I'm pretty sure the fourth line was meant to be "If I want...I could die..." but it was changed to "dye" with the delayed "oh....my hair" so as not to seem like it was advocating suicide. After all, he does keep saying "hold my life because I just might lose it" throughout the song, which I suppose makes it okay because then it has a double meaning. Anyway, this song reminds me of these lines from an Emily Dickinson poem:
“My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -
In Corners - till a Day
The Owner passed - identified -
And carried Me away -”
And those lines refer to someone whose life is on hold until one day that person is summoned by God. Back in the '80s I never would have guessed that the Replacements were talking about being called by God, but I'm finding that more and more songs that used to seem cryptic to me make sense in some kind of spiritual or apocalyptic context.
I'm pretty sure the fourth line was meant to be "If I want...I could die..." but it was changed to "dye" with the delayed "oh....my hair" so as not to seem like it was advocating suicide. After all, he does keep saying "hold my life because I just might lose it" throughout the song, which I suppose makes it okay because then it has a double meaning. Anyway, this song reminds me of these lines from an Emily Dickinson poem:
“My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun - In Corners - till a Day The Owner passed - identified - And carried Me away -”
And those lines refer to someone whose life is on hold until one day that person is summoned by God. Back in the '80s I never would have guessed that the Replacements were talking about being called by God, but I'm finding that more and more songs that used to seem cryptic to me make sense in some kind of spiritual or apocalyptic context.
@epiwoosh This may seem silly but I initially thought he was saying:
@epiwoosh This may seem silly but I initially thought he was saying:
“If I want, I could die (by) my (own) hand”
“If I want, I could die (by) my (own) hand”