“I fell in love with a song I never understood”-- this was the exact reaction I had, first: when I saw the movie; second, when I checked the lyrics. I can't really tell if it's more like idiomatic or better called as metaphoric. In some of my boring days, I tried to listen to the song in winamp for an unsure numeric hundredth value just to give justification to my likeness of the song.
In my quest for meaning, I found out that different people can extract different significance from the song. Wearing a bureaucratic mask, I can say that its poetic presentation can mean more for politics than love.
I was a quick wet boy, diving too deep for coins (this for me can mean poverty)
All of your street light eyes wide on my plastic toys (abuse of power)
Then when the cops closed the fair (bureacrats abuses), I cut my long baby hair (time has come to show maturity & patriotism)
Stole me a dog-eared map and called for you everywhere (fighting thru public media to awaken spirits and to unify hearts).
In my romantic fashion, I have perceived the song to be a perfect fit for lovers. The meaning was revealed when I dig deeper into my cerebral cortex (lol). In this perspective, the song is a story of love found and love lost.
I was a quick wet boy, diving too deep for coins
(I am who I was, trying hard to be at my best)
All of your street light eyes wide on my plastic toys
(then you came and made me fall)
Then when the cops closed the fair, I cut my long baby hair
(but when the world disapproved me, I showed them who I want to be)
Stole me a dog-eared map and called for you everywhere
(you showed me my direction, I will long for no one else but you)
Have I found you (Are you really mine now?)
Flightless bird (you said you won't leave me), jealous (the world envy me for having you), weeping or lost you (but then I lost you),
american mouth (for me american mouth signifies idioms or better words said)
Big pill looming (a danger was posted)
Now I'm a fat house cat (found myself at home)
Nursing my sore blunt tongue (trying to cure a broken heart)
Watching the warm poison rats curl through the wide fence cracks
(pushing myself to move on)
Pissing on magazine photos (yet memories of you help me not to)
Those fishing lures thrown in the cold (my love was just swept away)
And clean blood of Christ mountain stream (Yet i still see hope)
Have I found you (Have you really been part of my life?)
Flightless bird (who once told won't leave me), grounded (I believed),
bleeding (and am now deeply hurt) or lost you, american mouth (I lost you)
Big pill stuck going down (but you still can find me).
People are subject to their own interpretation and meaning. No one can really tell what it means except the writer. The lyricist can be at a different mask of a different role when he wrote this. Still, I would say that his deep thoughts truly drowned me. Good job for that! Yet, I would give a standing ovation to Iron & Wine for its outstanding performance and to the musician for its remarkable arrangement. Still, Hardwicke is no one but to be thanked for. The movie provided a clearer meaning into the song and the song posted a better ending to the movie.
Just can't wait for another mind-puzzling/bleeding song from the saga!
2 comments:
well, i think some of your interpretations are right on target. :)
but I did not post a comment here to critique but to show gratitude!
like OMG! I heard this song on the radio over a week ago and it just stuck on me. I never understood a single word though and just remembered the words "found you" and "lost you". So I was faced with the ordeal of having to google the title of the song with these phrases. And thanks to your blog, the week-long search has ended. You might think, "did you not see Twilight and heard it when Edward n Bella had thAt dance?". I did see the movie (and I realized maybe that's the reason why I love the song so much) but I never paid close attention to the soundtrack and was too absorbed with the story.
So again, a million thanks.
great lyrics hats off to the writer
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