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A daydream spills from my corked head
Breaks free of my wooden neck
Left a nod over sleeping waves
Like bobbing bait for bathing cod
Floating flocks of candle swans
Slowly drift across wax ponds
The men all played along to marching drums
and boy did they have fun behind the sea
They sang, so our matching legs are marching clocks
and we’re all too small to talk to god
Yes, we’re all too smart to talk to god
Toast the fine folks casting silver crumbs
to us from the dock
Jinxed things ringing as they leak
through tiny cracks in the boardwalk
Scarecrow now it’s time to hatch
sprouting suns and ageless daughters
Go on, you know
Don't you know
That those watermelon smiles just can’t ripen underwater
Just can’t ripen underwater
The men all played along to marching drums
and boy did they have fun behind the sea
They sang, so our matching legs are marching clocks
and we’re all too small to talk to god
Yeah, we’re all too smart to talk to god
oh, we’re all too smart to talk to god
Ooooh
Legs of wood waves, waves of wooden legs
Waves of wooden legs
Legs of wood waves, waves of wooden legs
Waves of wooden legs
Legs of wood waves, waves of wooden legs
Waves of wooden legs
Legs of wood waves, waves of wooden legs
Waves of wooden legs
Oooooh
So close, so close
Breaks free of my wooden neck
Left a nod over sleeping waves
Like bobbing bait for bathing cod
Floating flocks of candle swans
Slowly drift across wax ponds
The men all played along to marching drums
and boy did they have fun behind the sea
They sang, so our matching legs are marching clocks
and we’re all too small to talk to god
Yes, we’re all too smart to talk to god
Toast the fine folks casting silver crumbs
to us from the dock
Jinxed things ringing as they leak
through tiny cracks in the boardwalk
Scarecrow now it’s time to hatch
sprouting suns and ageless daughters
Go on, you know
Don't you know
That those watermelon smiles just can’t ripen underwater
Just can’t ripen underwater
The men all played along to marching drums
and boy did they have fun behind the sea
They sang, so our matching legs are marching clocks
and we’re all too small to talk to god
Yeah, we’re all too smart to talk to god
oh, we’re all too smart to talk to god
Ooooh
Legs of wood waves, waves of wooden legs
Waves of wooden legs
Legs of wood waves, waves of wooden legs
Waves of wooden legs
Legs of wood waves, waves of wooden legs
Waves of wooden legs
Legs of wood waves, waves of wooden legs
Waves of wooden legs
Oooooh
So close, so close
Lyrics submitted by savourflavour
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Breaks free of my wooden neck"
Okay, so the narrator starts off trying to block daydreams, but he slips up, and the day breaks free.
"Left to nod over sleeping waves
Like bobbing bait for bathing cod"
Sleeping waves, I think, means that someday the waves are going to wake up, things are going to get more exciting, and when they do, he's going to use this daydream to catch fish. Or in the bigger scheme of things, make a living off it.
"Floating flocks of candle swans
Slowly drift across wax ponds"
This part kind of eludes to the Tin Solider; didn't the story mention candle swans and wax ponds? So it could be tying into they're seen as nothing more than toys, or they are actually toys.
"The men all played along to marching drums
and boy did they have fun behind the sea"
I think that since they followed one drum/person so mindlessly, they sunk/marched right off the dock. I think the water has to symbolize death, and since the soldiers are so mindless, they don't see death when they sign up for the war, they just see it as an adventure.
"They sang, so our matching legs are marching clocks
and we're all too small to talk to god
Yes, we're all too smart to talk to god"
The soldiers are taking pride in the way they're able to march so perfectly, and uniformly look the same. I think the part about god is saying that they don't believe in him, and some people look at it as they're not important enough to have to look outside their own little world, or they're smart enough not to believe in something that big.
"Toast the fine folks casting silver crumbs
to us from the dock
Jinxed things ringing as they leak
through tiny cracks in the boardwalk"
The soldiers are eventually going to die, but the people who are on the dock (perhaps as mindless as the soldiers) are throwing valuables for the soldiers. I think the narrator uses the adjective jinxed, because it applies to the irony of the situation. Soldiers are needed for war, and war is usually happening to protect valuable things, a country or goods, and here the people are throwing them off the dock to the soldiers who are going to die..
"Scarecrow now it's time to hatch
sprouting sons and ageless daughters"
A scarecrow is something that protects over crops, so in a way, the soldiers are like scarecrows. The sprouting sons and ageless daughters part is talking about the kids they've already had, sprouting sons, sons that are going to grow up to an age when they can go to war, and ageless daughter, he's saying the daughters age doesn't really matter because they'll never grow up to an age when they're shipped off to war.
