anonymous March 30th, 2006 11:39AM  
Raine, himself, has stated that the song [most obvious through the chorus] is about misinterpretation.

"I'll be waving my hand, watching you drown"

While the person is drowning, he's waving at the shore trying to get someones attention to save him and someone see's him and thinks he's just waving to him and he just waves back.

Make enough sense?

It should.
=)

anonymous May 29th, 2006 03:16PM  
This song is about watching a friend ruin his life with drugs. The artist is tired of helping him (I'll be waving my hand watching you drown... quiet or loud) or feels that there is nothing more he can do to save his friend.

anonymous February 15th, 2007 07:12PM  
"as clumsy as you've been there's no one laughing you will be safe in here .." may be talking about someone trying to get help(maybe rahab) for the drug abuse and Raine is saying as stupid as the drug addiction sounds and makes you feel its okay to talk and no one is laughing at you.
" throw away this very old shoelace that tripped you again try and shrug it off " .. In this line I think the shoelace is probably something the person used while shotting up ... and he's saying to throw it away it's making you want the drugs more .. Try to shake the craving.

anonymous June 6th, 2007 02:28AM  
Ok I think this song is about mistakes you've made in your life like the verse "I'll be waving my hand
Watching you drown, watching you scream, quiet or loud" is like your walking by and see somebody drowning but don't realize their drowning you just see them waving at you so you wave back,, its like one of those werid situations where you just take something for its face value, instead of looking deeper and questioning things
and the verse "Throw away this very old...shoe lace
Tripped you again"is telling you to forget about all your old mistakes and move on

anonymous July 13th, 2008 02:03PM  
I always heard it as a song about self injury. I don't know if that has to do with my personal experience but it's how I've heard it. Someone who SI's will, when confronted about an injury, will shrug it off and say something along the lines of being "clumsy". "Throw away that old shoelace tripped you again," could very easily be interpreted in the way that they lied about falling or something. "It's only skin" is pretty much the feeling behind a lot of SIers. They feel as if it doesn't matter, it's only skin after all. That's what I got from this song..

anonymous August 27th, 2008 01:45AM  
SO, what I think is that.. This song is about someone who wants help, desperately, but they keep telling themselves that it's all alright and that the situation they are in is normal. Personally, I'm not sure what I think the situation is, perhaps an abusive household. They can't really trust to tell anyone because they aren't sure how people will take that information. The chorus, to me is someone telling them that if they would only say what was bugging them, that it would all be okay. They just need to confide in someone. I think they perhaps the person is making excuses for the things that are happening to them, ie: if they were hit; it would be that they were clumsy and tripped, you know? That if they told people, no one would consider it "not serious" or a joke. It's sort of trying to be a reassurance..
the second verse, I think is talking about how they keep trying to communicate with the people around them, but the facts about it scare them back. The person talking is telling them that there's nothing normal or not-serious about what's happening to them. Even though the person who is the victim just shrugs it off "shrug it off, it's only skin."
I think that the interpretation that "I'll be waving my hand, watching you drown, watching you scream, no one's around." is kind of a play on words. The person drowning is waving for help.. and the other person doesn't realize that they are crying for help..
That's just my take, and how I took it, I have no idea what Our Lady Peace meant it to mean, which would be cool to know.

reallyelijah March 22nd, 2009 02:43AM  
The band got letters from Shannon a DJ at WKDF in Nashville in late 80's or early 90's filled with prophecies of floods,tornadoes,hail,etc from a prophet who's letters all came to pass.His name is sung 5 times at the end of the song; ...and Jim Oldham... and Jim Oldham...and Jim Oldham...You can find some of the letters posted at www.jamesoldham.com and more at http://360.yahoo.com/reallyelijah