The meaning of "Sleight of Hand"

WhyGo91
WhyGo91 Posts: 639
edited November 2013 in Words and Music...Communication
I've really been getting into this song lately. It's one of my top 3 off of Binaural and I just can't get enough of it.

But one thing I haven't been able to do is come up with a good interpretation of what I think the song means. Right now because of what I'm going through in my life it means this: A guy taking the days one at a time, just drifting along, and watching the world pass by him.

Does anyone else see that or is it just me?
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Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • binauralsounds182
    binauralsounds182 Posts: 119
    Isn't the song great? One of my top 5 pj songs...binaural is my favorite album! I take the song to be about a man stuck in a routine and not being satisfied with his job and life as a whole. "He wakes up, wash and pours himself into uniform...something he hadn't imagined being...as the merging traffic passed." Definitely talking about being stuck wearing a uniform and getting in the same traffic day after day. And what made this happen? "Was it age? By consequence was he moved by sleight of hand?" How has time subtly boxed him into a boring life?

    I think this is what the song is saying. Hope that helps!
    1st and only show so far:
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    "He who forgets will be destined to remember."
  • Still Here
    Still Here Posts: 661
    binauralsounds182 wrote:
    Isn't the song great? One of my top 5 pj songs...binaural is my favorite album! I take the song to be about a man stuck in a routine and not being satisfied with his job and life as a whole. "He wakes up, wash and pours himself into uniform...something he hadn't imagined being...as the merging traffic passed." Definitely talking about being stuck wearing a uniform and getting in the same traffic day after day. And what made this happen? "Was it age? By consequence was he moved by sleight of hand?" How has time subtly boxed him into a boring life?

    I think this is what the song is saying. Hope that helps!

    Almost literally, that is what the song is about... according to Eddie at a show I was at [Cleveland 5/9/2010]. I've been really into that song lately as well, as I feel I can relate to it in every mundane way right at this moment in life. Good news is, no matter what goes wrong, what goes right... there's a song for that. :D
    PJ: Toledo-9/22/96. E. Lansing-8/18/98. Detroit-8/23/98. Detroit-10/7/00. Detroit-6/25 & 6/26/03. Toledo-10/2/04 [VFC]. Detroit-5/22/06. Chicago-8/5/07 [Lolla]. Cleveland-5/9/10. Baltimore-10/27/13.

    EV: Honolulu-4/21 & 4/22/07 [Kokua]. Detroit-6/26/11.
  • mikerl
    mikerl Posts: 580
    Been listening to this song, and FEELING this song a lot lately.

    i am a songwriter, but i can NEVER imagine writing a song like this, lyrically, and vocally. The way ED phrases these lyrics, and the way the melody passes over the music, is nothing less than genius.

    Just TRY to sing this song (you know, the actual notes.. sing the melody, not just the words) without the music behind you, its a TOUGH song to sing.
    Hartford 1996, Hartford 1998, Mansfield 1 1998, Mansfield 1 2000, Mansfield 2 2000, Albany 2003, MSG 2 2003, Mansfield 3 2003, Boston 2 2004, Albany 2006, Boston 2 2006, Mansfield 2 2008, Boston 2010, Worcester 1 2013, Worcester 2 2013
  • PJSEMPRE
    PJSEMPRE Posts: 687
    More and more, my favorite Ed's lyrics. It's the feeling I have sometimes living in a big city.
    Let's say knowledge is a tree, yeah.
    It's growing up just like me.
  • BigRedMosquito
    BigRedMosquito Posts: 27
    I love this song as well. Going to work for a paycheck, driving the same damn roads, day in day out (feeling like I could just shut my eyes and get there by memory)! Lately, I've been searching new opportunities, probably need to listen to this song daily as a reminder to keep up the searching!
    Alburquerque-2000, Kansas City-2003, Denver-2006, Honululu-2006, Kansas City-2010, St. Louis-2010, Oklahoma City-2013, Lincoln-2014, Wrigley #1-2016, Wrigley #2-2016
  • davety76
    davety76 Posts: 11
    Early onset altzheimers is my guess. "Was it age?"  Or consequence? Or sleight of hand?"  I'm picture him thinking  it is because of age, but concerned it is a consequence of something he did, drugs and or alcohol or was it a furry-thing that made it happen. 

    " Last on the road he knew by heart".  The metaphors go on and on. Just my two cents. 
  • trees
    trees Columbus OHIO Posts: 2,060
    edited March 2018
    I have 'meditated to this song it is truly the one for me. Its a motivator in a,way that you dont want to get to the point the song is about or it does make you think, about life and all thats in front of you .thank you for this music gentlemen
    Post edited by trees on


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  • fixing
    fixing Posts: 10
    edited February 2018
    bINAURALSOUNDS182 spot on. seeing the mundane of your life and not doing what you want, even if you dont know what it is. Some people have a really strong yearning to do something meaningful, fullfilling, but sometimes they cant....
    Unemployable is like a sequel to this song...
    Post edited by fixing on
  • Shyner
    Shyner Posts: 1,226
    Sounds like a very dark song 
    Maybe i will listen now 
    And flip it to the other side

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