Perhaps I should call this "interpretation, "not "meaning" but I really think I understand it.
This is a song about an artist who thinks he has lost his muse. But that's the paradox:
the song itself is beautiful and works.
Perhaps it is not everything it should be in the eyes of he who wrote it, but the power
of the increasing motion of the waltz cadence makes it perfect to me.
It's a song of regret for talent lost and wasted. It is self reproach, and a call to be honest.
The "who" is a question: who is to blame for his inability to connect to his art and his audience?
It is a song that says, "you know perfectly well that it is you yourself who is in your own way.
Thus, nobody is stomping on his face, its an excuse he will no longer abide.
He says to himself:
You once "rang bells" that is you could hit the audience where they lived.
You once could concentrate and work patiently with the "gypsy" which is inspiration.
You pretend someone has kidnapped her, but you let her go yourself, "stopping the feeling",
in order to be hip.
The second verse shows him looking in all the wrong places. (By the way, "it can only be screened"
should be "it can only be green") which makes sense if he is saying
that only nature can bring back his talent, he can't get it artificially.
In the third verse he's turning a corner, recognizing he still values what he does, although it gets harder to do it.
@sparrowC Your first half is excellent. I feel you've gotten it
exactly. It's about Neil being the tortured artist, who has no confidence in himself. BTW, as someone else suggested wrongly, it wasn't the record company that didn't want Neil to sing this, it was
Neil himself who felt he was awful. Neil's nickname was "Clancy" and the singing reference is obvious. Also, "paint a gold nugget, you can't lay a claim," meaning if you write a crappy song, but dress
it up pretty, it's still false (crappy) you can't claim it's not. Neil was so insecure, as...
@sparrowC Your first half is excellent. I feel you've gotten it
exactly. It's about Neil being the tortured artist, who has no confidence in himself. BTW, as someone else suggested wrongly, it wasn't the record company that didn't want Neil to sing this, it was
Neil himself who felt he was awful. Neil's nickname was "Clancy" and the singing reference is obvious. Also, "paint a gold nugget, you can't lay a claim," meaning if you write a crappy song, but dress
it up pretty, it's still false (crappy) you can't claim it's not. Neil was so insecure, as many artists were(are). If he couldn't even sing his
own words, then what's the point of even writing new ones. All in all,
you had a great interpretation.
Perhaps I should call this "interpretation, "not "meaning" but I really think I understand it.
This is a song about an artist who thinks he has lost his muse. But that's the paradox: the song itself is beautiful and works. Perhaps it is not everything it should be in the eyes of he who wrote it, but the power of the increasing motion of the waltz cadence makes it perfect to me.
It's a song of regret for talent lost and wasted. It is self reproach, and a call to be honest. The "who" is a question: who is to blame for his inability to connect to his art and his audience? It is a song that says, "you know perfectly well that it is you yourself who is in your own way. Thus, nobody is stomping on his face, its an excuse he will no longer abide. He says to himself: You once "rang bells" that is you could hit the audience where they lived. You once could concentrate and work patiently with the "gypsy" which is inspiration. You pretend someone has kidnapped her, but you let her go yourself, "stopping the feeling", in order to be hip. The second verse shows him looking in all the wrong places. (By the way, "it can only be screened" should be "it can only be green") which makes sense if he is saying that only nature can bring back his talent, he can't get it artificially. In the third verse he's turning a corner, recognizing he still values what he does, although it gets harder to do it.
See what he does here and see if you agree: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0wzjXsG8ts
@sparrowC Your first half is excellent. I feel you've gotten it exactly. It's about Neil being the tortured artist, who has no confidence in himself. BTW, as someone else suggested wrongly, it wasn't the record company that didn't want Neil to sing this, it was Neil himself who felt he was awful. Neil's nickname was "Clancy" and the singing reference is obvious. Also, "paint a gold nugget, you can't lay a claim," meaning if you write a crappy song, but dress it up pretty, it's still false (crappy) you can't claim it's not. Neil was so insecure, as...
@sparrowC Your first half is excellent. I feel you've gotten it exactly. It's about Neil being the tortured artist, who has no confidence in himself. BTW, as someone else suggested wrongly, it wasn't the record company that didn't want Neil to sing this, it was Neil himself who felt he was awful. Neil's nickname was "Clancy" and the singing reference is obvious. Also, "paint a gold nugget, you can't lay a claim," meaning if you write a crappy song, but dress it up pretty, it's still false (crappy) you can't claim it's not. Neil was so insecure, as many artists were(are). If he couldn't even sing his own words, then what's the point of even writing new ones. All in all, you had a great interpretation.