"That those watermelon smiles just can't ripen underwater
Just can't ripen underwater"
When people were kids, they use to hold watermelons up to their face so it looked like a huge smile. I'm assuming the age of the watermelon is connected to the age of the child. So the children going off to war are never going to have ripened smiled because you can't grow up when you're dead.
"Legs of wood waves, waves of wooden legs"
The narrator ended with this because it kind of sums up the whole message of the song. About how easily, and quickly soldiers marching turned into soldiers dying.
"a daydream spills from my cork head, breaks free on my wooden neck"
--It makes me think of Pinocchio feeling sad because he's not a real boy...i don't think that's what the songs about though...that's just what it reminds me of....
Lol.
Ryan is a fan of The Beatles so I bet I can see why.
Haha.
=))
Ryan's voice makes it really interesting and makes it stand out. It's definitely one of my favorites.
Can someone tell what they mutter at the end of the song? i think Brendon says something like 'it was fair' but i really cant tell.
Its great because the lyrics seem so complex but really its very simple, just sit there and listen to this and daydream about the pretty picture this song paints.
Thats my favorite thing about most of this album, there's a lot of imagery and abstract lyrics so you can take whatever you want from it.
I don't understand why Panic has such a lousy rap, this is beautiful music.
Here's the video: youtube.com/…
"A daydream spills from my corked head
Breaks free of my wooden neck
Left to nod over sleeping waves"
Dorothy was hit in the head with the window, and daydreamed about Oz.
The men in the chorus would be munchkins? And they are small, so they are "too small"
"Jinxed things ringing as they leak
through tiny cracks on the boardwalk"
Bad things happened throughout the journey (Because the witch cast spells) Maybe they came through the cracks on the yellow brick road?
"Scarecrow now it's time to hatch sprouting sons and ageless daughters""
There we have Scarecrow. And maybe sprouting sons and ageless daughters is like a metaphore for his intellegence? Because now he is not left with the burden of Hanging on a post, with no intellegence. He is now out in the world to gain more knowledge (Sprouting sons) and share his own (Ageless daughters).
Maybe Oz is underwater in this song, and those "Watermelon smiles" are Dorothy's hopes and wishes. They cannot go anywhere ("ripen") While she is in Oz, she must be in Kansas to bring out the hopes and dreams that she wanted.
"Waves of wooden legs"
I see as the fence in Kansas that flew around from the tornado. The wooden posts are the wooden legs. And them flying in the air was the waves.
And at the end they sound like they are in a Tornado. With the "Wooooaaahhhhh" But now that I think about it, it is also like when Tin Man was falling over during his number. They were saying "wooaahh" or the music sounded like "wooahh" While Dorothy and Scarecrow moved side to side to keep Tin Man upright.
As for the other parts, I'll leave that for you to interpret, or just leave it as Ryan's randomness. It's very poetic. And a very nice song, whether it is or isn't about Wizard Of Oz.
when i was a kis, and even still to this day, i lived off of disney movies. hearing this song makes me think about like an odd combination of alice in wonderland, peter pan, and pinocchio. i love it! actually i love them in general. they are my 2nd favourite band, ever.
God know's what they're taking about.
I get the idea that they're some creature. I think
of mer-people for some reason. but that's just my imagination at the works. Whatever they may be
they're looking at the men on the ship.
"legs of wood waves, waves of wooden legs"
im thinking they have wooden legs (obv.) and when
they sink or whatever..the legs are all over the waves.
hence: waves of wooden legs.
I also get the impression that theyre just toys
and he's just imagining a scenario.
"and were all to small to talk to god"
"God" being him (ryan)
and them being whatever he's playing with.
im thinking back to my childhood..
so that's just me.
good album, if i do say so myself.
"The men all played along to marching drums"
^society all follows one drummer. It's difficult to find anyone in society that marches to the beat of their own drum.
"And boy did they have fun behind the sea"
^Sarcastically, the people 'had fun' following (behind) societies' traditions.
"They sang, so our matching legs are marching clocks"
^the people of society are, again, following in the same footsteps as one another, none taking their own path. And by doing this, they're just living their lives wasting time.
"And we’re all too small to talk to god
Yes, we’re all too smart to talk to god"
^Society is allowing people to believe that we are below God, in an inferior way, but these same people are also evolving. (too smart to talk to God) Learning that there's more to life than just religion.
And again, these concepts agree with the transcendentalist ideas of my good friend Thoreau.
But, these are just my thoughts of this.