another song has made it into marathon play in my car stereo (its pg-13, so don’t leave me nasty comments about making you read swear words. you’ve been warned.) this time its “black cadillacs” by modest mouse. it was one of those cases where i really liked the song because it was catchy, but i didn’t necessarily relate to the lyrics. in fact, before last week, i didn’t even understand what he was trying to say with the lyrics. then i got pissed the other day and put this album (good news for people who love bad news) in because its fun to sing along with if you’re mad.

ah, but then i had an epiphany and now i not only understand what the lyrics mean, i relate. “naming children after towns you’ve never been to” - its like knowing a lot of things but not having any experience to back it up. “so pleased with ourselves for using so many verbs and nouns” but still being “dumber than the dirt on the ground” - its about being arrogant, thinking of yourself higher than you ought to and not being able to see the truth.

so i guess that the moral of the story is: don’t get so caught up in yourself that you ignore the truth about whats going on around you. a good lesson for not only personal application, but business application.

And it’s true we named our children after towns that we’ve never been to
And it’s true that the clouds just hung around
Like black Cadillacs outside a funeral
And we were done done done with all the fuck fuck fuckin’ around
You were so true to yourself
You were true to no one else
Well I should put you in the ground
I’ve got the time, I got the hours
I got the days, I got the weeks
I could say to myself I’ve got the words but I can’t speak
Well I was done done done with all the circ circ criclin’ round

I didn’t die and I ain’t complainin,’ I ain’t blamin’ you
I didn’t know that the words you said to me
Meant more to me than they ever could you
I didn’t lie and I ain’t sayin’ I told the whole truth
I didn’t know that this game we were playin’ even had a set of rules

We named our children after towns that we’ve never been to
And it’s true that the clouds just hung around
Like black Cadillacs outside a funeral
And we were laughing at the stars while our feet clung tight to the ground
So pleased with ourselves for using so many verbs and nouns
But we were all still just dumb dumb dumber than the dirt dirt dirt on the ground
Well wings on flames, Kings with no names
Well this place just ain’t got air right now
You were so all over town but still Crayola brown
Well you should run round yourself right now
And we were done done done with all the fuck fuck fuckin’ around, circlin’ round