156

I have been obsessed with this song for years. Allow me to submit my interpretation of these beautiful lyrics, via direct analysis and inference. At the end, I will harp on what I think the song means more fully:

INTERPRETATION =======================

"From my boat I can see your house And when the lights are on I can watch you move"

• The above lyrics are indicative of a person obsessing over another. Specifically, a person in love with another, from afar, though that person does not return those feelings. I am going to assume for the time being the narrator is a male and the subject a female. Why do I think it's an obsessive person from a distance? There are several indicators of distance throughout the song, and the narrator indicates his feelings for the subject are seemingly unrequited.

"Hear the wind whispering your name Twice the encouragement Of the real you"

-(above) She ignores him. We don't know why. He almost stalks her, watching her from far away, loving her, while she ignores him.

"Callie if your really want me to I can always get you down If you got the money for me Callie in the summer rain You will be kept dry you see If you got the money for me"

• (above) these lyrics are fascinating, because they seemingly stand in complete contrast to the rest of the song. A previous poster mentioned this fact, so he/she deserves the credit for that analysis. There is a key to the whole song in these words, but it's so concealed it's hard to tell. Likewise, these may not be the words of the narrator. In fact, they may be someone else related to the subject (the woman). There is also a possibility these words are symbolic in a complete fashion. They may be the narrator's concealed past phrases to the woman, or feelings concealed int eh song. In this way, the words can be interpreted as "I can help you, I can protect you, but you need to give me what I want."

"Making amends for distant wrong Sincere"

• (above) This is hard to understand, but perhaps the reason she is ignoring him has to do with something he did in the past?

"You can run away leave your books behind you but you should look back twice just to be on the safe side"

• (above) She leaves. The subject takes off, away from the narrator. Either she leaves because of him, or just because of circumstance, but she leaves nonetheless.

"From my boat I can see your house but now the lights are off and there is no one home"

• (above) Because she is gone now.

"you are just like an avalanche cold as I might have guessed but at least I am covered up for now"

• (above) He hates the fact that she left, and feels like it was cold of her not to say anything. It was sudden and without warning, like an avalanche.

"In a big, big way I am really small"

• (above) This is how he feels.

"I get off my feet But i'm still distant"

• (above) even trying to fix things with her, or do something of some type to decrease the distance, she still left. She's long gone, literally "distant".

"Don't you just love goodbyes?"

• (above) now this line has more meaning. She left without saying goodbye.

"Callie let us get it over with I can always get you down if you got the money for me Callie in the summerrain You will be kept dry you see If you got the money for me"

• (above) the same chorus. It's unclear whether this is the narrator or not. I would say not, since the singing is different.

"Most of our lives we try so hard to find the time"

• (above) these lyrics are different than the following. More reflection from the narrator.

"I won't care for you like I'm really supposed to there are things I'll do that could really hurt you"

• (above) it is unclear if this is from the narrator, but it seemingly is. It may also be the subject's past words to the narrator, an interpretation I absolutely love.

"Don't you just love goodbyes?"

• (above) once again, she left without saying anything.

"156"

-(above) Ah, the pièce de résistance. This number means nothing to us as the listeners, but to the song writer, or the narrator and subject, it means a lot. So it is useless to try to interpret the meaning of this number, and instead interpret the song itself.

BASICALLY ============================

The song is a song of a woman leaving without saying anything ("you can run away..."); someone from the narrator's past he had feelings for.

He discovers she left and feels hurt that she said nothing, not even goodbye ("don't you just love goodbyes?")

He thinks he could have been great for her if she only returned the feelings ("...if you've got the money for me")

Remember, there are several versions of this song with the same lyrics, and similar tones. However, this interpretation fits all of them.

THE MUSIC VIDEO ======================

Alternatively, an interpretation from the music video is seemingly impossible, since the video is so crazy. If we can use the interpretation I've offered, the band members attempt to break into a house and steal some things, but the elephant sees the girl and feels bad about it. In the end, he throws out the items they stole, regretting their actions.

The music video fits the interpretation that the narrator did something he regrets and she now ignores him, ultimately leaving without saying anything.

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I hope this was helpful. Feel free to copy and paste anywhere, and post to the Mew forums. I would appreciate it if you included my handle: Frank Gamer.

Thanks!