Please correct me if I'm wrong, however it seems abundantly clear to me that this song is about a person experiencing an existentialist crisis - something which the vast majority of us are plagued with in today's consumer age.
"Well I took off running at the greatest speed
I didn't bother looking to either side of me
Oh, I did not see, I just did not see what was really going on"
The first bit is about the rat race. It's such an excellent metaphor for how people waste away the prime of their lives behind a desk in a desperate attempt to get ahead of the "game" (this is another aspect of the song which I will go into more detail later); tirelessly working away to make money to buy stuff we don't really need.
"The trees had stopped and the skyline rose
Exchanging comfort for more fashionable clothes
I left the hills at this point in time
To run on treadmills in a perfect line."
How brilliantly written! How true! We HAVE left the things we find comfortable behind. And why? Because we are afraid. Look around you. Advertisement preys on our fears - you exercise because you are afraid you're too fat (barely anyone runs for the sake of enjoyment, too many people are far too concerned with "calorie counting" and whatnot); you buy nice clothes because you are afraid of looking sloppy; you buy an iPhone because you fear being the only one without one. and the list goes.
Then the song goes:
"Salad days add up to daily shit
Sparking imagination till the sparks just quit
And if this is fun why'm I so bored with it?
Well I'll probably never know"
Again, the term "salad days" is a metaphor for the routines people adopt as a result of their fears. It could anything from a diet plan, to the job you do daily to pay off your debts for that condo you just bought. And this brain-numbing, mundane things we do, just adds up to the "daily shit" we are faced with. We have ceased to think for ourselves, and our existence is one which is driven by our dears. We do things because we think we need to do them, and not because we want to do them. Hence, "sparking imagination till the sparks just quit. And if this is fun why'm I so bored with it? Well I'll probably never know"
I could go on, but I'm too lazy to finish this analysis
Please correct me if I'm wrong, however it seems abundantly clear to me that this song is about a person experiencing an existentialist crisis - something which the vast majority of us are plagued with in today's consumer age.
"Well I took off running at the greatest speed I didn't bother looking to either side of me Oh, I did not see, I just did not see what was really going on"
The first bit is about the rat race. It's such an excellent metaphor for how people waste away the prime of their lives behind a desk in a desperate attempt to get ahead of the "game" (this is another aspect of the song which I will go into more detail later); tirelessly working away to make money to buy stuff we don't really need.
"The trees had stopped and the skyline rose Exchanging comfort for more fashionable clothes I left the hills at this point in time To run on treadmills in a perfect line."
How brilliantly written! How true! We HAVE left the things we find comfortable behind. And why? Because we are afraid. Look around you. Advertisement preys on our fears - you exercise because you are afraid you're too fat (barely anyone runs for the sake of enjoyment, too many people are far too concerned with "calorie counting" and whatnot); you buy nice clothes because you are afraid of looking sloppy; you buy an iPhone because you fear being the only one without one. and the list goes.
Then the song goes:
"Salad days add up to daily shit Sparking imagination till the sparks just quit And if this is fun why'm I so bored with it? Well I'll probably never know"
Again, the term "salad days" is a metaphor for the routines people adopt as a result of their fears. It could anything from a diet plan, to the job you do daily to pay off your debts for that condo you just bought. And this brain-numbing, mundane things we do, just adds up to the "daily shit" we are faced with. We have ceased to think for ourselves, and our existence is one which is driven by our dears. We do things because we think we need to do them, and not because we want to do them. Hence, "sparking imagination till the sparks just quit. And if this is fun why'm I so bored with it? Well I'll probably never know"
I could go on, but I'm too lazy to finish this analysis