Oats in the Water Lyrics

Lyric discussion by slosh000 

Cover art for Oats in the Water lyrics by Ben Howard

Coke is a high carbon material derived from coal and used in the process of smelting iron ore to make steel. Midas was a king in Greek mythology who turned things to gold by his touch, this of course was a curse and not a blessing because even his food and drink turned to gold and he eventually died hungry despite his wealth. In gold smelting, coke is not normally used as it would be an impurity in the gold. "Coke in the Midas touch" is a metaphor possibly meaning that there is a cost to comfort and riches. This metalurgical metaphor is consistent with the next line which says "a joke in the way we rust." Again, rust destroys, just as coke would ruin the purity of gold. It is therefore, unlikely that the word "coke" refers to cocaine as the language of metaphor convincingly points to it referring to the coke used in smelting.

This explanation makes the most sense. Thanks for posting it.

may I had what I think of the line "a joke in the way that we rust, and breath again". Scientifically, we know that our bodies deteriorate as they do mainly because we breath... the free radicals we inhale internevene in the aging process. So we can consider it is a "joke" that when we breath, our body "rusts" but we breath again because, at the same time, we need oxygen in order to live. So basically this line says it's kinda funny in a twisted way that what makes us live, is killing us. I find this song brilliant in...

My Interpretation

@catarina_scn this is brilliant, i'm kinda in love with the lyrics mainly because of what you wrote, i heard the song several times before i searched for the meaning but i've never thought about it that way. this led me to another thought and i just want to add this to your interpretation of te verse - the oxidation that leads to the rust in metals also occurs in our bodies, like you said. so we're basically "rusting" everytime we breathe, but still, awarely, we keep breathing because it is obviously vital for us, even though it is what's killing...