Cassy O Lyrics

Lyric discussion by StagFortress 

Cover art for Cassy O lyrics by George Ezra

This song is about a guy who loves a girl, but can't quite figure out what he wants. He can't quite commit. His relationship stagnates as he tries to work through his own personal issues. His girl, understandably, becomes tired of his indecisiveness, and contemplates ending the relationship.

"Cassy's got a new plan, gotta get herself away Well, I'd better act quick, yeah, I'd better change my ways Oh, maybe I'm wasting, maybe I'm chasing time Oh, come on, let's face it, I'm only ever lost in mine"

Cassy begins to decide that she needs to leave; Ezra realizes that he's messed up and that he'd better act. He figures out that all the things that he thought was wrong with the relationship was really just his own insecurities.

"Well, I got my tracing paper, so that I could trace my clock And the bastard face kept changing, and the hands, they wouldn't stop I was ripping out the battery, I received myself a shock And to add insult to injury, I could still hear tick and tock"

Ezra tries to step back and look at what the problem actually is. As soon as he makes one revelation, a new conundrum surfaces (he's trying to trace the clock, but the hands keep moving).

"Cassy's got a new plan, gotta give herself a break And I try, I try, I try, for heaven's sake Well, I traveled to Australia And I traveled there by train This something might sound strange to you But on the way I gained a day"

Ezra does some in depth self analysis; he takes a trip either physically or metaphorically, and things begin to come clear. The impossible train ride is an analogy for his disbelief that he finally begins to make progress in understanding his seemingly insurmountable relationship problems (of which he alone is the progenitor). By "gained a day", he means things have become clear, and his state of emotional stagnation has regressed back to the halcyon days of his relationship, when everything was jovial and full of possibility.

"And I wrote to tell my family And I wrote to tell my friends I arrived home, it was lost again and this torture never ends"

For all his efforts and discovery, he returns to reality to face the issue and realizes very little has actually changed.

"Inspector, fix me, my Cassy O's burnt out We're losing memories that I can't replace She says she's tired of me running in circles She says it's time that we took a break"

Increasingly dissatisfied with his situation, he begs anyone or anything for help. His girl is done, and she can't put up with it. He realizes that they are currently, and have been for a while, failing to develop new and meaningful experiences. With this failure, their relationship suffers. She's tired of his inability to commit.

Or something along those lines.

My Interpretation