In Your Atmosphere Lyrics

Lyric discussion by sicboi 

Cover art for In Your Atmosphere lyrics by John Mayer

easily one of my favourite JM songs. Incredible guitar playing and vocals, which in combination is an amazing thing to replay consistently in live concerts.

Thought I might weigh in on the "10 and 2" interpretations. I thought that this reference was to the steering wheel hand positions with the clue in the rest of the lyric i.e. "The 10 and 2 is the loneliest sight". Given the consistent grammar correctness in his songs thus far, I would think the use of "is the" rather than "are the" signifies the reference to the sight than the 2 highways.

Either way, the interpretations here are clever, and all the more amazing on JM's part to create that dual vision, both relating to a loneliness we can all relate to.

cheers

10 & 2 refer to both hands on the steering wheel. This means that he is not using his right hand to hold hers but is instead alone in the car. That's why it's a lonely sight.

@sicboi It's def about SoCA fwys, note that preceding that line he sings about getting lost on the Blvd.

In interviews early on in his career he talked about how hard it was for him, driving in LA area and the traffic is just next level. He mentioned how it was so confusing because the Fwys all have two names.. .half us of call them by numbers and half of us call then by names... and how he continually got lost.

Most importantly - and this happened to me late one night coming home after a redeye flight into LAX..late...