The picture's far too big to look at, kid
Your eyes won't open wide enough
And you're constantly surrounded
By the swirling stream of what is and what was
Well, we've all made our predictions
But the truth still isn't out
But if you want to see the future
Go and stare into a cloud
And keep trying to find your way
Out through that maze of memories
It all sort of looks familiar
Until you get up close, then it's different clearly
But each time you turn a corner
You're right back where you were
And your only hope is that forgetting
Might make a door appear
Is it your fear of being buried
That makes you so afraid to speak?
An avalanche of opinions
Like the one that fell that I'm now underneath
It was my voice that moved the first rock
And I would do it all again
I mean, it's cool if you keep quiet
But I like singing
So I'll be holding my note and stomping
And strumming and feeling so very lucky
And there is nothing I know except a lifetime's one moment
And wishing will just leave you empty
So you can try to live in darkness
But you will never shake the light
No, it will greet you every morning
Make you more aware with its absence at night
When you're wrapped up in your blankets, baby
That comfortable cocoon
But I've seen the day of your awakening, boy
And it's coming soon
So go ahead and lose yourself in liquor
And you can praise the clouded mind
But it isn't what you're thinking, no
It's the course of history, your position in line
You're just a piece of the puzzle
So I think you'd better find your place
And don't go blaming your knowledge
On some fruit you ate
Because there's been a great deal of discussion, yes
About the properties of man
I mean, animal or angel
You were carved from bone but your heart is just sand
And the wind is going to scatter it
And cover everything with love
So if it makes you happy then keep kneeling
But I'm standing up
Because this veil it has been lifted, yes
My eyes are wet with clarity
I've been a witness to such wonders, yes
I have searched for them all across this country
But I think I'll be returning now
To the town where I was born
And I understand you must keep moving, friend
But I'm headed home
Yeah, I'm going follow the road
And let the scenery sweeping by easily enter my body
I will send this message in code, underground
Through forests and deserts and cities
All across electric wire, it's a baited line
Yeah, the hook's in deep, boys, there's no more time
So you can struggle in the water
Be too stubborn to die
Or you can just let go
And be lifted to the sky



Lyrics submitted by PLANES

Track duration: 08:42


The Big Picture song meanings
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59 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:I just wanted to say that I'm almost positive it's not Jenny Lewis singing at the end. I'm fairly certain it's one of the girls from Azure Ray. <3
    Flag ShoKillon December 05, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I LOVE THIS SONG. But there are things about it that make me wonder if it's a joke.
    The end where he sounds like a hooked fish being "lifted" to the sky... aaah aaaah aaaaaaah

    But the sand imagery recurs in other songs of his, like The Center of the World:
    "I went and looked her in the eyes / And she turned me into sand.
    This clumsy form that I despise / It scattered easy in her hand."

    Turning into sand seems to be his metaphor for falling in love, which has even deeper roots if you consider Medusa the Gorgon who turned men into stone just by looking at them, or Lot's wife witnessing the destruction of Sodom&Gomorrah and turning into a pillar of salt-- to be turned into fragments just by seeing something /someone speaks of a devastating force, which is what is so subtly awesome, Conor never sings of the violence of love, except in its effects.
    Flag williambleakon December 24, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:New username, yay!!


    Because of this song I am constantly caught up with trying to open up my eyes wide enough to see the big picture :)
    Flag justletgoandbeLIFTEDon May 03, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Does anybody know who's doing the background vocals during the song? Is it Jenny Lewis? I see nothing about it on Wikipedia.... ://

    Anyway this is the best song in the world. My current favorite
    Flag manicdepressivestoneron December 14, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I like how you can hear Jenny Lewis(?) at the end singing Amazing Grace real softly, when this song has so many religious references.
    Flag blue.painted.tearson June 29, 2009   Link
  • +1
    Song Meaning:this song is about how looking out through our own eyes at the world we can never see the truth, we keep thinking we can, we believe in things- religion, theories, - actually believe in them, although we'll never prove ourselves right. The world encourages us to make sense of the world, we keep thinking we have to. We think too much and are as such too intelligent for this planet, (but also not intelligent enough to be happy), and we suffer so much from our thinking,but really if we stopped thinking, we'd live and die anyway just like our grandfathers and our great great great grandfathers and everyone else in the history of the world. He finished to say he discovered the best thing to do is to do what's normal, because once you're dead no one cares if you spent hours awake scared of the thoughts in your head and so long unhappy. he says he's gonna go home to omaha, settle down, marry, have kids grow old and die, because he has found he cannot control his future, the world around him, anything. he is just a piece in the puzzle - his father's son, his son's father."Your position in line". The symbol of the fish at the end is to say that you can put off giving in to mortal life until your death, but the truth prevails and your gonna die, not reincarnate or go to heaven, just die. and thats the end of you.

    they got it now robbie
    Flag beatbox55on December 03, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Forget all this lyrical analysis. It's bullshit. Just listen to the music. If you're analyzing, you're not really understanding.
    Flag bernadettesalemon July 21, 2008   Link
  • -1
    General Comment:*that
    *connor
    Flag mchughon March 27, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:to me, the"go stare into a cloud" line is claiming tahat the future and the infinite are impossible to predict. and the only thing that you can count on is that if there is a cloud, there will be rain. the cloud has a predictable future and it blocks the view of the sky, as well as everything beyond the world that conner is so unsure about. staring into the cloud is like the little picture
    Flag mchughon March 27, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i love this song especially from the beginning up until 'you're just a piece of the puzzle so i think you'd better find your place'. genius
    Flag bestwombat11on March 23, 2008   Link

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