Closing Time is totally NOT about drinking

[austkyzor]

Old hat, but I don't really care - people still constantly try to tell me otherwise.

First up - listen:


What's your first impression of this song? It's about a guy in a bar, right?
WELL! Allow me to give you an Aust Kyzor Song Analysis^TM of Semisonic's "Closing Time".

A verse-by-verse analysis:

Closing time - open all the doors and let you out into the world.
Closing time - turn the lights up over every boy and every girl.
Closing time - one last call for alcohol, so finish your whiskey or beer.
Closing time - you don't have to go home but you can't stay here.

"The world" is quite literal, it is everything outside the mother's uterus. The reference to lights would indicate a bright hospital room. The reference to alcohol is a metaphor to the nutrients the baby would get from the umbilical cord - it's the baby's last chance to get it's goods from there. The last line would be the fact that not all babies go home right after birth - some go to an incubater, some go to a ward, tragically some go to a coffin, but not all go home.

I know who I want to take me home.
I know who I want to take me home.
I know who I want to take me home.
Take me home...

The "who" in question would be the new baby's parents

Closing time - time for you to go back to the places you will be from.
Closing time - this room won't be open 'til your brothers or your sisters come.
So gather up your jackets, and move it to the exits - I hope you have found a friend.
Closing time - every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

You're going to the "places you will be from" because you haven't been to where you're from yet, because you weren't alive at the time. Your current location (being your mother's womb) won't be in use again until your mother gets pregnant again, with your brothers or sisters - hense the second line. I don't want to explain the third line, because it's gross. The last line is now the realm of philosophy - your time in utero is "your beginning" and that's now at an end, and you're now beginning your time alive. Your beginning in life comes at the end of your prenatal development.

~The rest of the song is a re-iteration of bits from those two verses~

So yeah, that is my analysis of the song, and my argument that it is NOT about a bar, and therefor should not be in a compelation album titled "The Best Beer Drinking Album in the World.... EVER!"

[/pretentious git mode]

[Jackson]

Great song! Just got it on my iPod. But did you really have to tease us by saying that you didn't want to explain the 3rd line of verse 2? We're all mature here, minus the trolls, I think you can explain it.

[austkyzor]

It's not that I don't think you're mature enough

It's just that I'm squeemish about placenta

[Jackson]

Ah...

[Flappy]

You should check out my interpretation of Mika's "We Are Golden"...

[ladystardust]

While I find this interpretation . . intriguing, I'd have to disagree. While some comparisons may fit, many are too much of a stretch. Have you ever stayed 'til closing time at a bar? It's really quite surreal, whether as a patron or an employee, and is full of life experiences and material for philosophical analyses. That being said, there really is no reason to look elsewhere for powerful symbolism. While I do agree that it's about a lot more than simply drinking, I think you're going a wee bit too far.

[austkyzor]

Well - there's also the fact that the band says it's about birth

[ladystardust]

Sept 9, 2010 20:33:04 GMT -5 @austkyzor said:

Well - there's also the fact that the band says it's about birth

Well now, it seems I've been told.

In that case, I'm going to have to fault the band with making a pretty lame analogy.

Edit: It also wouldn't really be YOUR analysis of the song either, would it? It's an explanation provided by the writer.

[austkyzor]

Actually - I found out about the band's statement long after I came up with this

I've been of this opinion for years