I think the song is expressing how he feels that technology takes away from some of the simple beauty of life. He keeps referring to GPS technology, and this line:
"your happiness won't find you underneath that canopy of trees if the green grass is 6 the soybeans are 7
the junebugs are 8 the weeds and thistles are 11"
is referring to how things in life can't just be categorized into numbers. Then juxtaposed into this are images of the most idyllic, simple life he can imagine ("you took my hand and led me down to watch a papillon parade
we let the kittens lick our hair and drank our chalky lemonade"). Oh yeah, and papillon is french for butterfly, I'm pretty sure. Finally... I think by masterfade he's talking about how on sound mixing boards and things like that there's one little knob or level that controls the volume or whatever it is of the entire production... so he's saying that he's still in control of his life... if he wants to he can turn down the masterfade and leave it all behind. Really I get the feeling that he just writes songs about whatever he happens to be thinking of, and that he just has an amazingly beautiful way of wording it all. :)
I think the song is expressing how he feels that technology takes away from some of the simple beauty of life. He keeps referring to GPS technology, and this line: "your happiness won't find you underneath that canopy of trees if the green grass is 6 the soybeans are 7 the junebugs are 8 the weeds and thistles are 11" is referring to how things in life can't just be categorized into numbers. Then juxtaposed into this are images of the most idyllic, simple life he can imagine ("you took my hand and led me down to watch a papillon parade we let the kittens lick our hair and drank our chalky lemonade"). Oh yeah, and papillon is french for butterfly, I'm pretty sure. Finally... I think by masterfade he's talking about how on sound mixing boards and things like that there's one little knob or level that controls the volume or whatever it is of the entire production... so he's saying that he's still in control of his life... if he wants to he can turn down the masterfade and leave it all behind. Really I get the feeling that he just writes songs about whatever he happens to be thinking of, and that he just has an amazingly beautiful way of wording it all. :)