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Here in Cologne
I know I said it wrong
I walked you to the train
And back across alone
To my hotel room
And ordered me some food
And now I'm wondering why the floor has suddenly become a moving target
[Chorus]
Four, three, two, one,
I'm letting you go
I will let go
If you will let go
(Four, three, two)
Says here an astronaut
Put on a pair of diapers
Drove eighteen hours
To kill her boyfriend
And in my hotel room, I'm wondering
If you read that story too?
And if we both might
Be having the same imaginary conversation
[Chorus]
(Four, three, two)
Weightless as I close my eyes
The ceiling opens in disguise
Such a painful trip
To find out this is it
And when I go to sleep
You'll be waking up
[Chorus]
I know I said it wrong
I walked you to the train
And back across alone
To my hotel room
And ordered me some food
And now I'm wondering why the floor has suddenly become a moving target
[Chorus]
Four, three, two, one,
I'm letting you go
I will let go
If you will let go
(Four, three, two)
Says here an astronaut
Put on a pair of diapers
Drove eighteen hours
To kill her boyfriend
And in my hotel room, I'm wondering
If you read that story too?
And if we both might
Be having the same imaginary conversation
[Chorus]
(Four, three, two)
Weightless as I close my eyes
The ceiling opens in disguise
Such a painful trip
To find out this is it
And when I go to sleep
You'll be waking up
[Chorus]
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Two other users have given accounts of Ben explaining part of the song at different concerts. Now, it'd be rather difficult to improvise something with the sort of meaning that he said the song had.
In summary: Don't try to kill everyone else's experience of the song.
When you are so so close with someone, it seems like everything that happens is filtered through these imaginary conversations you plan to have with them, and he is realizing now that those conversations wont happen. It always reminds me of that scene in "Eternal Sunshine" where Clementine is pulled into the darkness of the icy lake...like you can see someone and touch them and they're are just going and you're not going to stop it.
I loved inEffington's comment on it being a love song and a break up song. I thought some of the lyrics were sad, like a break up but then when you get to the chorus, it is almost uplifting. Like two songs in one.
You are absolutely right about Nowak actually making her painful trip to kill the new girlfriend. However, when this story first broke, it was assumed that she had gone with diapers and weapons to kill her astronaut boyfriend. So, for the character reading something about this within a day of the event, this is exactly what they would have been reading.....
I don't think anyone can pull off using the word "diapers" in a song, not even Ben Folds.
ben has described it as a love song and a break up song at the same time which is very ironic but makes perfect sense when you actually listen to the words.
Mirestella hit the nail on the head with the talking on the phone. I was also at Terminal Five but the next night October 1st. Ben has said several times that the "letting you go" is both literal but also the coundown to when new lovers will hang up their phones simultaneously.
aside from that double meaning, my other two favorite lines are
"when i go to sleep, you'll be waking up" (also a literal and figurative meaning that zembla has already mentioned.
and
"and if we both might/be having the same imaginary conversation."
i think that is the perfect description of what anyone feels when they have a crush. you go home for the day and cant take your mind off of a certain person and all you can wonder and hope is that they can also not get their mind off of you.
genius songwriting.