Well, I think your opinion may change when you hear the voice on the other end of the line telling you that someone you love dies. Because he is totally right, you know something is wrong by the way the person is acting or breathing or whatever, but to actually hear that so-and-so has passed away is just like getting hit by a ton of bricks.

"I wish that we could talk about it, but there, that's the problem[, Doc.]"

When Kamen dies, Murphy wants to talk to his group therapist about it. Ironically the therapist died.

"With someone new I couldn't start it, [now it's] too late, for beginnings."

Murphy doesn't want to hire a new therapist or couselor or psychiatrist.

"The little things that made me nervous[. They] are gone in a moment[, Doc]."
Before Kamen's death, Murphy would discuss personal insecurities, professional stressors, and domestic issues with Kamen, his therapist. The size of his belly, the stress of signing a new band, or the friction of a romantic relationship seems petty compared to the tragedy of someone great being prematurely stolen from Murphy.

"I miss the way [that] we[, the patients,] used to argue, [while we were] locked, in your basement[, Doc].

Perhaps group therapy involved his wife, friends, or others like in Fight Club. Perhaps arguements would occur over people's concerns. For example if Murphy's girlfriend was also a patient, Murphy might be missing the constructive arguing/intensive fellowship between Murphy and his loved one guided by wise Kamen. Similarly Murphy could be missing the support group debate that lifted everyone involved up not the kind of destructive arguing that assinates characters and inflicts so much damage. Perhaps Murphy argued with Kamen in a lively way that he is nostalgic for. There are many ways to interpret these two lines within the context of our speculative narrative. I'm assuming basement is the basement of Kamen's practice. "Your basement" doesn't fit this narrative very well though. Perhaps the song is not about Kamen. It's a stretch to imagine such an important therapist having a basement practice. Let us continue though.

"I wake up and the phone is ringing, surprise, as it's early. And that should be the perfect warning that something's a problem. To tell the truth I saw it coming - the way you were breathing - but nothing can prepare you for it, the voice, on the other end."
Someone calls Murphy in the morning or really late at night to tell him that Kamen has passed away. Murphy can hear the bad news in the hesitation of the messanger's voice and the way they were breathing. I don't like this interpretation because it changes the subject. Before this part of the story, "you" equaled Kamen. The song is addressed to his beloved Doc. Now, it's as if Murphy is telling the story of Kamen's death to a group of people when he addresses "you", the specific person in the group listening to the story who called Murphy to deliver the bad news. I prefer the interpretation that Murphy is still addressing Kamen. If "you" equals Kamen, then Kamen must be the one who told Murphy that he was soon to die or in very bad shape or perhaps just told him of a malignant cancer. Kamen would have known far in advance of this death that the end was near. Still Murphy wouldn't have been ready. This second interpretation also is insufficient because Murphy said earlier in the song that he wants to talk to Kamen about Kamen's passing. So now there would be a rewind in the chronology of the story which could be seems jarring, unnatural and thus unlikely. The Kamen interpretation is getting stretchier.

"The worst is all the lovely weather. I'm stunned, it's not raining. The coffee isn't even bitter because, what the difference? There's all the work that needs to be done. It's late for revision. There's all the time and all the planning and songs to be finished." This is Murphy lamenting and explaining the injustice of weather, the injustice of time, and the tyranny of tedium. When someone great is gone, the weather should weep. When someone great is gone, time should stand still in solace to the sorrowful or time ought to bow in respect to the great. When someone great is gone, we shouldn't be slaves to revising revisions, pushing paperwork, or fussing over Pro-Tools. The disrespect is perverse. The injustice is awesome. He's numb.

"And it keeps coming till the day it stops."

The time to explain the injustice is over. Now that we understand what he's getting at, he lets out a cathartic primal shout. Dizzying, maddening modern life is poisoning him. Kamen is dead and "it" keeps coming. "It" is the tedium, the chaos of a random world, the indifference of nature. Kamen died and Murphy is fighting 9-5. The humanity lost! Kamen died and there is not god to that Murphy mentions to comfort him. No "it's God's plan for your life." There is not spiritual explanation. The humanity! Natural phenomena don't cherish your life or feel your pitiful mourning. The humanity! The absence of explanation! Things just continue without pause. It must be disgusting.

"I wish that we could talk about it, but there, [Doc,] that's the problem [now that you're gone.] With someone new I could have started. [No, I guess, it's] too late for beginnings." These lyrics are not the same as earlier. Note the difference: "couldn't start it" replaced by "could have started." There's an expression of ambivalence in his changed lyric. He is confused by his competing emotions. His loyalty to Kamen and/or fear of someone new and/or pessimism about someone new and/or laziness to rebuild such a long relationship is competing with his desire to heal his hurt and/or do what Kamen would want him to do and/or his hope for a psychologically brighter day.

"You're smaller than my wife imagined. [She was] surprised [that] you were human." Again addressed to Kamen, Murphy wants to joke around with his friend. After the mythic stature Murphy created of Kamen in ths mind of Murphy's wife, she was surprised to learn that he had his faults and/or physical weaknesses.

"There shouldn't be this ring of silence, but what are the options, [Doc]?" Murphy is wrestling with the first group therapy session since Kamen's passing in which "what are the options" is a rhetorical question. I find that this interpretation lacking. Why shouldn't there be this ring of silence? Someone great is gone. It's psychologically healthy and normal for people to be at a loss for words after a tragedy even for a couple months afterwards. What are the options for the ending of the ring of silence? I don't think the ring of silence is a problem, but if it were, the options could seem perplexing perhaps irrationally perplpexing due to depression. Perhaps one os the options was group therapy and there's a ring of silence at group therapy. Still the therapist would prod conversation. It wouldn't seem like an outrage. This is a problem with the Kamen interpretation.

"When someone great is gone!" Desperate sorrow is an obsessive loop that appears unbreakable much like Murphy's maddening cry. Who should Murphy address? Is Kamen listening? Is anyone listening? Folks, someone great is gone!

"We're safe for the moment, saved for the moment." Wait what? Murphy has been mostly addressing Kamen the entire time except during his two burst of madness ("...keeps coming!" and "...is gone!"). The Kamen interpretation demands the subject to be Kamen which means "we" equals "Kamen" and I. How are Murphy and Kamen safe for the moment? Saved for the moment? Kamen is dead. Murphy is mad, vulnerable, confused. Perhaps Murphy is contemplating suicide, but safe/saved for the moment. Is that his solace? That Murphy isn't going to kill himself. Still it doesn't address Kamen. How is Kamen safe or saved? Kamen has nothing to be safe from or saved from. Perhaps Murphy's "we" is he and those who loved Kamen. This would mean that Murphy awkwardly changed the subject at the very end of the song. It's possible but improbable. It's very stretchy.

The writer's interpretation is one that Murphy endorses or seems the least stretchy from what we know. Though the Kamen interpretation has a lot going for it, it needs to have 100% going for it to be the writer's interpretation. The "locked in your basement" part, the phone call part, the "ring of silence" part, and the "we're safe" part all stretch the Kamen interpretation to seem unlikely.

this totally matches my interpretation, especially the bit about his wife being shocked to meet his ex because his talked her up so much

he couldn't start a relationship with someone else after his wife died. simple!!!

Yeah, I am pretty sure that once the person you love is dead, it is extremely difficult to start all over.