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Doted on like seeds planted in rows
The untied shoelaces of your life
Nurtured all year then pressed in a book
Or displayed in bad taste at the table
Problems arise and you fan the fire
While there's a wild pack of dogs
Loose in your house tonight
Cut from bad cloth or soiled like socks
Add it up, and basically people never change
They just talk and make plans in the dark
Or make haste with ideas that can't help
But creep good people out
As you talk to me too much you're assuming
We don't always want what's right
Did I strike the right set of chords?
You're annoyed
The goal is to ignite you then move on
You feel ill at ease, you got no squeeze
And the wise-cracks won't make you more stable
You've learned you lines to scale and to time
Why must I remind you now
I'm only less able
Cut from bad cloth or soiled like socks
We're ordinary people, we can't help but to change
As we walk and make plans in the dark
Or make haste with the boy who can't help
But creep good people out.
As you talk to me too much you're assuming
We don't always want what's right
Two fallen saplings in an open field
Snow padding gently on an empty bench
An old woman's jewelry lying unadorned
Cold nesting robins allied for the first time
I know when you hear these sappy lines
You'll roll your eyes and say:
"Nice try."
The untied shoelaces of your life
Nurtured all year then pressed in a book
Or displayed in bad taste at the table
Problems arise and you fan the fire
While there's a wild pack of dogs
Loose in your house tonight
Cut from bad cloth or soiled like socks
Add it up, and basically people never change
They just talk and make plans in the dark
Or make haste with ideas that can't help
But creep good people out
As you talk to me too much you're assuming
We don't always want what's right
Did I strike the right set of chords?
You're annoyed
The goal is to ignite you then move on
You feel ill at ease, you got no squeeze
And the wise-cracks won't make you more stable
You've learned you lines to scale and to time
Why must I remind you now
I'm only less able
Cut from bad cloth or soiled like socks
We're ordinary people, we can't help but to change
As we walk and make plans in the dark
Or make haste with the boy who can't help
But creep good people out.
As you talk to me too much you're assuming
We don't always want what's right
Two fallen saplings in an open field
Snow padding gently on an empty bench
An old woman's jewelry lying unadorned
Cold nesting robins allied for the first time
I know when you hear these sappy lines
You'll roll your eyes and say:
"Nice try."
Lyrics submitted by rudegirl
Track duration: 02:55
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The untied shoelaces of your life" bring to mind) but we never put two and two together, we never tie each other, or connect. We have forgotten to do this because we are groomed into individuals, we are set aside as individuals separate from one another. The stanza's afterwards, starting with the line "They just make plans in the dark," refer to what happens when you act from a place that you don't really recognize, you can't because you don't know the point from which you started from. The speaker throughout this seems to be attempting to convince a loved one that they are no different from each other, that they forget sometimes ('an old woman's jewelry lying unadorned'), but will come together just as they were born, this is shown in the last stanza "Two fallen saplings in an open field, Snow padding gently on an empty bench, An old woman's jewelry lying unadorned ,Cold nesting robins allied for the first time, I know when you hear these sappy lines, You'll roll your eyes and say:
"Nice try." " Obviously by the last "Nice Try" the person the speaker is trying to convince, does not buy any of this because unlike the speaker they have forgotten how everything started, how they first began to be around eachother,
they were together.
I think Mercer is trying to show how damaging this behavior can be as he's arguing with this person, probably a girl that he loved, and wishing that she hadn't held in all of her feelings.
but yeah good song
the tune is almost "i get by with a little help of my friends" by the beatles--maybe?
my interpretation has holes and is not very deep--when i heard it i just saw the band practicing a room where the fire is being fanned and their ruckuss is the wilddogs...
as a creative band they make plans in the dark etc but one guy in the band is a jerk who takes it to seiously and the speaker gets off on annoying him- but these wise cracks arnt helping "him be stable" this guy is obvously a better musican (i'm only less able)-- the ending doesnt fit with my interpretaion-- but u can make of it what u want---do u ever think that one day James mercer will come onto this site and read all these interpretations and laugh--