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An overaged boy of 39 has left the wing today
The first time in his life he's made that step
Be numbed by the society and plagued by insecurity
He's entered in a race that must be won
One of the animals has left its cage today
In search of better things, so it seems to be
But in this land of polyurethane,
things are apt to get a bit hot
As the toys go winding down
C.G. The Mexican is a friend of mine
We used to sit around the house watching Evil Dead
Talking about the way it used to be
Skit dat daddle dee dee
We used to pull the strippers out of San Pablo Bay
Now the delta waters go down So. Cal.
And the strippers start to fade away
It's pudding time!
As the toys go winding down
The first time in his life he's made that step
Be numbed by the society and plagued by insecurity
He's entered in a race that must be won
One of the animals has left its cage today
In search of better things, so it seems to be
But in this land of polyurethane,
things are apt to get a bit hot
As the toys go winding down
C.G. The Mexican is a friend of mine
We used to sit around the house watching Evil Dead
Talking about the way it used to be
Skit dat daddle dee dee
We used to pull the strippers out of San Pablo Bay
Now the delta waters go down So. Cal.
And the strippers start to fade away
It's pudding time!
As the toys go winding down
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PS I have no idea what the second verse means
I did lights on tour off and on for nine years and my brother Link did the album covers.
Les and I are still friends and I worked on the Electric Apricot film doing post production.
C. G. the Mexican
Curtis Gomez
I think the song is about someone (maybe the singer) who grows up in a situation that is not very pleasant. His home is "the wing", comparable to a "cage" in the "land of polyureathane". To survive this horror, he looked for diversion in fishing (and watching TV?) in the past but even this little entainment is no longer satisfying or even possible as he grows older and even the fish vanish: the toys go winding down. So, now, finally, after 39 years of eating shit, it is time to get started something better, to claim the wage, "pudding time". This is what the plan is, the animal leaves its cage. This is refelected in the power of the music, the rebelious aggression.
But the situation is not easy. "Things are apt to get a bit - hot." The guy probably learned no real proffession. Maybe wants to live differntly from the people he knows, maybe as a rock musician instead of a factory worker or of an office employee. Maybe the plan to leave "the cage" is crazy/insane, the plan of an "animal", s.o. from "the wing", where maybe only lunatics live. This subjective (maybe) or objective (maybe, the narrator doesn't know either) danger of leaving (the cage, the wing, the childhood) is also reflected in the music, I think.
In my opinion this song is an extremly powerful one, about a situation in live that many people know in the one way or the other.
I was refering to a home made Youtube video of the song for a class essey.
I think this song is about grown up slackers holding on to the glory days of youth for as long as possible. The protagonist at the beginning of the song is stepping out from the wing of his parents house at the age of thirty-nine. The fact that he's thirty nine and "plagued by society and insecurity" line makes me wonder if he may have been a moderately successful for a time. Once he may have felt on top of the world but now he faces having to join working class society and be judged by their standards (a rat race that must be won).
The first verses of the second stanza are rather interesting.
One of the animals has left its cage today
in search of better things so it seems to be
They seem to be a repeat of the first stanza's theme but this time he's referred to as an animal leaving his cage for better things (or so it seems to be). The mother's wing or nest can also be a cage. The animal might be content and not have to hunt for it's food but it's brain turns to mush as it never receives new stimuli.
The next two lines of the stanza refer to the dangers of refinery work.
But in this land of polyurethane,
Things are apt to get a bit hot
One of the reasons people with little skill can make good pay doing refinery work is because it can be dangerous. Every one of the refineries in the bay area has had some kind of toxic leak or big fire.
The chorus "As the Toys Go Winding Down" refers to the toys of youth losing their great luster. At some point you either need to put them away or they will simply wind down and cease to give you satisfaction anymore.
Which is exactly what the last two stanzas are about. Sitting around talking about the halcyon days with an old friend, reminiscing about the same things again and again. I'm sure everyone here has had a friend who never talks about anything but the good 'ol days. On a side not, C.G. the Mexican is a real life friend of the lead singer Les Claypool. You'll often times see references to real life friends in their music.
We used to pull the stripers out of Sand Pablo bay
Now the delta waters go down So. Cal.
And the stripers start to fade away.
This alludes to a realization that even the last great bastion of youth, fishing, is winding down. The rivers that feed the bay are being pumped down to southern California, and killing off the fish population in the bay.
It's pudding time!
It's pudding time!
Such a great line (it's also used in another song of the same name) but people often wonder what the heck it means. Claypool once explained that it alludes to having to work through all the nasty vegetables so that you can get your pudding. This lyric is thrown out in a resigned guttural spit.
I see it as meaning, "I've wasted my youth and young adulthood and now I'm going to have to eat the worst garbage (work in the refinery) in order to enjoy my deserts."
This is the only decent free audio stream of the song I could find. It's not made by Primus but in an interesting way it plays into some of the themes of the song. Instead of a refinery life the boy goes into military service. But judging by the pictures of him holding a baby it seems he's found one of the great rewards of adulthood.
Todd
In this song it definitely means that he's sad that his hobby (fishing) is suffering due to someone's greedy strive for 'pudding time' (payday/money) resulting in overfishing.
I still think it's about growing old due to the nostalgia (especially towards the end) and the title (toys is children reference and winding down means getting older). If the 'wing' thing does have anything to do with mental illness (could easily be imprisonment for crime) then it's because their release is like being a child again, fresh to play in the world as if they were reborn. Whilst dark, the really depressing bit is how most of us are more like Les in the 2nd verse - had our youth, had our fun, and now we're struggling on till the day we die - things aren't as good as they used to be either (sterotypical elderly person's thought).
In Christ
The Happiness Salesman
(I know I didnt make that much sense this time)