I think the song starts out in the first stanza as a young guy on the dating scene. A little bit of a game player, but looking and a little lost...has a hard time being a good guy (keeping on the straight course). He's a young guy...so many pretty girls, so little time. He has a girlfriend from childhood, but ahh, the temptation!
We flip right into the second stanza quickly. The music changes as radically as the do the lyrics. So, he is still young. He fell in love - and the desperation shows....the passion, the intensity, the dreams, the idyllic bliss. He would do anything for her....the rose garden and growing potatoes symbolize having kids and growing old with her.
There is a loooong musical interlude to the third stanza. This symbolizes all the years that go by...still passionate but it does start to mellow somewhat after the climax.
Final stanza, he is remembering their youth as an old man. The ponytail is awesome. The hills being higher and trees being taller...everything is larger than life in our memories, especially of our childhood....and the grass is always greener.
The movie "Flashbacks of a Fool" can change the meaning....in that first stanza, he has a childhood love, but plays the field....and it is an unsatisfying gameand in his mind makes the pelas of desperation for his love before it is too late, but in reality, he doesn't. Time goes by, and last stanza, it's the mumblings of an old man who let his life go by, not marrying his childhood love, but remembering her nonetheless...that the grass was NOT greener in his choice....
It was a great movie, and putting hte song to the movie, this interpretation seems to fit....
However, I loved the song before the movie, and like it the more romantic and happy meaning :-).
Song is just so hypnotizing; the lyrics "grow potatoes by the score is one of the most romantic lines I have ever heard. To sit and watch potatoes grow, that is true love.
Song is just so hypnotizing; the lyrics "grow potatoes by the score is one of the most romantic lines I have ever heard. To sit and watch potatoes grow, that is true love.
Excellent post, particularly the contrast with "Flashbacks". There is no doubt the movie used the song to summarize its theme at the end.
Excellent post, particularly the contrast with "Flashbacks". There is no doubt the movie used the song to summarize its theme at the end.
I also believe memories are inherently exaggerated -- hills were not higher, trees were not taller, grass was not greener -- but think that "put your feet on the ground" is a warning about that.
I also believe memories are inherently exaggerated -- hills were not higher, trees were not taller, grass was not greener -- but think that "put your feet on the ground" is a warning about that.
(FWIW, in the movie, he was not "playing the field." He was seduced by a Mrs Robinson character.)
(FWIW, in the movie, he was not "playing the field." He was seduced by a Mrs Robinson character.)
The song has always been a favorite of mine, particularly the killer version on Viva!
( ... when I...
The song has always been a favorite of mine, particularly the killer version on Viva!
( ... when I was young ...)
I think the song starts out in the first stanza as a young guy on the dating scene. A little bit of a game player, but looking and a little lost...has a hard time being a good guy (keeping on the straight course). He's a young guy...so many pretty girls, so little time. He has a girlfriend from childhood, but ahh, the temptation!
We flip right into the second stanza quickly. The music changes as radically as the do the lyrics. So, he is still young. He fell in love - and the desperation shows....the passion, the intensity, the dreams, the idyllic bliss. He would do anything for her....the rose garden and growing potatoes symbolize having kids and growing old with her.
There is a loooong musical interlude to the third stanza. This symbolizes all the years that go by...still passionate but it does start to mellow somewhat after the climax.
Final stanza, he is remembering their youth as an old man. The ponytail is awesome. The hills being higher and trees being taller...everything is larger than life in our memories, especially of our childhood....and the grass is always greener.
The movie "Flashbacks of a Fool" can change the meaning....in that first stanza, he has a childhood love, but plays the field....and it is an unsatisfying gameand in his mind makes the pelas of desperation for his love before it is too late, but in reality, he doesn't. Time goes by, and last stanza, it's the mumblings of an old man who let his life go by, not marrying his childhood love, but remembering her nonetheless...that the grass was NOT greener in his choice....
It was a great movie, and putting hte song to the movie, this interpretation seems to fit....
However, I loved the song before the movie, and like it the more romantic and happy meaning :-).
Song is just so hypnotizing; the lyrics "grow potatoes by the score is one of the most romantic lines I have ever heard. To sit and watch potatoes grow, that is true love.
Song is just so hypnotizing; the lyrics "grow potatoes by the score is one of the most romantic lines I have ever heard. To sit and watch potatoes grow, that is true love.
Excellent post, particularly the contrast with "Flashbacks". There is no doubt the movie used the song to summarize its theme at the end.
Excellent post, particularly the contrast with "Flashbacks". There is no doubt the movie used the song to summarize its theme at the end.
I also believe memories are inherently exaggerated -- hills were not higher, trees were not taller, grass was not greener -- but think that "put your feet on the ground" is a warning about that.
I also believe memories are inherently exaggerated -- hills were not higher, trees were not taller, grass was not greener -- but think that "put your feet on the ground" is a warning about that.
(FWIW, in the movie, he was not "playing the field." He was seduced by a Mrs Robinson character.)
(FWIW, in the movie, he was not "playing the field." He was seduced by a Mrs Robinson character.)
The song has always been a favorite of mine, particularly the killer version on Viva! ( ... when I...
The song has always been a favorite of mine, particularly the killer version on Viva! ( ... when I was young ...)