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Are you my lady, are you?
If I don't make it back from the city then
It is only because I am drawn away
For you see, evidently there's a dark storm come
And the chain on my swing is squeaking like a mouse
So are you my lady, are you?
The rain, the rain, the rain is falling down
The cars remain
You're tall just like a giraffe
You have to climb to find its head
But if there's a glitch
You're an ostrich
You've got your head in the sand
In a submersible I can hardly breathe
As it takes me inside, so the light sings
Answer me truthfully, do the clouds kiss you
With meringue-coloured hair I know they cannot
So are you my lady, are you?
The rain, the rain, the rain is falling down
The cars remain
Santa Ana winds bring seasickness
Zookeeper hear me out
How dare you go?
Cold in the rain
Tall just like a giraffe
You have to climb to find its head
But if there's a glitch
You're an ostrich
You've got your head in the sand
Are you my lady, are you?
The rain, the rain, the rain is falling down
The cars remain
I could not be seen with you
Working half the time and looking fine
In cars re-made
If I don't make it back from the city then
It is only because I am drawn away
For you see, evidently there's a dark storm come
And the chain on my swing is squeaking like a mouse
So are you my lady, are you?
The rain, the rain, the rain is falling down
The cars remain
You're tall just like a giraffe
You have to climb to find its head
But if there's a glitch
You're an ostrich
You've got your head in the sand
In a submersible I can hardly breathe
As it takes me inside, so the light sings
Answer me truthfully, do the clouds kiss you
With meringue-coloured hair I know they cannot
So are you my lady, are you?
The rain, the rain, the rain is falling down
The cars remain
Santa Ana winds bring seasickness
Zookeeper hear me out
How dare you go?
Cold in the rain
Tall just like a giraffe
You have to climb to find its head
But if there's a glitch
You're an ostrich
You've got your head in the sand
Are you my lady, are you?
The rain, the rain, the rain is falling down
The cars remain
I could not be seen with you
Working half the time and looking fine
In cars re-made
Lyrics submitted by copilot
Track duration: 04:43
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Squeaking like a mouse = He launched himself out of the swing (or stepped off) and now it's swinging empty.
Cannot kiss you with = The clouds may kiss you, but I don't/They can't kiss you like I do. I think this also symbolizes the clouds as the kisses of ideal men she dreams of, but they can't give her a real kiss like he can.
How dare you go? Cold in the rain = Pretty simply, How dare you leave me out cold in the rain? That she was the caretaker to his enslaved heart, and now she's gone, and she may have been unworthy of it in the first place.
I'm not sure about the cars part. I think JeanneMe might be right about that, and quite a bit more.
With meringue-coloured hair I know they cannot".
im not understand this part.someone perhaps can help me.wee.
btw.this song are so beautiful!i love it.
Anyway, the title alone could be interpreted as such: Someone who is inexperienced (ala a boy) in the ways of love & life and how learning how to control/tame it is akin to being a zookeeper.
Background: I know that Mew recorded ATGHK in LA and I also read in an interview a while back where Jonas said that he was involved with someone but his relationship ended after he got home from LA. He also said that that WLK was not written or recorded in LA, but was added in DK after his breakup and put on the album because he needed it to be on there.
So here goes (I apologize for being so verbose but sometimes I go on and on when analyzing poetry or verse – and Mew is always really good stuff to think about) …
-The city could very well be LA, as in verse or song (or whatever); people in LA are often not thought of as humans but as cars. Also, the Santa Ana winds and the rain definitely represent LA in the fall. In the context of this song I think the Santa Anas represent a delay in the schedule and the rain and the cars represent the outside influences that keep them apart: his job, his fans, the tour, the record, her job, her pain, being apart, whatever … he obviously knows there are many obstacles that are keeping them apart AND that the absence is not good for the relationship.
