Ice On The Wing Lyrics

Lyric discussion by Blak 

Cover art for Ice On The Wing lyrics by Nada Surf

Thanks mcseas for the insight.

This song from that standpoint seems a bit cynical. It alludes to the fact that inheritance is not only biological but perhaps social in many ways. A Sopwith Camel plan created in the during WWI certainly does not match up to that of modern planes, "compared to modernity, I am a humming bee". If one inherits his position in society as a Sopwith Camel, his own reality is fixed for him, something this song hints cannot be helped or changed, "I go slow".

I believe a Sopwith Camel could become an F-16 in a free society, but I digress.

Matt also talks quite a bit about religious beliefs being passed down generation by generation.

"Ice is growing on the wing", the plane is going down in other words, we are all dying, ice is growing on all of our wings, etc.

"Underneath the oxide, it's all the same" The Earth's crust is composed almost entirely of oxides. Matt is saying underneath the crust, in a coffin perhaps, it doesn't make a difference what kind of "plane" you are.