I Was Meant for the Stage

Actually, if you look at the language of the song, you end up with a much different interpretation. It's made primarily of feminine rhymes ("curtain"/"certain" "shouting"/"about me") in relatively forced context ("of this much, I am certain"), which are, in English, pretty awkward. Furthermore, the lines are delivered a repetitive, plodding tone, and even the bridge (such as it is) is just an instrumental repetition of the verses until it becomes a cacophony. Finally, the entire album is full examples of slow verses that lead into moving choruses (put to much better use in “Shanty for the Arethusa” and “The Gymnast, High Above the Ground”) but all of the other songs that use this basic formula manage to do so without becoming tedious, while these lyrics are plodding and self-indulgent. Taken together, they sort of indicate that the speaker isn't really someone to be revered. He's a poor lyricist, an unimaginative songwriter and audacious enough to declare that he's a child of destiny without really showing anything for it. Maybe it's just because I know so many, but it seems as though it's a self-indulgent art student waiting for his comeuppance, which arrives in the cacophony at the end, unlike Shanty, which ends with a continuation of the baseline, indicating that the corsairs have returned to sea (or something similar), and Gymnast, which ends with a repetition in utter calm, indicating that the performance has ended and the excitement of the choruses is over.

This song is a suicide note. After either failing to find success as a performer, or being unable to even try to follow his passion, the narrator decides to end it all.

He tells his mother to be proud of his accomplishments, and asks his father to forgive him for ending his own life.

The last several minutes of the song are the narrator's violent death, probably from pills, poison, or a noose. Just before he dies, his friends or relatives rush in, and see him convulsing. Then, it all fades away.

The narrator of this song is deluded. He is a pathetic, narcissistic character who, seemingly in reaction to some criticism, derision, or perceived slight, is bombastically reaffirming his greatness.

The song is entirely from his own point of view -- we don't get to hear an external opinion. What we do get is a litany of affirmations about the narrator's own heaven-declared greatness, without any discussion of merit or background on why these things are true.

Within that litany, the things that he chooses to mention (and affirm) are specific and, as such, give us insight into what the narrator feels necessary to rebut. "Mother please be proud / Father be forgiven" tells us that he's expecting pushback or friction from his family.

In his self-aggrandizing way, he dismisses them melodramatically gently, as if they could not possibly be privy to the information he is privy to. He even goes so far as to paraphrase (or bastardize) the quote of Jesus on the cross ("Father forgive them, they know not what they do") in comic inversion.

In fact, there are other examples of self-delusion wherein the narrator visualizes himself messianically: rays of light shining down on him; the heavens at his birth; the complete non sequitur of "all [his] sins being pardoned".

Within his mind, at "the end" he believes his detractors will likely receive their cosmic comeuppance -- "And as I take my final bow / Was there ever any doubt?" -- following it up with a pointed jab at the philistines that ostensibly could never understand him: "And you're escorted through the foyer / You will resume your callow ways".

The song ends gradually with the narrator's reverie crashing down around him amidst what sounds like the jeering shouts and abuse of .. other schoolchildren (?) around him. No wonder he'd want a fantasy world.

I feel a little bad for the people talking about how this song defines them. Yikes.

just gorgeous. colin is a true wizard.

this song is quite obviously about a stage performer who believes he was meant for the stage. i don't think there'll be any argument there.

meloy has to be one of the greatest songwriters of our time. he just hasta!

Reminds me of dead poets society

It's awesome how he rhymes "away" with "foyer." Colin has that weird thing he does with his R's. Is it a speech impediment?

"Away" and "foyer" do rhyme. He's pronouncing it properly.

I don't know if anyone caught their Picaresque concerts, but they chose to use this song as their encore peice. So brilliantly clever. It began with just Colin on the stage and as the song built more and more of the band joined him. I cried.

I don't know why, but I've always got the idea that the actor in the song is still trying to get a start in the theaters and is singing about what he is hoping for.

I know Meloy writes songs about other people and their stories all the time, but this one, for some reason, always struck me as being solely about Colin himself. I never thought it was about anyone else, or just another story.