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Walt Grace, desperately hating his whole place,
Dreamed to discover a new space,
And buried himself alive,
Inside his basement, tongue on the side of his face when,
He's working away on displacement,
And what it would take to survive.
'Cause when you're done with this world,
You know the next is up to you.
And his wife told his kids he was crazy,
And his friends said he'd fail if he tried,
But with a will to work hard,
And a library card,
He took a homemade, fan-blade, one-man submarine ride.
That morning, the sea was mad and I mean it,
Waves as big as he'd seen it,
Deep in his dreams at home.
From dry land,
He rolled it over to wet sand,
Closed the hatch up with one hand,
And peddled off alone.
'Cause when you're done with this world,
You know the next is up to you.
And for once in his life it was quiet,
As he learned how to turn in the tide,
And the sky was a flare,
When he came up for air,
In his homemade, fan-blade, one-man submarine ride.
One evening,
When weeks had passed since his leaving,
The call she'd planned on receiving,
Finally made it home.
She accepted,
The news she'd never expected,
The operator connected,
A call from Tokyo.
'Cause when you're done with this world,
You know the next is up to you.
Now his friends,
Bring him up when they're drinking,
At the bar with his name on the side,
And they smile when they can,
As they speak of a man,
Who took a homemade,
Fan-blade, one-man submarine ride.
Dreamed to discover a new space,
And buried himself alive,
Inside his basement, tongue on the side of his face when,
He's working away on displacement,
And what it would take to survive.
'Cause when you're done with this world,
You know the next is up to you.
And his wife told his kids he was crazy,
And his friends said he'd fail if he tried,
But with a will to work hard,
And a library card,
He took a homemade, fan-blade, one-man submarine ride.
That morning, the sea was mad and I mean it,
Waves as big as he'd seen it,
Deep in his dreams at home.
From dry land,
He rolled it over to wet sand,
Closed the hatch up with one hand,
And peddled off alone.
'Cause when you're done with this world,
You know the next is up to you.
And for once in his life it was quiet,
As he learned how to turn in the tide,
And the sky was a flare,
When he came up for air,
In his homemade, fan-blade, one-man submarine ride.
One evening,
When weeks had passed since his leaving,
The call she'd planned on receiving,
Finally made it home.
She accepted,
The news she'd never expected,
The operator connected,
A call from Tokyo.
'Cause when you're done with this world,
You know the next is up to you.
Now his friends,
Bring him up when they're drinking,
At the bar with his name on the side,
And they smile when they can,
As they speak of a man,
Who took a homemade,
Fan-blade, one-man submarine ride.
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"When you're done with this world..." and you shake off the trappings of society and the financial restraints keeping you from full commitment toward achievement of your purpose,
Once you fully commit, your mind will be free of the chatter and external noise..."and for once in his life it was quiet, as he learned how to turn in the tide" and you will experience a beauty and fulfillment that few of us will ever know..."and the sky was a flair, as he came up for air"
In this case he did succeed.. "the operator connected, the news she never expected, a call from Tokyo"
The song is set to a simple mechanical cadence that conjjures the image of the inventors machine in action.
John Mayer is truly becoming among the great songwriters of all time.... a gifted man utilizing his talents to the fullest.
I think Walt Grace died, but not in the sense of "he drowned at sea" which seems to be what people are mainly going with.
I think Walt Grace found out he had a terminal illness. ('Cause when you're done with this world, You know the next is up to you.)
He knew he was dying, but didn't want those around him to feel sorry for him. So he decided to do one last grand task, a final fulfilment.
He was ridiculed (his wife told his kids he was crazy / his friends said he'd fail if he tried) but they didn't know the real motivation behind it all. He had his will to work hard - if not now, when? - and set out to reach his goal.
I think that final call to his wife wasn't from Walt, but from a hospital in Japan where he'd ended up after taking his submarine ride all the way across the Pacific. Remember, this was 1967 in the context of the song. The internet didn't exist, so it would have been a lot harder to track somebody down, let alone the spouse of a body that washed up on the shores of Tokyo had he died at sea.
