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I'm lost, I'm afraid
A frayed rope tying down a leaky boat
To the roof of a car on the road in the dark
And it's snowing
If I'm more, then it means less
Last call for happiness
I'm your dress near the back of your knees
And your slip is showing
I'm a float in a summer parade
Up the street in the town that you were born in
With a girl at the top wearing tulle
And a Miss Somewhere sash
Waving like the queen
Beauty's just another word
I'm never certain how to spell
Go tell the nurse to turn the TV back on
And throw away my misery
It never meant that much to me
It never sent a Get Well card
I broke like a bad joke
Somebody's uncle told
At a wedding reception in 1972
Where a little boy under a table with cake in his hair
Stared at the grown-up feet as they danced and swayed
And his father laughed and talked on the long ride home
And his mother laughed and talked on the long ride home
And he thought about how everyone dies someday
And when tomorrow gets here where will yesterday be
And fell asleep in his brand-new winter coat
Buy me a shiny new machine
That runs on lies and gasoline
And all those batteries we stole from smoke-alarms
And disassembles my despair
It never took me anywhere
It never once bought me a drink
A frayed rope tying down a leaky boat
To the roof of a car on the road in the dark
And it's snowing
If I'm more, then it means less
Last call for happiness
I'm your dress near the back of your knees
And your slip is showing
I'm a float in a summer parade
Up the street in the town that you were born in
With a girl at the top wearing tulle
And a Miss Somewhere sash
Waving like the queen
Beauty's just another word
I'm never certain how to spell
Go tell the nurse to turn the TV back on
And throw away my misery
It never meant that much to me
It never sent a Get Well card
I broke like a bad joke
Somebody's uncle told
At a wedding reception in 1972
Where a little boy under a table with cake in his hair
Stared at the grown-up feet as they danced and swayed
And his father laughed and talked on the long ride home
And his mother laughed and talked on the long ride home
And he thought about how everyone dies someday
And when tomorrow gets here where will yesterday be
And fell asleep in his brand-new winter coat
Buy me a shiny new machine
That runs on lies and gasoline
And all those batteries we stole from smoke-alarms
And disassembles my despair
It never took me anywhere
It never once bought me a drink
Lyrics submitted by lakeoffire23
Track duration: 02:45
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I'm your dress near the back of your knees
And your slip is showing'
Everybody wants to be happy.
'I broke like a bad joke'
The first section describes bad road conditions, and I think later on it alludes to him having crashed.
Starting with 'I'm your dress near the back of your knees and your slip is showing', that makes me think of embarrassment, as if his lover has become ashamed of him.
At 'beauty is just another word' to the end of that section, it sounds like he is hospitalized, and I always imagine the reason being is paralysis, or some other debilitating injury. Beauty having never sent a get-well card, makes me think she could not deal with it and left him.
The next section reminds me of the first verse all over again, only in a confident, innocent way. He is a child, coming home from a party in the snow, only this time he is safe and secure with his parents, never imagining the crash in his future.
I get the guitar reference later, and I always feel it is a reference to Plea From A Cat Named Virtute. He takes up guitar to work through the depression, maybe he even feels like it is working, but Virtute sees his songs as sad songs.
It is a strange interpretation, and he can not possibly be paralyzed because he has to work the pedal, so maybe some other injury. I have missed the deep profound imagery everyone else has found.
When you hear the line "and all those batteries we stole from smoke-alarms" are you thinking what I am thinking?
Whenever I need a 9 volt for an effects pedal where do I get it? ...A smoke alarm.
I often wonder how many guitarist are at risk of burning up in a fire because their smoke alarms are always devoid of their 9 volt batteries for the sake of music.
considering that the cd is eventually building up to the death of someone. someone who knows they're going to die, soon enough.
(of course we all know we're going to die, but it's been made very real to this person)
the cd takes you through the journey of the feelings that one might feel if placed in the situation. it's all, like all weakerthans songs, very personal.
remembering and wishing and regretting and hoping and knowing you have to get on with it and be happy in the time you have left.
and it's also about the feelings anyone close to this person is feeling, watching their friend change only to die.
death is one of the most harrowing things to think about - but if anything has the power to change people, death does.
the significance it plays in Transcendentalism and Romanticism and human life is so dear to me.
Consider poems such as "Ulysses" and "In Memoriam" by Alfred Lord Tennyson and "And Thou art Dead, as Young and Fair" by Lord Byron.
AND! Reconstruction Site by the Weakerthans.
Death is something that ties all humans together - no matter what they believe, how they've lived/are living, what they aspire to be, what they hate or what they love. We all have death.
We will all one day die, we will all one day be returned to the earth in order to sustain it in the same way that it kept us alive.
And we'll all be afraid of death sometimes. and we'll all be sad because of death sometimes. and we'll all feel unmistakably alive because of death sometimes.
this song (this album) expresses that in such a beautiful and precious, thought-provoking, life-changing way.
how we look back through our child-eyes, and see how wonderful, and wrong it canall be