I feel like this song is about the struggle between pursuing one's passions (trying to do something unique, artistic, etc) or settling down to a life of just plain old good, hard work.
When he's being raised, his parents tell him, "you can be what you want to be", "follow your dreams", etc, but now that he's older and has actually followed the dream of being a musician, he feels like it might actually be best to just work a 9-5 job and contribute to a practically functioning society. He wants direction in this struggle between the artist and the common man, because there are aspects of both of those vocations in his character. He's asking, "Do I keep writing songs, recording them, touring, and living a life that stretches and struggles, where I have to sacrifice so much of what constitutes a normal life just to be successful at it?"
It's so tough to maintain relationships and be rooted in the world when you're constantly traveling and holing yourself up to write and record, only to go travel and tour again. Apparently this record actually cost him his relationship with his longtime girlfriend. So in the end he comes to this sort of conclusion: "If I had an orchard, I would totally content to just work it all day, work til I'm raw and sore, because I know I could come home to you, and you'd run the store, and we'd have this normal, functioning, healthy and fulfilling lifestyle, instead of this scattered, stretching, difficult life I've lived as an artist."
I see this song as him looking back and being like "it could have been different". But in the end, what good is it to sing helplessness blues? So he keeps doing what he's clearly so incredibly gifted at, and he puts out an album that totally rocks me.
Sidenote: the documentary "On a Carousel of Sound, We Go Round" by The Snake, The Cross, The Crown really deals with this struggle, particularly in regards to the band lifestyle.
Also: I think there's a lot of validity with the communist/capitalist interpretation. These sorts of questions are the very kind that the two ideologies deal with.
I feel like this song is about the struggle between pursuing one's passions (trying to do something unique, artistic, etc) or settling down to a life of just plain old good, hard work.
When he's being raised, his parents tell him, "you can be what you want to be", "follow your dreams", etc, but now that he's older and has actually followed the dream of being a musician, he feels like it might actually be best to just work a 9-5 job and contribute to a practically functioning society. He wants direction in this struggle between the artist and the common man, because there are aspects of both of those vocations in his character. He's asking, "Do I keep writing songs, recording them, touring, and living a life that stretches and struggles, where I have to sacrifice so much of what constitutes a normal life just to be successful at it?"
It's so tough to maintain relationships and be rooted in the world when you're constantly traveling and holing yourself up to write and record, only to go travel and tour again. Apparently this record actually cost him his relationship with his longtime girlfriend. So in the end he comes to this sort of conclusion: "If I had an orchard, I would totally content to just work it all day, work til I'm raw and sore, because I know I could come home to you, and you'd run the store, and we'd have this normal, functioning, healthy and fulfilling lifestyle, instead of this scattered, stretching, difficult life I've lived as an artist."
I see this song as him looking back and being like "it could have been different". But in the end, what good is it to sing helplessness blues? So he keeps doing what he's clearly so incredibly gifted at, and he puts out an album that totally rocks me.
Sidenote: the documentary "On a Carousel of Sound, We Go Round" by The Snake, The Cross, The Crown really deals with this struggle, particularly in regards to the band lifestyle. Also: I think there's a lot of validity with the communist/capitalist interpretation. These sorts of questions are the very kind that the two ideologies deal with.
ta_selles, I find your comments on this song to be the most thoughtful. Thanks for taking the time to put all of this down.
ta_selles, I find your comments on this song to be the most thoughtful. Thanks for taking the time to put all of this down.