Lyrics for Masterfade as interpreted by beastiefreak00

Masterfade Lyrics
well you sure didn't look like you were having any fun
with that heavy-metal gaze they'll have to measure in tons
and when you look up at the sky
all you see are zeros
all you see are zeros and ones
you took my hand and led me down to watch the kewpie doll parade
we let the kittens lick our hair and drank our chalky lemonade
it's not that I just didn't care I must admit I was afraid
and I'm awfully glad my finger's resting gently on the masterfade
the masterfade
I coulda played along
the masterfade
I coulda played Mah Jongg
but it just takes too long
and I just can't remember
which way the east wind blows does it matter?
if we're all matter
what's it matter does it matter
if we're all matter when we're done?
when the sky is full of zeros and ones
I saw you standing all alone in the electrostatic rain
I thought at last I'd found a situation you can't explain
with GPS you know it's all just a matter of degrees
your happiness won't find you underneath that canopy of trees
if the green grass is 6 the soybeans are 7
the junebugs are 8 the weeds and thistles are 11
and if the 1s just hold their place the 0s make a smiley face
when they come floating down from the heavens
you took my hand and led me down to watch a papillon parade
we let the kittens lick our hair and drank our chalky lemonade
you squeezed my hand and told me softly that I shouldn't be afraid
'cause all the while your finger's resting gently on the masterfade
the masterfade
I coulda played along
the masterfade
I coulda played Mah Jongg
but it just takes too long
and who the hell can remember
which way the east wind blows
when you're lying on the ground
staring up at an inverted compass
I mean Christ who knows?

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bobwronski
05-30-2005

Rated +1 
I haven't decided on on what this song quite means yet, but part of it seems to be about peace, and summertime, and calmness (what is a masterfade? well, it doesn't matter) and part of it sort of seems like it's about how science and mathematics sort of miss out on a lot of beauty in the world. (I don't necessarily agree with that, but it does make a good case.)
"well you sure didn't look like you were having any fun.../and when you look up at the sky/all you see are zeros/all you see are zeros and ones" In being so calculating you see the sky as numerals and miss out on everything wonderful about it.

"if we're all matter/what's it matter does it matter/if we're all matter when we're done?" This could be a comment on how the idea that we're just lumps of walking, talking matter trivializes human existance, and even if there is no "meaning of life" and no god and we're just a blob of organized cells, who cares?

"I saw you standing all alone in the electrostatic rain/I thought at last I'd found a situation you can't explain" A situation where logic fails and you have to abandon scientific reasoning.
"your happiness won't find you underneath that canopy of trees" You won't be happy if you continue seeing things the way you do now.

"if the green grass is 6 the soybeans are 7/the junebugs are 8 the weeds and thistles are 11" seeing things as numbers again

I put way too much thought into that... something that is most definitely wrong, wrong, wrong.

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r0sesinhereyes
12-29-2005

Rated 0 
I think the song is expressing how he feels that technology takes away from some of the simple beauty of life. He keeps referring to GPS technology, and this line:
"your happiness won't find you underneath that canopy of trees if the green grass is 6 the soybeans are 7
the junebugs are 8 the weeds and thistles are 11"
is referring to how things in life can't just be categorized into numbers. Then juxtaposed into this are images of the most idyllic, simple life he can imagine ("you took my hand and led me down to watch a papillon parade
we let the kittens lick our hair and drank our chalky lemonade"). Oh yeah, and papillon is french for butterfly, I'm pretty sure. Finally... I think by masterfade he's talking about how on sound mixing boards and things like that there's one little knob or level that controls the volume or whatever it is of the entire production... so he's saying that he's still in control of his life... if he wants to he can turn down the masterfade and leave it all behind. Really I get the feeling that he just writes songs about whatever he happens to be thinking of, and that he just has an amazingly beautiful way of wording it all. :)

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FiberOpticJesus
01-22-2006

Rated 0 
I'd have to agree with the above interpretations, I'd just like to add that 1's and 0's are the language of computers (binary code) I think that's important to know while taking in the meaning of this song. Once again, technology battling nature.

