Amae January 18th, 2006 01:19PM  
I think that this song was written about the movie "Big Fish". The line "I could tell you the wildest of tales" is about how the father tells so many tall tales. Then there are lyrics about his friend the giant, and the the tales he discovered well being a travelling salesman. And at the chorus he says that he is "drying out". In the movie the man is drying out so he soaks himself in a bathtub.

Lyrics:

"I could tell you of a man not so tall who said, “Life’s a circus, and so we are small.”" : Danny Devito as the circus man that hires him.

"Tell you of a girl that I saw I froze in the moment and she changed it all": The first time he sees his wife time freezes.

"Hurry now, lay me down And let these waters flow.": At the end of the movie the son tells his father a story and in the story he is carrying his father to the river to lay him in the water to become what he always was, a big fish.

"Son, I am not everything you thought that I would be
But every story I have told is part of me": The father talking to the son.

So to me the song seems to be about the father talking to his son in Big Fish, and their relationship! :D

peteinmypants June 18th, 2007 08:34PM  
And you keep the air in my lungs
Floating along as a melody comes
And my heart beats like timpani drums
Keeping the time while a symphony strums

I love that part. It's so melodic and the words are so musical. They touch me. And because I'm a band geek, I can know how to compare this stuff, like a timpani. Some people would say, Oh, they said timpani because bass drum didn't fit. Not true. Bass is harsher, more... booming than melodic and lovable, I guess. A timpani has more emotion in it, like a heart.(After all, you can play notes on a timpani.)