I think this song is about the typical lower-middle class american and the deep restlessness they experience and usually supress all their lives.
The first few verses seem to portray this "YES"-man who is angrily coming home from work like "a fist through traffic".
This character has some underlying hopes to be free even if it means living in his car. However I would never equate him to a terrorist. Indeed, he appears to be the anti-terrorist. The lines "slides throught the metal detector" convey how casually he approaches the mechanical and routinely invasive aspects of modern life. He is a nobody, just another "slide in a slide projector", which I equate to living in an apartment building.
The theme of fighting for freedom runs through this song, but I don't know if he means Revolution!! or simply taking charge of your life. This person is obviously on the verge of attempting one or both of those tasks, indicated by lines like "song dogs barking on the edge of dawn"...his dawning. And the lines about the thuderstorm hint that the change will be either symbolically or literally violent.
Either way, Simon apparently believes there are loads of these Stillwater cronies and clones because of the lines "these streets like a sleeping army", where we have all of the potential warriors simply sleeping away while their own personal battles and our collaborative battles are lost.
The cool river I equate to us each being like currents on the surface of the ocean. Each individual collectively adding to the ocean. And this person presents a calm, yet misleading surface which hides or "sweeps" the white caps
I think this song is about the typical lower-middle class american and the deep restlessness they experience and usually supress all their lives. The first few verses seem to portray this "YES"-man who is angrily coming home from work like "a fist through traffic". This character has some underlying hopes to be free even if it means living in his car. However I would never equate him to a terrorist. Indeed, he appears to be the anti-terrorist. The lines "slides throught the metal detector" convey how casually he approaches the mechanical and routinely invasive aspects of modern life. He is a nobody, just another "slide in a slide projector", which I equate to living in an apartment building. The theme of fighting for freedom runs through this song, but I don't know if he means Revolution!! or simply taking charge of your life. This person is obviously on the verge of attempting one or both of those tasks, indicated by lines like "song dogs barking on the edge of dawn"...his dawning. And the lines about the thuderstorm hint that the change will be either symbolically or literally violent. Either way, Simon apparently believes there are loads of these Stillwater cronies and clones because of the lines "these streets like a sleeping army", where we have all of the potential warriors simply sleeping away while their own personal battles and our collaborative battles are lost. The cool river I equate to us each being like currents on the surface of the ocean. Each individual collectively adding to the ocean. And this person presents a calm, yet misleading surface which hides or "sweeps" the white caps