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Quadrophenic
02-12-2006

Rated 0 
I believe this song is about a girl who looks at everything in her relationship as a figure, that she tries to calculate and make sense of. She views her relationship purely practically. The male narrator says he could have played her if he wanted to "my finger's on the masterfade."

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alessandro
03-02-2006

Rated 0 
I think this song is about someone looking around and seeing everything as if it was apart of one of those color by number books. I have no idea if that is right but i like to think about it like that because it is very interesting.

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strawbearlyjamms
03-17-2006

Rated 0 
I think the previous comments all hit on it. I agree with the technology vs nature bit. I get a matrix feel with the "0's and 1's" part. In the movie, the real world was partialed down into numbers. Reality means so much more than that, it's the small things, the hand holding, that really matters.

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wilcokid
04-07-2006

Rated 0 
i feel physists and amthematicians see the world in numbers, but also when i hear this song it remind me of a friend who's a photographer who once told me she sees/visions the world (light/dark/colorcontrasts) in numbers , each representing a shade or color density type of thing. actually its kinda like what alesandro said "color by numbers".

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thefiddlehacks
07-24-2006

Rated 0 
one day i was bored as all-getup playing internet games, one of which was Mah Jongg, (i dont know if anybody's played that before, but you can on addictinggames.com) and im about 5 minutes through, thinking about how ive really gotten nowhere and that " this game takes too long." fun way to unknowingly reference a song AND peep a little bit more into the bird's mind.

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neurotic__x
12-24-2006

Rated 0 
The Zeros and Ones reference always makes me think of the Identity Matrix in mathematics. The Identity Matrix is much like the number 1 in multiplication... any matrix multiplied by the Identity Matrix will give you the same answer back. (As in 1 x 3 = 3). I think that he could be playing off this idea, as well as the binary code in computers, in saying that no matter what you see the sky as, it's still a sky. Seeing it in numbers could be a way of trying to "prove" it's existance, but sacrificing the beauty at the same time.

Also, the symbolism of the GPS system is huge:
"with GPS you know it's all just a matter of degrees
your happiness won't find you underneath that canopy of trees"
This could be trying to show that relative location is not important, because while it tells you where you are on the planet, it will not tell you where you are in life.
If you put yourself under a "canopy of trees", and try to hide yourself from the world, you will never be truely happy. Happiness cannot use GPS to find you.

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Quisquilloso
03-29-2007

Rated 0 
Look at this! http://www.mahjongg.com/invcomp.htm

"You may notice that the winds shown in the compass are reversed. If you have and are wondering why, it is because Mah Jongg is a ritual Game that reflects Chinese philosophical principles, for example, there is a ritual of building The Wall - which mirrors the boundaries of an ancient Chinese city, with the four sides of the Wall given the name of the four winds. However the winds are named in reversed order because they do not reflect terrestrial directions but rather represent a celestial map, that is, the winds are shown in the directions that you would expect to see if you were looking from a heavenly perspective rather than an earthly one. You can visualize this by looking up to the sky, work out where East and West are and realise then that they are reversed."

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JasonBunting
04-20-2007

Rated 0 
For more accurate Andrew Bird lyrics and community commentary, etc. go check out:
www.AndrewBird.org

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1 Reply
CrookedBeat
05-21-2007

Rated 0 
When I saw him play a couple of days ago, he played this song and mentioned that he hadn't played it in awhile but that it made him think very much of spring.

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pinstripesandpedals
05-23-2007

Rated 0 
I agree with most of the above.

I've always assumed that the masterfade refers to the master level slider on the mixing desk, by which all channels can be faded into silence (as at the end of a track).

Determining which way the east wind blows is the first step in playing the game (deciding who will play as/with the east wind).

Green grass, soybeans, june bugs, weeds and thistles, and their corresponding numbers appear on the Mah Jongg tiles:
http://www.mahjongg.com/gamemjexamples.htm

This really is the most mellow, relaxing, chillaxing song ever.
I love it.

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monstreason
07-28-2007

Rated 0 
i think a great way to sum up the meaning of this song. is : 'cause all the while your finger's resting gently on the masterfade. he is getting across the point of ( like previous comments suggested) that the world is being taken over by technology, and that it is so unnatural. one loses oneself by looking so mathmatically at life, adn trying to control it all with a knob of a soundboard (masterfade) so to speak. so, while youre controlling all of this, all the while, your hand was gently on the masterfade. all the beauty and nature that you need, is right there, trying to control it from the beginning.

