I would interpret the line "not even jail" a little bit different. To me, the whole song deals with a very strange, maybe also psychologically disordered man, who suffers from a lot of bad habits and complexes. This man meets a person, probably a woman, who gives his life a completely new direction and he would do everything to start a relationship with her, he would change his whole life for her. But in my opinion, the lines
"we all hold hands/can´t we all hold hands/when we make new friends" and
"But holding still Darling/and yout hair so free/can´t you feel the warms of my sincerity/"
mean, that it didn´t work out, she refused him, maybe because she doesn´t think he could become a different person for her. So he says goodbye to her, knowing that he´ll might never see her again. So he´s alone again, alone with his own problems and fears and he realises that his whole life is just a fake and empty without her, it´s actually worse than jail, it´s "not even jail" and he can only hope, that he will get a second chance one day. I don´t know, but this comes to my mind, when I listen to the lyrics and especially to the longingly way, in which Paul sings. But I think the best thing about Interpols songs and lyrics is, that everyone can identify with them according to his personal experiences, so everyone can think different about their songs and still be right.
I would interpret the line "not even jail" a little bit different. To me, the whole song deals with a very strange, maybe also psychologically disordered man, who suffers from a lot of bad habits and complexes. This man meets a person, probably a woman, who gives his life a completely new direction and he would do everything to start a relationship with her, he would change his whole life for her. But in my opinion, the lines "we all hold hands/can´t we all hold hands/when we make new friends" and "But holding still Darling/and yout hair so free/can´t you feel the warms of my sincerity/" mean, that it didn´t work out, she refused him, maybe because she doesn´t think he could become a different person for her. So he says goodbye to her, knowing that he´ll might never see her again. So he´s alone again, alone with his own problems and fears and he realises that his whole life is just a fake and empty without her, it´s actually worse than jail, it´s "not even jail" and he can only hope, that he will get a second chance one day. I don´t know, but this comes to my mind, when I listen to the lyrics and especially to the longingly way, in which Paul sings. But I think the best thing about Interpols songs and lyrics is, that everyone can identify with them according to his personal experiences, so everyone can think different about their songs and still be right.
This is close to the way I interpret this song.
This is close to the way I interpret this song.
This is close to the way I interpret this song.
This is close to the way I interpret this song.