anonymous September 2nd, 2006 07:31AM  

I think this song is about a guy in serious denial about his girlfriends infidelity. "ignore the smoke and smile", like the saying 'where there's smoke there's fire'. All the signs were there but he refused to believe it. Then finally she's confronted with her infidelity and she starts to choke, in the way that she has no excuses, nothing left to say. Almost as if she's suffocating. Hence the blue colour in her face.

anonymous July 15th, 2007 05:59PM  

She's dying right in front of him (turning blue) and he's in denial about the fact that the things she's doing are killing her (drugs/alcohol et al.) "keep things in the shallow end" b/c he doesn't want to give any deep thought to WHY she's turning blue he'd rather think about how pretty she looks. "ignore the smoke and smile" b/c he sees the evidince of her problem all around and ignores it. "mistook their nods for an aproval" b/c they were trying to tell him that she was killing herself and he thought they were agreeing with "what a perfect color" blue was.

TheBrock December 8th, 2007 01:29AM  

Anyone remember the Kitty Genovese story a few years back. A women who was murdered outside her apartment while 40 people watched and did nothing. The killing took over 30 minutes and no one intervened or even called the police. Great media coverage though. This isn't a direct metaphor to that incident, but similar.

People will watch others die, and enjoy it. They'll "sit and stare at you" as you drown (turn blue). In this song, he doesn't want to know how to swim to save this drowning person. He's too afraid to save her, despite nothing to fear. And the regret that follows, the drugs to forget

Maybe watching someone kill themselves with drugs or alcohol. I've seen it. We all just assume they are going to be fine. We watch them gradually "drown" themselves with their intoxicant and being to afraid to help people. Sounds sick but its a common human trait and everyone is guilty of it.

anonymous February 14th, 2008 05:49AM  

There's actually no need to interpret the song. On the aMOTION DVD, Maynard states that the song is about his mother. She suffered a stroke and was practically paralyzed. Maynard watched her die basically, but refused to admit that she was dying. He couldn't cope with the pain of losing her, he "Never quite learned how to swim"

anonymous September 11th, 2008 01:10AM  

The sound of the song is kind of hypnotic. Like spiraling in a circle kind of weird way.

Anyways I think in the chorus I think Maynard is saying "Calling out too much, she's turning blue" not "Call an optimist" or "call it aftermath" whatever those would mean (I don't hear any "M" in the chorus for aftermath or any "P" for optimist). This could go with the denial of someone you know and their addiction and overdose by the old Cry Wolf story. The addicted person is calling out for help but everyone is in denial of it, or they think it's a false alarm and don't worry about it.

And they just slip farther away, or maybe even die because it is easier to live life in denial and without worry. We'll trick ourselves in whatever way we can to not see the truth sometimes.

mcbean May 1st, 2009 01:33PM  

Well I can't guess what the author had in mind but this song has a powerful effect on me because it fits perfectly with one of the worst days of my life. As a 7 year old i woke up one morning and found my mom dead on the couch. I was so scared that i couldn't do anything. "I didnt want to know". I knew something was wrong but couldn't come to entertain the fact that she was dead. "just ignore the smoke and smile".

anonymous June 11th, 2009 12:23AM  

I like the top rated interpretation, and totally agree with it, and im not sure anyone said anything about the "blue" thing. my thought is "she is turning blue" is like she keeps denying being on drugs til she blue in the face and the guy is just like ok and accepts but also theres the "call the optimist" part, kinda weird but like hes saying call a optimist because they'd see the bright side of what the girl is saying, while he is just ignoring it. haha probably repeating stuff but whatever.

t2klilt August 7th, 2009 04:26PM  

Most people think this song is about Maynard's girlfriend who was on drugs but I don't at all. It's about his mothers funeral, "best to keep things in the shallow end, because i never quite learned how to swim" how people want to help him with his grieving but he keeps it short because hes uncomfortable. "ignore the smoke and smile" the incense catholics burn in that little ball as the body is carried out.