Opposite Day

in his clever way, i think this is andrews way of saying opposite day is the kind of reality we're in. it could be a lot better and doesn't make sense at all, but here we are. and that part at the end is bird saying, im trying to help you find the answers to the deepest questions in life, but im not going to give them away. he's kind of like an angel... but more like a conduit. he's found enlightenment and now he's trying to help us get there ourselves (and great artists like andrew bird are instrumental in enriching our boring lives).

To me, the last stanza references the idea that you are only in possession of the truth if you are silent. Any concept which can be conceived has a logical opposite, for duality is inherently necessary to formulate concepts, so if you think you "know" something by having some concept floating in your head, you are really creating cognitive dissonance and have strayed from true knowledge. The "something else" is something else to life, to the universal experience, other than the incessant stream of abstract input. The resulting power that one has when they are silent is the power of timelessness, the power to direct the primal action principle of the universal towards any manifested potential at this moment.

I think this song is partially about justice, and the lack thereof. The verse about "Those who can't quite function/In society at large" gaining power and those "Who are really doing quite well" losing all power reminds me of the Bible verse where Jesus says that the first shall be last, and the last first. But it isn't like that at all; the meek never inherit the earth and the rich never fall to ruin. Bird, in this song, is expressing disappointment and frustration that nothing ever changes, that opposite day never comes.

The very last verse makes me wonder though. I think it implies hope? That there is justice, we just have to work for it. Or it could mean just the opposite - people refuse to acknowledge the injustice, and so it remains in the world, unchallenged. One thing about it that I think I can safely say is that, per my interpretation, it's a different voice than the narrator of the rest of the song. I get this mainly through the change in tempo and melody, which the lyrics here don't reflect, but those who know the song know what I'm talking about! So it's someone different singing that verse. Who it is or what that means, I don't know.

Does anyone else get a sort of biblical end-o'-the-world feel from this song? "That I had not become a cephalopod I still had legs and arms" seems to suggest a kind of transformation like the one Milton describes coming over Lucifer and his underlings in Paradise Lost (although I don't think they were transformed into squids and mollusks). Also, with the less confident (read: meek) waking up to find themselves in charge (read: inheriting the earth), among a number of other references, it sounds to me like Bird is trying to describe someone's surprise at the apocalypse not happening... perhaps criticizing the notion of the apocalypse? It all sounds kind of grandiose, when I put it like that....

I think the part about the cephalopod is a reference to The Metamorphosis, and the idea of suddenly turning into a bizarre creature.

I hear "Today was supposed to be just another day". There doesn't seem to be a "not" in there anywhere, although that's what the lyrics say and that's obviously what it means.

I think it's from the standpoint of someone complaining about the world not comforming to what's conveniant for him. So Andrew Bird's point is, "did you really expect the world to just change for you and make you happy? Your bitching is insane because you've been living for how long and should realize that the world doesn't cater itself to you. How could you be surprised that you didn't wake up as a mollusk".

BEST ending ever

Perhaps it's just me, but I got a pretty strong hint of Cthulhu/Lovecraft from this song. Maybe it's just the references to cephalopods, the insane, and 'dare not speak its name'. Lovecraft often mentions beings from outside of our dimension that need not follow our laws of physics. I can definitely see this song as being some by a disappointed cult member bemoaning the fact that the Great Old Ones are still asleep.

Does this sound like the Beatles to anyone? I kept feeling like it was influenced by them.

Its about opposite day.

Ninny...