Spoon in spoon
Stirring my coffee, I
Thought of you and turned to the gate
On my way came up with the answers
I scratched my head, and the answers were gone

From hand to hand
Wrist to the elbow, red
Blood sand - could Dad be God
Crosses cross hung out like a wet rag,
Forgive you, why -- you hung me out to dry

Maybe I'm crazy
But laughing out loud makes the pain pass by
And maybe you're a little crazy
But laughing out loud makes it all subside
Holding I'm holding
I'm still falling, I'm still falling

Spoon in spoon
Stirring my coffee, I
Thought of this and turned to the gate
But on my way, crack lightning and thunder
I hid my head and the storm slipped away, well

Maybe I'm crazy
And laughing out loud makes it all pass by
And maybe you're a little crazy
And laughing out loud makes it all alright

Laughing out loud

From time to time
Minutes and hours, some
Move ahead while some lag behind, It's like
The balloon that rise and then vanish, this
Drop of hope that falls from his eyes

Spoon in spoon
Stirring my coffee, I
Think of this and turn to go away
But as I walk there're voices behind me saying
Sinners sin - come now and play

Come now and play

-----

Last Stop Reprise (hidden track)

Come in from the cold for a while
Everything will be alright
Come in from the noise for a time
Everything will be alright
Everything will be alright

For now, goodbye
Friend, goodbye



Lyrics submitted by Demau Senae

Track duration: 07:33


Spoon song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment:My take on this song is something different.

    1st Verse

    Spoon in spoon
    Stirring my coffee, I
    Thought of you and turned to the gate
    On my way came up with the answers
    I scratched my head, and the answers were gone

    "Spoon in spoon" means reflection. He is reflecting on his time with his friend that has died. “Stirring my coffee” means going through the emotions in his head. While thinking of how he can reunite with them, he contemplates suicide "the gate (heaven or hell)" as the answer. "I scratched my head" means he thinks of whether he would go to heaven because suicide is a sin and realizes that suicide is not the answer ("the answers were gone").


    2nd Verse

    From hand to hand
    Wrist to the elbow, red
    Blood sand - could Dad be God
    Crosses cross hung out like a wet rag,
    Forgive you, why -- you hung me out to dry

    Upon thinking of this, he reflects on Jesus, the torment he endured and the act of being put on the cross as a parallel to the cross he has to bare, which is to go on living with the loss. He ponders his faith "could dad be god", meaning could Jesus father have been god.

    "Crosses cross hung out like a wet rag,
    Forgive you, why -- you hung me out to dry"

    Again drawing the parallel of his cross he has to bear with that of Jesus' cross. Would Jesus (god) forgive him if he committed suicide, no, Jesus died for you while you took your life for far less than his sacrifice.


    3rd Verse

    Maybe I'm crazy
    But laughing out loud makes the pain pass by
    And maybe you're a little crazy
    But laughing out loud makes it all subside
    Holding I'm holding
    I'm still falling, I'm still falling

    It may seem crazy to people, what he is going through, but he only way out of his depression and suicidal tendency is to laugh it away.

    Now speaking to us, his audience, to take a lesson from his torment and follow his advice. Suicide is not the answer, find happiness. Once you realize what it takes to go on living you are still falling deeper into despair, although it provides a temporary stop gap to the depression.

    4th Verse
    Spoon in spoon
    Stirring my coffee, I
    Thought of this and turned to the gate
    But on my way, crack lightning and thunder
    I hid my head and the storm slipped away, well

    Thinking of suicide again, because the tendency does not go away. Now certain of god’s wrath (lightning and thunder) if he should take his life, he weathers the emotions to make it through.

    5th Verse
    Maybe I'm crazy
    And laughing out loud makes it all pass by
    And maybe you're a little crazy
    And laughing out loud makes it all alright.
    Laughing out loud

    Same as above and not hard to figure out at this point.


    6th Verse

    From time to time
    Minutes and hours, some
    Move ahead while some lag behind, It's like
    The balloon that rise and then vanish, this
    Drop of hope that falls from his eyes

    This is his deceased friend speaking to him from heaven telling him to hold on to hope. It is an answer of why we live our lives in solitude, while sometimes we seem together from time to time. This is the gift of life and that each of us is a tear drop from gods eyes in a vast ocean of drops, each carrying with it some hope to carry on in a happiness that pulls us from our despair.


