What is Spiders (Kidsmoke) about?

[br2497]

I know Jeff likes to leave many songs to his listener's interpretation, but has anyone heard him speak to what this song is about? This is one of my favorite Wilco songs (I realize I just alienated half the memebers of this board by making that claim)and I have some thoughts on what it means to me but have no idea what it means to Jeff.

 

Spiders (Kidsmoke)

 

Spiders are singing in the salty breeze

Spiders are filling out tax returns

Spinning out webs of deductions and melodies

On a private beach in Michigan

 

Why can't they wish their kisses good

Why do they miss when their kisses should

Fly like winging birds fighting for the keys

On a private beach in Michigan

 

This recent rash of kidsmoke

All these telescopic poems

It's good to be alone

 

Why can't they say what they want

Why can't they just say what they mean

Come clean, listen and talk

Hello private callers, IDs blocked

 

The sun will rise, we'll climb into cars

The future has a valley and a shortcut around

Who will wear the crown of drowning award

Hold a private light on a Michigan shore

 

You fool me with a kiss of kidsmoke

From a microscopic home

It's good to be alone

 

I'll be in my bed

You can be the stone

That raises from the dead

And carries us all home

 

There's no blood on my hands

I just do as I am told

[lamradio]

Spiders is a series of thoughts.. To tell you the truth, I doubt even Jeff knows exactly what it's about.

 

As a songwriter, writing lyrics is often just jotting down the first words that come to your mind and hope that they at least make some sort of sense.. "Hey that sounds cool, let me use it"... But other times lyrics are well thought out and stick to a specific theme.

 

It's one of the best kept secrets of being a lyricist. "it's up to the listener to interpret what the song is about".... In other other words "I just jotted down a bunch of words that sound cool together and they could mean anything".

 

I guess the subconscious knows what they are about. Many times I have written songs and didn't discover what they were about until long after I wrote them...

[u2roolz]

I think the Spiders are an obvious allusion to parental figures trying to balance everything for a child to make them have a happy moment like being on a private beach.

Maybe it is because spiders have 8 legs which means that they can do a lot of things to balance things out or to carry on more than they can handle.

 

Kidsmoke I think refers to parents kidding around with children. The emphasis being on "kid" and I guess "smoke" refers to a smokescreen to keep children in the dark on such adult problems to let them have their happy place for a happy childhood.

 

And I think the last couple of lines kind of identifies with that notion of children being off the hook for a lot of their actions (even if they do obviously get scolded) and being told what to do. It's quite a tightrope to walk.

 

Or to put it in a simple package: It is a song about trying to manipulate means of communication.

 

"Why can't they say what they want?

Why can't they just say what they mean?"

 

If this song is indeed from the perspective of a child in the moment or from an adult reminiscing about childhood, then the song becomes even more interesting on those 2 different levels.

 

If a young child who is told what to do as their parents fill out tax returns on a private beach realizes that their parents are bullshitting each other then that is saying something about a child's intellect. So much for "kidsmoke"...

 

If the song is from the perspective of an adult, then it kind of shows that happy place being crumbled due to the realization that there were very adult problems at work and that the illusion of a happy childhood is just that.

 

Edit: Oh, and "it's good to be alone" I think refers to that feeling of being left alone as a child in your happy place where you can play and not get caught up or tangled in the adult world. Even though the parents are most likely right there on the beach.

[froggie]

 

It's one of the best kept secrets of being a lyricist. "it's up to the listener to interpret what the song is about"....

 

 

completely agree. New Madrid to me reminds me an international student that visited out department a few years back.. yes, we did walk to a fountain together. yes, she did hold on to my arm. and yes, i do think "shake my baby and please bring her back"

[LouieB]

I don't know exactly what this is about, but it reminds me of visiting the Michigan shore, just around the bend from Chicago, New Buffalo/Union Pier/Stevensville area, with sand dunes and tall prairie grass, maybe a bit of early morning fog, small summer homes along the shore, the skyline of Chicago way off in the distance and a nuclear power plant down the way. it makes me nostalgic for those visits with friends to the area, back when we were all young.

 

LouieB

[Moss]

The talk of private beaches, tax returns and deductions in the first lyrics always conjured up wealth to me. And later he mentions a microscopic home which implies a smaller house/less wealth? I don't know, never been good at lyrical interpretation. I also lean toward this being more stream of conciousness that maybe Jeff couldn't even explain?

[nalafej]

I know Jeff likes to leave many songs to his listener's interpretation

 

Does he? He seems to explain meanings whenever asked as far as I can tell.

[froggie]

how come no one's gave the sarcastic reply?: "its about 11 minutes long"

[moxiebean]

I've always had a mental image of kidsmoke = a kid w/ a magnifiying glass frying insects (spiders included).

[Lammycat]

I always assumed it was about kids stunting their growth with cigarettes spent on their tax returns.

[stooka]

I took it as a someone alone and apart from their love - finding themself contemplating the relationship. Not that it's over, but maybe soon could be.

[Doug C]

I have never wondered what the song is about.

[The High Heat]

It's about a couple thousand people jumping up and down in unison at a Wilco show!

[choo-choo-charlie]

I took it as a someone alone and apart from their love - finding themself contemplating the relationship. Not that it's over, but maybe soon could be.

 

Perhaps a recent separation from a dear companion...from Jay Bennett?