I've been into this song lately. The lyrics have a more dreamy an abstract feel to them than the rest of Around the Sun.
I love caitsith01's point about the Popeye reference. Stipe seems to really love cartoon-like stuff and this song has some cartoony images. Popeye, of course. Then, the Big Wham Bam was an Ed the Sock show (a sock puppet, not a cartoon, but still). Then, plays with words like "I'm a cactus trying to be a canoe" and "marked your chapter with a catamaran" sound like cartoon images. The part about panning for ore and gold kind of makes me think of Yosemite Sam. It seems like he's bringing up 70s rock also; Telegram Sam was a T. Rex song.
I see this song as the protagonist putting together the images and memories of cartoons and rock music from his childhood and constructing a character out of them. The character is navigating the present though and is totally confused by it.
I've been into this song lately. The lyrics have a more dreamy an abstract feel to them than the rest of Around the Sun.
I love caitsith01's point about the Popeye reference. Stipe seems to really love cartoon-like stuff and this song has some cartoony images. Popeye, of course. Then, the Big Wham Bam was an Ed the Sock show (a sock puppet, not a cartoon, but still). Then, plays with words like "I'm a cactus trying to be a canoe" and "marked your chapter with a catamaran" sound like cartoon images. The part about panning for ore and gold kind of makes me think of Yosemite Sam. It seems like he's bringing up 70s rock also; Telegram Sam was a T. Rex song.
I see this song as the protagonist putting together the images and memories of cartoons and rock music from his childhood and constructing a character out of them. The character is navigating the present though and is totally confused by it.