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franglais
09-15-2007

Rated 0 
I swa/heard/read an interview of him, and he was talking about how each person in a relationship can regulate their interest/bonding in the relationship by using the masterfade.....

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kingscrossing08
11-29-2007

Rated 0 
the papio parade is held in papillion, nebraska sometime around spring.

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ashkon
02-28-2008

Rated 0 
this is clearly a song about the world being swallowed by the digital medium

'when the sky is full of zeros and ones'

look at your default wallpaper on microsoft windows.

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calymne
04-09-2008

Rated 0 
It's definitely a song about either the world become too technologically based, or someone who looks at the world with too much technology.

0's and 1's are a reference to binary code.

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InGraphite
05-21-2008

Rated 0 
I'd like to suggest that 0's and 1's goes a little further than binary code but the basis of modern physics (post-quantum theory physics). On the most basic level physics "quantifies" a system into states that are either one thing or another (i.e. on or off) and usually it is represented in 0's and 1's. Not only is he referencing technology but an entire system of viewing the world, like from the eyes of a scientist. He references physics in other lyrics as well.

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Es0ter1c
07-19-2008

Rated 0 
To me it just sounds like Andrew's relationship with a girl who sees the world in terms of technology so much so that she's lost appreciation for the simple beauties of life, especially those that nature provide.
Just my .02 homies.

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tomStrangelove
10-07-2008

Rated 0 
I think you guys are taking the technological references to literally. It seems to me that he's just concerned that this other person has a worldview where they can explain everything, and it frightens him, she shows him into her worldview (doesnt have to be a she) and though he begins to warm to it he still doesn't quite get it.

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nohope60
11-07-2008

Rated 0 
This song is about a highly intelligent boy/young man who is trying to find his way in life. He realizes after sometime that people are full of shit and themselves and not in touch with reality but with what really things that does not matter. He uses Music to descend into a better balance of happiness because literally that is all he/she feels they have......she/he tries to believe in another as a friend, lover, co-worker but realizes people are really full of SHIT!!!!!!!

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jrothbart
11-24-2008

Rated 0 
This song is has an existential theme.

Andrew Bird is singing about a girl that he loves who is a staunch existentialist: she believes that life has no point and that humans have devised reason to comfort them in the "Revolt of the Flesh."

The "Revolt of the Flesh" is the human fear of death the desire to prolong it for as long as possible. According to the existential theory, many people are uncomfortable with the idea of turning into "matter when [they're] done" so they create God and a purpose to life in order to make sure their life is not just a blip in time. That is what the "masterfade" represents: the slow inevitable countdown to death.

The girl he is talking about also sees the night sky (in this case a spiritual firmament) in binary, a digital language consisting of 1's and 0's. She only sees the physical/scientific side to life, leaving out all spirituality. Along with leaving out spirituality, she is rejecting purpose in life.

This though does not prevent her from seeing beauty and natural pleasures, which I see as the Kewpie doll parade, the kittens, the lemonade, the papillons, and the canopy of trees. She is basically saying to Andrew Bird that even though there is no point to life and that we're all going to be matter anyways when we die, life is meant to be lived presently with synergy with nature and the force of love. Death does not have to do anything with life.

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TheNamingOfThings
01-29-2009

Rated +1 
here's a direct quote from Andrew:

"I wrote that one when I first moved out to my barn in the country. And I was trying to reconcile being in nature with also trying to set up a studio and struggling with technology. So I’d struggle with it and then go for long walks on the farm and I couldn’t separate the two. I kept seeing zeros and ones in everything. And also as with almost every song it’s not that simple, there’s several threads that go though it. I could also be talking about a relationship, you know. One person in a relationship has their finger on the master fade and can kind of control the reality of the other person with the fade dial. So there’s like three or four stories in that song."

from an interview with the gothamist.

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alsdkfjaoidfvhjn
06-22-2009

Rated 0 
Like Franglias I read it was about the masterfade control on a relationship.

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