    7th Verse

    Spoon in spoon
    Stirring my coffee, I
    Think of this and turn to go away
    But as I walk there're voices behind me saying
    Sinners sin - come now and play

    Come now and play

    Now the tendency is waning, as he walks towards the gate he hears life beckoning, saying it is alright there are more sins to sin before the time of judgment comes.


    Last Stop Reprise (hidden track)

    Come in from the cold for a while
    Everything will be alright
    Come in from the noise for a time
    Everything will be alright
    Everything will be alright

    For now, goodbye
    Friend, goodbye

    “Come in from the cold for a while” is referencing coming out of depression. “Come in from the noise for a time” is referencing getting out of your head and the turmoil of your thoughts of despair. “For now, goodbye. Friend, goodbye” means he is saying goodbye to his deceased friend till they meet in heaven.
    Flag equalityxyon March 10, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song moves between the first person perspective of Dave, and Jesus. In the first part of the song, Dave is considering things, like the cross, and God, and such. Then in the second verse, it transitions to Jesus, pondering his fate, and why he did what he did, why he is dying on the cross for all of these people.
    "Forgive you why? You hung me out to dry." He (Jesus) is questioning his place in the world, and wondering why he is dying for the sins of these people. And why they are letting him die, letting him hang so they can continue to sin and continue to beg for forgiveness.
    Besides these two verses, the song is about living life while trying to deal with the temptation of sin and getting through life with simple pleasures like laughing and forgetting troubles, such as the "laughing out loud part".
    Flag AllWithWingson July 01, 2010   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:Oh, and from an aesthetic/musical point of view, seems to me that not only the carefully placed pauses in the lyrics of Alanis' part indicate hard breathing, but also her whole interpratation, all in all... you can hear her breathing throghout the entire verse, which is clearly intentional. The female light voice could as well represent death getting closer to Jesus (whose soul starts to speak more than his thoughts), and, at the same time, Dave's faith slowly vanishing.
    Flag mferreira1984on February 24, 2010   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:Mysteriouspie gave us the key, with a very simple - but yet enlightening - explanation: "spoon in spoon - rather easy line to interpret. he's stirring his coffee with a spoon. the "spoon in spoon" part is the image of the real spoon "in" the 'spoon' reflected in the coffee".

    Yes. I believe that we should not try to determine WHETHER this is Dave OR Jesus talking. And the occasion - Easter, as some people said - is rather irrelevant.

    Seems to me that the song depicts the act of reflection, by a person who has his doubts about God and his beliefs. He thinks about it very often, and describes the reasons to stop believing, but also the most common reasons to keep believing (conditioning, fear and the influence of others, as we'll see).

    He is sitting there, drinking coffee (and the idea of 'spoon in spoon' to remind the reflection of the spoon on the surface of the coffee is extremelly poetic and elegant) and thinking. He, then, thinks of Jesus ("thought of you..."), and his first reaction is to turn to the gate - or to deny, to leave, to stop believing. However, at first, the "answers" "pop in his head", but he quickly forgets them, which seems to be a reference to the fact that most people don't quite think about their faith, and just believe in it, as if the void itself was a way for the ideas to make sense: don't question - and then it will all be clear. After this first "comeback", he PUTS HIMSELF into Jesus' point of view, and gets pretty angry and disappointed... here the lyrics depict Jesus being crucified, indeed, with all the feelings and emotions, in a very brilliant manner.

    Once more, he "wakes up" from this reflections and keeps drinking the coffee. That's the reason for the repetition of "spoon in spoon" and so on. It could also be a reference to thoughts that occur in a daily basis, or even with no special ocasion, as drinking coffee can simply mean everyday life. He thinks of Jesus again, and, once more, decides to stop believing - the gate, the exit. This time, he's stopped by God Himself, let's say. It's probably the fear of some sort of God's anger, in case he decides to stop believing, which you can tell by the storm, thunder and lightning, that stop as he hesitates again. Once more, he puts himself in the place of Jesus - and we can also think of the human condition towards the world, sometimes "abandoned by God", but crazily laughing to make the pain go away. And then once more he puts himself in Jesus' place.

    Third verse. He's in his coffee-time reflection, thinks of Jesus and wants to give away his faith. But now he hears others talking and justifying, giving the "human reasoning", the voice of the institutions, the oficial speech or so to speak.

    The hidden outro seems to invoke easier times, when he didn't have any doubts and could easily "come in from the cold/noise" and everything would be alright. But since he has doubts, he decides to "take a break" from his faith, however, without holding any grudges, and not in a once for all - as he says to God "for now, goodbye, friend, goodbye".

