As good as lyrics get IMO. Actually not wrtten by Lowe... Thought about it a lot. Here's the distilled rundown of my interpretation. He's saying this:
... somewhere back there, maybe in my blood, my imagination, or maybe reincarnation, I was a soldier. A pretty gnarly one too, like an American or British cavalry officer, or something. I was "in the shit" and it's really stuck with me eternally... then at some other point back there I was a tax collector. Again, I was good at it and oversaw some pretty bad stuff that seems pointless and has also really stayed a part of me.
Then, in 27 words he says this... then I got to be ruler once, and I also died countless times as an innocent child. But also lighten up, this has all just been a joke.
As good as lyrics get IMO. Actually not wrtten by Lowe... Thought about it a lot. Here's the distilled rundown of my interpretation. He's saying this:
... somewhere back there, maybe in my blood, my imagination, or maybe reincarnation, I was a soldier. A pretty gnarly one too, like an American or British cavalry officer, or something. I was "in the shit" and it's really stuck with me eternally... then at some other point back there I was a tax collector. Again, I was good at it and oversaw some pretty bad stuff that seems pointless and has also really stayed a part of me.
Then, in 27 words he says this... then I got to be ruler once, and I also died countless times as an innocent child. But also lighten up, this has all just been a joke.