WHY DOES NO ONE TALK ABOUT TOAD?? arg.

anyhow this song is great...its him talking to a girl about her relationships. about how she tried to help him, or more than one 'him' but she never really could and it didnt help her either. in the end he kinda says "the guys you have been with have been lacking in something, and in truth - you are too" she is hurting inside. tried to help and nurture these guys who are going nowhere maybe because she wants to feel needed? who knows. sounds like a psychology case to me. glen is playing the truthfull friend here...the friend with the truth that hurts to hear.

i love the line "youd give yourself to anybody who would cross that line" like she would be with anyone who gave enough effort to getting her. she is needy.

i absoluptly love this song, i wish more people would talk about toad...anyway...this song reminds me of me in so many relationships...the song is about this girl whos waiting to find a guy to come into her life, it doesnt even matter who he is. shed take anyone. the girl puts her heart and soul into the guy cuz shes just longing for some sort of relationship. the thing is the guy, he just doesnt care. but the realationship wasnt meant to be in the first place. there was nothing she could do to keep him there. my favorite part is where it says, "get over regret, while you were sleeping with the angels he was under the bed and the more skin u shed the more the air in your throat would linger when you call him your friend" its saying, its over and stop beating yourself up for it, he had his faults too and the more you try to fool yourself, the more you're going to feel stupid saying you guys are still friends and are on good terms. let him go...LOVE THIS SONG

The bandmember who wrote these lyrics must know something about Addiction and Codependency. As a therapist i've actually used this song in a codependency group i do.

It perfectly describes how codependents search out people they feel they can help "it was never a question, he was crowing for repair".

AS the relationship progresses so does the addiction, codependency and resulting resentment, "While you were sleeping with the angels
He was under the bed
And the more skin
That you shed
The more that the air in your throat will linger
When you call him your friend"

and finally, most important of all for my group is the awareness that she too needs help, "And it was never question
You were crowing for repair..."

great song. i see a girl here who is very confused. shes been through a lot, and doesnt really know at all what she wants...she only knows she wants things to be ok again. shes kind off living in the past and fretting over regrets, and because of this shes putting this guy through a very uneasy situation. he cant do anything for her, but all he wants is for her to be happy.

The line in this song that hits me most is "The more the air in your throat lingers when you call him your friend". I always pictured the "him" in the song as the best friend who's in love with her and has always been there for her thru all her bad relationships. And then when she finally realizes it, he's moved on. Great song. More people need to realize how awesome this album is.

This is a great song. One of my fave TTWS songs. Glen Phillips is a great songwriter and storyteller. His solo stuff is pretty good too. The lyrics in this are great.

My interpretation of the song is that it's about a friendship with "benefits." The story is told through the perspective of the guy. The girl always took him for granted. She always kinda felt he would be there. The girl would make it seem like he needed her more than she needed him. "he was crowing for repair" The girl is always looking elsewhere, looking for that person to be with and always overlooking her friend. She goes through a series of dead end relationships that leave her feeling worse than before. She sleeps with various men hoping to get closer to them, hoping that their the one for her, but she never ends up getting any closer to these men, they just use her for sex.

At some point the girl realizes her friend is the guy she has been lookin for all along, but by that time the friend has moved on. At this point the girl is the one who needs the guy more and now she is the one "crowing for repair." Plus she realizes the whole time she was overlooking her friend she was the one who truly needed him more. Great subtle change in the lyric from he was crowing to "you were crowing" in the end. 90's classic. What happened to this kind of music. That folky kinda of acoustic rock. Not enough of it, if you ask me.

this song is about suicide. she loved him all she could but it wasnt enough. it talks about regrets, that she needs to know its not her fault. suicide.

I always felt this song was about a girl who loves a guy and is always trying to fix him. I've been there. Too many times.

I think this song is about a woman who knows her husband is cheating on her with other women and she will "give" herself to anyone who would know that hes doing it and would cross the line of talking to her about it. She always thought that she would be happiest with him, but in the end, she figures out that she could've been happier without him. In the second verse it says "while you were sleeping with angels, he was under the bed" and i think he means that she was praying for an answer (the 3rd verse says so to) and while she was doing so, he was getting in bed with other females. Get over regret simply means that she needs to get over him and realize that it was not her fault because she would give him love and affection but he would never ask for it (or crow for repair). At the end it says "reading fault lines of a shell of a man" and this could mean that she would think of all his faults and she knew what he was doing and she would pray and pray but never questioned him about it and never crowed for a repairing of the relationship.

Yeah more people should talk about this band. I have four of their albums. This song is about a desperate girl, and a guy who wasn't happy with her.