-The relationships in both songs are fragile and the boy seems to be completely unsure of his status in both relationships. (the “Are you my lady?” mantra in Z and “Our love is a fickle love […] Our love is a tricky love […]) in WLK). Z came first, so I think he is telling his love that he knows she may be distrusting and he tries to assure her that his intentions are pure (“If I don’t make it back from the city it is ONLY because I am drawn away”). Also, “How dare you go cold in the rain?” means to me that he feels that she should stay by his side even though he is delayed and the “submersible” represents the boy himself – he’s drowning because he knows she’s growing more and more distant and there is nothing he can do about it. She may be asking to join him but he can’t accommodate that, “I can’t be seen with you, working half the time and looking fine” perhaps he just wants to get his job done and go home. In WLK he is asking her after the fact “Why did you not include me on your list?” Has he already been dumped? It is clear here that at the very least she does not care about his feelings and/or is not keen on seeing him.
-In both songs, the woman seems to be kind of flaky about her emotions: the zookeeper is emotionally strong, tall as a giraffe one minute but then – snap! – she’s lost it and turns around and buries her head in the sand. The woman in WLK may be a bit unstable, “worrying is the breathing that [she needs]” and “things that are s’posed to mean lots leave [her] cold and with a malady of the soul.” Both songs talk about her head being in the clouds – perhaps she is a dreamer or just doesn’t have a good grasp on reality or doesn’t realize how much he cares for her.
-In Z he is hoping the relationship will continue and he keeps pleading with her not to give up on him despite the delays (“Zookeeper hear me out; How dare you go cold in the rain?) and again, he keeps asking her if she is still his lady.
Meanwhile …
In WLK he knows it’s over and he is in a great deal of pain over it. “Wake me up only nightmares take me in, through these walls the winter bites, a draft on both sides.” Typically in verse and in dreams, a house represents one’s self, and so a winter biting through walls symbolizes to me that he himself is chilled to the bone and cannot get warm or comfortable. To me the nightmares symbolize his lack of control over the situation and that his entire being is consumed by this whole thing (ONLY nightmares take me in! Wake me up! I can’t get out of my head!). The draft symbolizes the cold reception he got from her upon returning home – he was hoping for a warm welcome but instead he was coldly shut out.
And then at the end of WLK, the depth of his feelings is revealed. “Of course you [care] there are diamond in demand, it’s a shame that as you know, the stain will not go.” “Diamonds in demand” alludes to real seriousness and depth – at least on the surface. Did he WANT to marry her or did she demand that he marry her? Not the same thing; either way, it seems that he was willing to do it because he is obviously heartbroken by the breakup. The stain represents that feeling you get about someone when you are completely “done.” You’d like to say you still care and want to be friends, but you just can’t.
So in a nutshell I think Zookeeper’s Boy is about a guy who’s away from his girlfriend and is trying to save the relationship while White Lips Kissed is about a guy who realizes that his girlfriend has moved on and he’s sick about it.
Whew.
That said, I've been going over this one again and again, not only because it's a FANTASTIC song (and highly addictive to listen to lol), but also because Mew tend to be very surreal and paint rather vivid images with their lyrics anyhow.
There is an alternate version of this song which heightened my curiosity (the Livingston Version, if anyone is interested in checking it out - it's available on iTunes). It's very scaled back and somber, and made me wonder all the more what they were getting at, if anything - so I headed to Mew's site to look at some other information....
Whereupon I found an article about the "Glass-Handed Kites" album. According to Mew themselves, each of the songs represents a different aspect of fear and death. Just felt like putting that out there - now I guess anyone can draw their own conclusions. Would love to see what you folks think :)
Peace!
Like of a boy who feels as if he's had enough of the country life and aching for the city. but then he realizes that the city is more of a "people zoo" than anything.
"Giraffes" being skyscrapers and "ostriches" and the holes they hide in being the sewers of the city. Anywhere and everywhere people can go. "Submersible" once again prooves the sewer aspects for he can "hardly breathe".
I think the boy's fascinated with the rain falling down because where he comes from when everyone sees the rain, they all run home to be with their families, but here the cars remain and no one is going home to the ones they love.
Or maybe i'm overthinking it and I should focus on my English paper. :|