anonymous December 15th, 2009 11:08PM  
Think: "We could have a good time together, but you're too hung up on finding Mr.Right -- a school girl's dream that never comes true."
This is a deliciously sarcastic song which lampoons the object girl's taste in men -- she has rejected the singer, presumably; he is possibly an ex. "When you were young," is a metaphor for her naive nature; the sweet girl who falls for the wrong sort of boy. She has probably claimed that she has matured and is looking for the right sort now, but still rejects the narrator -- he insolently points out that her next new boyfriend is the same type as the last, "He doesn't look a thing like Jesus..."

"You sit there in your heartache, waiting on some beautiful boy to save you from your old ways"
Illustrative of her laughable intentions to break the cycle of her own bad judgment. Note the dripping sarcasm -- I love it!

"...sometimes you close your eyes and see the place where you used to live / When you were young."
This connotes her school-girl mentality and provides the underpinnings for the song: A girl romanticizing about attraction, rather than seeing it as the labyrinth it always is.

The "Devil's water" passage is a bit muddy, but possibly hints to her that she shouldn't reject him categorically but possibly consider that they are more alike than she cares to believe (She has placed herself and her ideal man on a pedestal. Perhaps if she stepped off her pedestal she might see the singer as the good match he thinks he is for her.)
The enigmatic, "More than you'll ever know," ending simply punctuates the disconnect between reality and her youthful, romantic idealism. This bemoans her naivete' and, by contrast, demonstrates the author's grim acceptance of reality.

Aquamantor February 22nd, 2010 12:34AM  
I think that this is a song about a relationship with a huge age difference.

"He doesn't look a thing like Jesus, but he talks like the gentleman that you imagined when you were young."

Basically, this kid whose with her isn't perfect, but he brings her back to the time when she dreamed about the "perfect guy". (it's common for girls to dream of this, only to be struck down eventually by the realization that people are all human, and that any guy they go out with will have problems)

Basically, she's sitting there in sorrow, in her heart-ache, waiting for some wonderful person to come along, and there he comes. The way he talks to her and the way he is reminds her of those days when she fantasized of an amazing man who would sweep her off her feet.

There are references to the age difference, and the problem it presents. "Can we climb this mountain? I don't know." They're in love, but she very well might be old enough to be his mother. Can they get away with this? Will it work? Maybe, if they take it slow, it will.

She's in the car with this young man, "burning down the highway skyline" and he's driving like a kid, damn fast, driving like no one her age. She closes her eyes, and goes back to her old house, goes back to when she was young like him.

The devil's water is a reference to how potentially sinful this relationship is. "You don't have to drink it, but just dip your feet" Can be a number of different things. My interpretation: Every once in a while, she'll have to deal with being looked at as a cougar, when in reality she truly loves this guy. That won't make it any more accepted. She's not "drinking" the devil's water, because it's not outright evil, however, she's dipping her feet into it. She's doing something that's wrong in society's eyes.

That's my interpretation, I know it's pretty different, but that's always what I imagined.

anonymous February 24th, 2010 04:35PM  
I think this song is about a girl wanting a perfect guy but knows that's not possible so she accepts that he talks like a gentlemen and could be everything she wanted or dreamed I LOVE THIS SONG so it really does not matter if know one agrees that's just how I feel

anonymous March 11th, 2010 06:57PM  
This song is about me. I am a married man, in love with a girl from Belfast. For years. She (G) takes off with lads from time to time, Buddhist types, but it ends the same. They don't resemble JC. She don't take the devil's water, cos in vino veritas. And she remembers where she once lived, near me. When she was young. I play this song in my car at full volume and cry for our life that never was. Ceol, eh?