Phish – Wading In The Velvet Sea

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  General Comment:I often wade along in the velvet sea on the way to work. Listening to phish, sometimes it seems like a perfect moment. So maybe I write it down, even draw it out, hoping to capture every detail so I can somehow preserve this experience. Maybe I'll mail it out, share it with the band to relay to them how inspirational their music has been. But time passes, and my life's responsibilities erode away that moment. I work to get paid by someone else's schedule. In fact if I were to re-read that letter, I mayself probably couldn't take those words and recreate the experience, let alone expect someone else to translate it. You can't preserve a great moment of wading in the velvet sea. But hey, we try.

  Flag evalenteon December 07, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:I think that it means to live your life and that the moments you spend with people are valuable, and you should do that more often than sending things in mail, because then your time is set by someone else, mail carrier etc.

  Flag techruleson October 06, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:Lyrically the song carries the tone of a letter to a lost love, a message of hope for a brighter future. An account of a moment shared during a solitary trip to the coast. A moment which simultaneously captured the joy and sorrow of the past forgotten and the future lost. The title phrase, repeated incessantly throughout the soaring elegy to enduring emotion, captures the spirit of the waves. Cascading over and over against the edge of the earth; time leaks out, life leaks in, the moment ends.

  Flag Phan4Lipheon September 09, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:Regardless of the purpose of the song. I think of the title "Wading in the velvet sea" as floating around in a sea of love. Maybe because I'm a hopeless romantic at heart. Everytime I hear this song I picture a person floating around in a red sea of love hoping to find that special someone.
  
  I think the first lines "I took a moment from my day, Wrapped it up in things you say, Mailed it off to your address, You'll get it pretty soon unless" Means that the person has had feelings for this other person and is trying to get rid of them somehow or trying to end a relationship, so he/she tries to possbily physically mail them something maybe a letter or something but it doesn't help because no matter what, "The packaging begins to break, And all the points I tried to make, Are tossed with thoughts into a bin, Time leaks out my life leaks in" this person can't stop thinking about them and can't end this relationship...maybe it's a toxic relationship...maybe it is destiny.
  
  As for the final verse- "You won't find moments in a box, And someone else will set your clocks, I took a moment from my day, Wrapped it up in things you say, And mailed it off to you" means that sure he/she can write the letter or tell them that you are over them but no matter what this person you are trying to forget...you just can't because you don't have control over your destiny "someone else will set your clocks." It might be in fact meant to be.
  

  Flag whatsinasongon October 17, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:This song is about heroin.
  
  "wading in the velvet sea" is a description of the body high when you shoot up.
  
  imagine how it would actually feel to walk through a sea of velvet

  Flag lucymaryjanemollyon June 29, 2009   Link

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    i think this is obviously correct. all the other comments are plausible, but metaphorically. wading in the velvet sea is almost a common euphemism.

    Flag yoyomacon February 09, 2013  
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  General Comment:This song is about missing somebody. There are things that happen to you during your day that make you think of that person who's not with you; and by thinking about them you're "mailing the thought to their address". As time goes on, you think about those people who are gone less and less and the things that would've reminded you of them before don't anymore. All these thoughts and memories you used to have with them are left in a "bin". When they say "someone else will set your clocks" it means that everybody's day are numbered, and one day you'll be the person that others are mailing their thoughts to. Live your life to the fullest on earth and try to impact people positively.

  Flag glitzy2027on March 31, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:The expression "Wading in the Velvet Sea" is rather clearly a metaphor for sex.
  Besides that, I think it has to do with a lot of the emotions that come along with sex, and maybe trying to express those to one another, and not being able to explain.

  Flag Schwealdsondottiron December 08, 2006   Link

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  General Comment:ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….phish. thanks so much to everyone for posting your thoughts..very interesting. thanks for loving this song with me.

  Flag nanukrbsiton September 12, 2006   Link

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  General Comment:I like to think Trey is talking to the crowd as he so often does with his music. In my world, this song is about Trey looking out at the crowd with the smoke and the lights. He is wading in a velvet sea when on stage and he is putting all his thoughts out and "mailing" them to us in his own way... with music.

  Flag brooklynfishon December 16, 2005   Link

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  General Comment:ya, that story's slightly true, Trey stole a human hand and a pigs heart, put the heart in the hand sent it back to the school with a note that read, " i've got to hand it you ya, you've got heart." thats when he got kicked out. but i don;'t think this song is about that....

  Flag Phishpatchon August 24, 2005   Link

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