    Well, that's about it.
    Flag mferreira1984on February 24, 2010   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:This song is indeed beautiful, even on a level above most DMB songs. And they say there are no good hymns any more! I think if people actually heard good, thought-provoking songs like this or One of Us at church people might think differently!
    Flag MitchyOchoCincoon December 10, 2009   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:I would really have to agree with you, optimus..prime. I think Dave is writing these lyrics from the perspective of Jesus dying on the cross. There are Dave's own thoughts interwoven here too, and I don't know to what extent it is him talking or him talking as Jesus.

    There are definitely moments where as Jesus, he is voicing his doubts. "Holding, I'm holding, I'm still falling, I'm still falling" is Jesus wondering why he is there, why he is the one that had to bear this burden for mankind. "Forgive you why - you hung me out to dry." It's just the thoughts that Jesus likely went through as blood oozed from him and he was in so much agony and even after that there are people taunting him. These are the people I am supposed to die for? "Could Dad be God?" After all he has been through he is doubting his faith, doubting he is the son of God, maybe doubting his sanity - "Maybe I'm crazy." Surely if he was God, he could come down from the cross like those that were taunting him said he could do.

    I think Alanis's part is equally as beautiful. "From time to time, minutes and hours some, move ahead while some lag behind." Jesus is there on the cross, likely blacking out at times, praying to God, thinking he made a mistake. He is in pain and again, he doesn't know if it is worth it. At times hours might pass in the blink of an eye but then he feels the pain and the minutes just drag. "This drop of hope that falls from his eyes." I think it is simply blood and tears. The longer he hangs there, the more he has probably convinced himself that his thoughts from the entire song are true. He is not the son of God, he has been hung out to dry. Even the way Alanis sings her part is beautiful and haunting. To me the pause after "minutes and hours some," is even a meaning. He is gasping for breath, probably running out of tears to cry.

    And then the reprise of Last Stop. God is telling him to come in from the rain, you are home now. Despite all his doubts he did the right thing, dad was God.

    To say Dave is agnostic and wouldn't write a religious song or anything like that is crazy. Just because he has his doubts or does not know everything he believes does not mean he can't write a song about God or have some faith.

    This song is indeed beautiful, even on a level above
    Flag MitchyOchoCincoon December 10, 2009   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:Okay folks, rarely am I so sure about my interpretation of a song, so here goes:

    This song is about Jesus on the cross talking to his father, God. Why have you hung me out here? Why have you forsaken me?

    My favorite part of this song is the hidden-track outro. I am very far away from being anything resembling a Christian believer, but the outro is so beautiful and chilling it makes me tear-up every time I listen to it.

    You can just feel the release and joy of death as Jesus ascends to heaven. After hanging to that cross for the entire song and suffering the pain for all of humanity, the release comes, and he hears his loving father calling to him:

    come in from the cold for awhile
    everything will be alright
    come in from the noise for a time
    everything will be alright
    everything will be alright

    And Jesus, at peace, says to humanity:

    for now, goodbye, friend
    goodbye


    I can definitely see other interpretations of who exactly is saying these lines in the outro being reasonable too, but it is certainly in reference to the ascension.

    This song masterfully captures the resolution from exhaustion of sadness, pain, and coldness to the subtle but powerful release that comes from, at last, coming home to safeness and warmth.
    Flag optimus..primeon August 09, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:yeah...this song is about easter. any chance it could be about someone who doesnt want to believe in Jesus, but keeps thinking about it and can't help but believe...

    idk, it's a rough theory, but what i DO know is that the final line is about Jesus forgiving you of your sins and you dont have to worry about your sins since Jesus died for you.
    Flag >>amdmb91on October 14, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:interestingly enough, the song isnt about easter specifically, but about a person thinking about easter.

    "Spoon in spoon
    Stirring my coffee "
    - rather easy line to interpret. he's stirring his coffee with a spoon. the "spoon in spoon" part is the image of the real spoon "in" the 'spoon' reflected in the coffee.

    aaaand have i no time to add anything else. :P
    Flag mysteriouspieon May 10, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Well, some of you don't realize that Dave is agnostic right? He doesn't really have faith that that there is a god, or at least a kind, caring god. Also, keep in mind that he is a story teller, so you can't take everything in his songs as his actual beliefs.

    To me the song is about faith, but I can't decide on what level.
    Flag argileon April 27, 2007   Link

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