The Devil In The Wishing Well Lyrics

Lyric discussion by johnkwolfe 

Cover art for The Devil In The Wishing Well lyrics by Five for Fighting

wow, reading your guys' comments has completely changed my perception of this song. ok, so the narrator switches a lot between the devil and jane, and when they go to the part "so go right, you'll be left, etc" it's just one of them giving directions to anyone who'd listen. and i think jane is sort of the hero of this story, because she cut some of her heart out for the devil, and spent time with him, talked with him, but in the end, she's still trying to save him, shown in the repeating vamp "jane says, it's a long way out, i'm gonna make it out". so the devil is still trapped in that well, but jane's not giving up on him.

the song also speaks to the nature of evil, like someone said earlier. here, they take the ultimate evil, the devil, and portray him as simply misunderstood...well, maybe not simply, but you know what i mean. it's just saying, no matter how bad someone may seem, all they need is love and understanding, and it may be a long way out, but with your help, they're gonna make it out.

sorry, this is getting long, but i also think that maybe john ondrasik is in some way the devil in this song, and in his actual life he was saved by someone named jane, (note the song jainy and the love he shows to her in that) maybe a girlfriend or his wife, who knows. basically, everyone has evil in them, but everyone also has good. yin and yang, and to overcome evil all it takes is someone to understand and care about you. god bless.