terms, so that these experiences might be communicated from one individual to others.
First of all, let's start at the end. "If you ever see me dying, just put me in the ground". The dying, to me, means stagnation. Sitting still. This guy, the narrator, is like an artist, and this line refers to the "he not busy being born is busy dying" / "rust never sleeps" concept [never sleeping on rust colored mattressess underwater, if you like].
Moving on... love is the most noble topic that a songwriter, poet, speaker, human being can address, and to even attempt to describe it originally requires Muchos Huevos Grandes, as Steve would say, and I am of the opinion that the narrator achieves this. What I take the lyrics about love to mean is that the human race is aware of love but on the whole does not live by it.
So what do these two ideas that I've mentioned so far have to do with each other? Well, perhaps the narrator feels like his "art" is to tell people about love, and that if you ever come across him and he is doing otherwise, then, like he says, just put him in the ground.
Now, to end at the beginning, the first lyric reminds me of the first step of Jung's individuation process, which says that we must overcome the "shadowy" elements of our own personality before we can become whole human beings.
And as for the ash and dust references, they can either refer to the "artistic" dying mentioned earlier or they can reference literally to a physical death, in which case the lyrics would still indicate the narrator's awareness that he needs to do his mission now while he is still above ground and not in a jar.
Of course, this is only one interpretation, and I know I maybe have wandered down the wrong path, and that some of you may think that I am a crack pot. And I am. But my crack is colour, and I am high all of the time.
To me, this song is about trying to describe the most religious experiences of life in palpable terms, so that these experiences might be communicated from one individual to others.
First of all, let's start at the end. "If you ever see me dying, just put me in the ground". The dying, to me, means stagnation. Sitting still. This guy, the narrator, is like an artist, and this line refers to the "he not busy being born is busy dying" / "rust never sleeps" concept [never sleeping on rust colored mattressess underwater, if you like].
Moving on... love is the most noble topic that a songwriter, poet, speaker, human being can address, and to even attempt to describe it originally requires Muchos Huevos Grandes, as Steve would say, and I am of the opinion that the narrator achieves this. What I take the lyrics about love to mean is that the human race is aware of love but on the whole does not live by it.
So what do these two ideas that I've mentioned so far have to do with each other? Well, perhaps the narrator feels like his "art" is to tell people about love, and that if you ever come across him and he is doing otherwise, then, like he says, just put him in the ground.
Now, to end at the beginning, the first lyric reminds me of the first step of Jung's individuation process, which says that we must overcome the "shadowy" elements of our own personality before we can become whole human beings.
And as for the ash and dust references, they can either refer to the "artistic" dying mentioned earlier or they can reference literally to a physical death, in which case the lyrics would still indicate the narrator's awareness that he needs to do his mission now while he is still above ground and not in a jar.
Of course, this is only one interpretation, and I know I maybe have wandered down the wrong path, and that some of you may think that I am a crack pot. And I am. But my crack is colour, and I am high all of the time.