Pablo Picasso

I believe that this song is about a crazy homeless man who has fallen in love with a billboard of some celebrity. When the company wants to change the billboard to another theme, he protestes and this makes him famous with local people, but the company calls the police to take down the billboard and that's where the song takes place.

Feels to me like CC is talking about liberty and freedom.

Seems like the first verse could be going in and out of a literal interpretation of the Statue of Liberty. The fight for freedom and democracy (as portrayed by the media) is always in the papers. When the statue of liberty is lit, her features are very defined. go overseas or to 3rd world countries that are suppressed, they get treated as celebrities (so I've heard). She never bats an eye, because she's a statue...

Mr. officer, don't try to take my freedom away, or one of us is going to be laid out.

The second verse is referring more to the cost of freedom, and having to fight for it constantly. Also, some people that try to rise up against the establishments tend to get chastised and branded as lunatics. So as he would be seen as crazy from a distance, his love for freedom is true and though they may try to mislabel the place of freedom and peace being a painting or fictional place, he knows in his heart it is a very real existence.

Maybe I'm crazy, but that's what I heard.

First post I've ever made here... really diggin this site :)

What if it's all about the Statue of Liberty? Hold on... what is she a symbol of? LIBERTY?!

The woman that I love Is forty feet tall She's a movie star She's all in the papers

Sounds like the Statue...

And everywhere i go People hand me quarters And they pat me on the back They treat me like im famous

He is homeless, gets change, people pity him.

I'll never leave her side 'Cause today can be dangerous

He is homeless, therefore - he is a free man. Compared to our freedom -- he is the one who is really free of all the responsibilities of today's world.

And when the night arrives The light hit her features And the cars drive by Just so they could see her And she never bats an eye When someone takes her picture

Again, sounds like the Statue. He goes back and forth between talking about the statue itself, and what she actually symbolizes.

Mr.Officer if you've come to take her Then that means one of us Gonna end up in a stretcher Gonna end up in the papers, going end up in the papers, yeah

He wont let anyone take away his freedom. He was prolly loitering somewhere for too long (like homeless people tend to do) and some idiot called the cops.

If i had a pistol I'd brandish it and wave it She's the only one alive that knows that I'm not crazy

Right to bear arms? Freedom? She, Liberty, is the only one who understands him - the free man.

She's gonna testify on my behalf Down at the Navy So I can get some peace And provide for my babies

Navy - armed forces of the US - fighting for freedom. She is his secret weapon. All he wants is to provide for his family and he has the right - the liberty to do so. And she, Liberty, she's got his back on that one.

I got a stick and a bottle I'll pretend I got a razor Helicopters and cameras all shottin' for the station They say that a wild man defending his lady

He will do anything and everything in his power to protect his freedom. The feeling is so strong that even though he might seem like nobody with nothing is his posession (stick in a bottle) -- he will make it seem like he has that f&%$#n razor if anyone gets close to taking away his freedom.

But for some odd reason they keep calling you a painting

painting - something still, not real, an 'illusion' --as most people might say. he knows that his painting - his freedom - is real. and he wont let anyone take it away.

I hope you got my point... Thank you.

oh, and by the way: picasso did design sculptures.

this song is indeed about a homeless man who falls in love with a billboard of a movie star. In his mind the pats on the back and quarters given to him are because he is famous not destitute. He is protecting the billboard from coming down and has caused a ruckus involving the police and the whole thing is being filmed by the news copters. It is from his perspective and what he is feeling about his love. Great fee to the song.

I actually feel the song is about environmentalist terrorism... I know that sounds like a stretch, but picasso was never a sculptor and no statue has ever been forty feet high, other than the statue of liberty. He's from brooklyn and there's been a history of destroying trees there. But specifically when he says that she's all in the papers, it really feels like he's talking about a tree. But hey he could be talking about a billboard but those get taken down all the time so that doesn't seem significant enough... So yeah, trees, environmetalism. you get the point.

This just kinda came to me, but i think this is about a street painter how paints a forty foot woman on a wall. The newspapers publish stories on him and people give him quarters and pat him on the back because they are impressed. It becomes a kind of attraction, which is why people take pictures and drive up at night to see it. Eventually the police come to take it down because it is on city property and is technically graffiti. He puts up a fight and gets further news coverage.

I dunno to me this makes the most sense, after all nobody goes to see billboards or takes pictures of them...

Pablo Picasso as we all know was an abstract artist. This song is about a homeless vet with is dealing with PTSD and schizophrenia. He believes that the sign is a feel real person. The company comes in to change the sign and the homeless Vet gets mad and causes a scene. Cope has actually talk about this song and I wanna say that's what happen. Because I'm the mind of a schizophrenic person thoughts and reality can be more abstract (Hence Pablo Picasso). Bad Ass song!!!

Greetings from 2024 from Moscow. I don't even know English. But I translated this song and here I am).

...this song is amazing- especially the way it just goes in, out, then into My Way Home...its just funky as hell. It seems like one of those very strange songs that probably means something different to everyone... Pablo Picasso was one of the innovators of surrealism and was known for his creations of fantasy...to me the song is like a metaphor for someone who becomes one with and falls in love with their work and will stop at nothing to protect it... or the feeling of his work losing integrity as the artist gains fame. Cope seems to be dealing with these same themes throughout this album. Or maybe there isn't a more serious meaning underneath and its just a kick-ass song w/ strange lyrics....

I kinda agree with shivashan, it does seem as if his love isn't human but some kind of artwork maybe, for some reason it seems like maybe a statue. That's just what I get out of it. No matter what the truth is behind this song, it is still amazing and one of my favorites of this album.