I agree with qb42931 on this one, mainly for there is a verse that exempifies that interpretation without a doubt in my mind and it's this verse: (You'd give him love and affection
But you couldn't keep him there), that to me is saying she gave all of herself to this man she loved and thought loved her back and he cheated on her all the time anyways.

(The more that the air in your throat will linger
When you call him your friend) this verse is in reference to the above interpretation as well, as she is wrestling with the idea that she should break off this relationship and just be friends with him but she doesn't know if she can handle it.

As for why the man cheats on her, its obvious when someone is troubled in general they act out, he is crowing for repair and to act out his frusteration he cheats on the one he loves, as a means of subconciously getting attention. No matter how much love and affection she gave him, he was so troubled and needy that it wasn't enough so eventually he cheats again and again...

My favorite verse and the best one by far is
(Staring at a cold little hand
Reading fault lines
Of a shell of a man
You were waiting for a word from above
Wouldn't you know it
No answer ever did come)
This deals with her coming to grips with, he is not the man she married, merely a shell of that man (Reading fault lines
Of a shell of a man) .......
(staring at a cold little hand) to me is her staring at her own hand, the one with her wedding band on it, wondering how the marriage came to be such a disaster.
Then she looks to god above for answers to how it came to be such a wreck and how the man she married is now so different, a stranger...and no answer ever comes no matter how much she prays for the answer.
(You were waiting for a word from above
Wouldn't you know it
No answer ever did come)

I love the song and it falls in line with dissipation of my mom and dads failed marriage..cause my mom had so many issues and I think my dad did as well. So my dad not knowing how to repair himself, and my mom not knowing either...he would cheat on my mom all the time, and try and hide it from her. It was his way of acting out subconciously. He needed attention and no matter how much love and affection my mom gave him, she couldn't keep him there.

This song appears to be writen from the point of the women, refering to the man that doesnt know how to hold on to her... Don Quixote (theme)

Girl loves this guy who does not love her.

"If he make up his mind" ... He gives a little, but then pulls away. "

"Give him love and affection. You couldn't keep him there." ... Girl loves him and gives him her heart, but he doesn't feel it and cannot return the feeling.

"You were waiting from a word from up above" ... praying to God to make him love her, but no answer equals your answer. He does not love her.

"Never a question, you were crowing for repair" ... she needs something to move on. Help, love, SOMETHING!

Unfortunatly, I've been the man in this song all too often in relationships...here's my take...

Typical of many Glen Phillips songs, the first verse exemplies the feeling of waiting for love unrequoited (sp).

I've had the same exact conversation with past girlfriends as in the first verse. Simply said, all she wants is to be loved..and she could have been happier if she had moved on long ago and found someone that could truly love her, rather than waiting for her boyfriend to make up his mind whether to committ to her or not.

In the chorus, we find "it was never a question" how this would end. He is a broken man in need of deep repair. She continutes to hold out hope and give him support and love, but he cannot return this love and instead pushes her away. Despite her best efforts, the choice is not hers alone and she cannot hold on to him.

In the third verse, yes...this is a very clear indication /extention of the second verse and implies he has been unfaithful despite her being a dutiful girlfriend.

I think many are reading the second half of the third verse wrong. He is simply saying that this: The more energy you devote to a relationship, the harder it is to accept being friends. The more she tries, the more she loves the greater her commitment to this relationship...and the more difficult it is to simply be friends when it is over.

The final verse shows her final recognition that the relationship is doomed. "Staring at a cold little hand", she she is playing a week hand (card game analogy). She now realizes just how broken and flawed he is. I don't read into this song/verse anything other than that he is a very troubled man. In the very last line, we find that she's been praying to God for help...for an answer from above, but no answer came.

In fact, in this song both our hero and heroine are broken, but they find different ways of expressing it. She devotes herself to one man, despite his flaws...all the while she could be happier if she moved on. He can't commit to any single women, even thought there is one that loves him despite all his flaws.

Man...have I been there...

I think "Crowing" is about a single mom (because some "men just leave") that is grieving over the loss of her baby. One definition of crowing is: the inarticulate sound of pleasure a baby makes. However, this baby crows for repair -- i.e, this baby needs medical attention, and no matter how much love and affection the mother gives she cannot keep her baby alive ("couldn't keep him there").

The narrator encourages her to move on and "get over regrets," but she can't remove from her mind the image of her baby's cold little hand or the idea that she's to blame ("reading fault lines"). One way for her to move on is to find love with this man that is currently just a friend.

Song is about relationships in general and how people handle them, and how they can't work some things out sometimes. According to an interview I read with TTWS they summed it up with "the more one person gets chased, the more that person runs away"...