His wife had already come to terms with his death (the call she'd planned on receiving, finally made it home) and she accepted it (his death, not the phone call) but what she could never imagine is that he had disappeared to Tokyo (the news she'd never expected).
We can conclude this because Walt Grace represents John.
If you read the recent June Rolling Stone interview with John Mayer, where he speaks of what went wrong back in the 2010 interviews with Rolling Stone and Playboy, and then read the pdf file about Walt Grace found by typing into Google "Walt Grace 1967" you can see the connection between the two.
Walt Grace was found guilty for misconduct by breaking a plate, using foul abusive language and suspected of drinking. He appealed the decision. So John broke a plate, said some things he shouldn't have, everyone overreacted and he was found guilty too.
The song is about redemption. This silly situation that made him hate his whole place, made him bury himself and reinvent himself, surprising everyone that he would or could do it will a will to work hard at it. Doing what so many thought couldn't be done.
________________________________________________________
"Walt Grace, desperately hating his whole place,
Dreamed to discover a new space,
And buried himself alive,
Inside his basement, tongue on the side of his face when,
He's working away on displacement,
And what it would take to survive."
When things went wrong and everyone hated him because of some silly stupid thing he said, he felt like he had to hide. He wanted out. A different life, something better to result from his hard work. So he took a hiatus, "Buried himself alive" went to Montana and changed his whole perspective. He had to reinvent himself in order to survive.
"'Cause when you're done with this world,
You know the next is up to you.
And his wife told his kids he was crazy,
And his friends said he'd fail if he tried,
But with a will to work hard,
And a library card,
He took a homemade, fan-blade, one-man submarine ride."
So his wife, the media, told all his kids or fans he was crazy.
And his friends, his closer circle thought he was crazy, not necessarily giving up on him, but not understanding what went wrong.
But he worked hard and went to an unconventional method to reinvent himself, by himself. Hence the "one man". Not relying upon others to find his value. He had to accept responsibility, he was done with that life or "world" and the next was up to him. So he accepted the challenge.
Just a thought based on the lyrics, the June1012 Rolling Stone Interview and the Walt Grace Appeal Document
uscg.mil/legal/CDOA/.../S...R.../… - GRACE.pdf
You cant find the full 1012 Interview online, but can see it in the magazine at Barnes and Noble. Then listen to the song with these thoughts in mind, and you can see the connection.
I can almost hear him working through differnt things and finally coming up with "homemade, fan blade, one man, submarine ride" and saying, "yeah, that's cool."
Anyway, he's saying, take a chance. Do something. "With a will to work hard, and a library card" you can do anything.
Walt Grace made it. That's the whole deal. It may not always work out but if you don't try you'll never know. Walt Grace tried. And he called home from Tokyo.
"Now his friends,
Bring him up when they're drinking,
At the bar with his name on the side,
And they smile when they can,
As they speak of a man,
Who took a homemade,
Fan-blade, one-man submarine ride."
Now yes this is a big hint saying he lived, but there was a saying somewhere that no one is truly dead unless people forget their existence and I believe that what that verse is saying
He "Dreamed to discover a new space" --> space means 'outer space'
He was "done with this world" --> no longer wants to live on Earth
"And the sky was a flare,When he came up for air" --> Alien ship picked him up off the coast
"A call from Tokyo." --> ET phoned home
:D
See??? Listen to his explanation of the song Vultures back then....
youtube.com/…
Love both songs!
One evening,
When weeks had passed since his leaving,
The call she'd planned on receiving,
Finally made it home.
She accepted,
The news she'd never expected,
The operator connected,
A call from Tokyo.
-First and foremost, if he died in the ocean why would someone from Tokyo be calling to tell her he is dead? He wouldn't have made it that far and would have most likely just died underwater and would never be found. So, just based on reason he made it. But even taking from the song, she didn't think he would make it which is why she didn't expect this news.
When he came up for air...
Maybe he was in the land of the rising sun when he came up again, hence the call from Tokyo?
Just one of the many wonderful ambiguities in this song. There is room for many subtly or totally differing interpretations. All are valid, even if John had a specific version of the story in mind. Art is openness to attributed meaning. When you're done with this world, the next is up to you.