"Tomorrow
I'll run a little bit faster
Tomorrow"
It all comes down to this simple word change for me. Eric first pens "I'll" and in an instant replaces it with "we'll." If he alone saw tomorrow as a day when he would "run a little bit faster," it would signify that the relationship was indeed, over. Changing it to "we" brings up a totally different meaning. "We" cracks open the door to hope for the couple to not only survive, but to thrive—in spite of the rough waters they had sailed.
"But tomorrow
We'll run a little but faster
Tomorrow
We're gonna find what we're after
At last"
"We're gonna find that the future
Has passed"
"We're gonna find that the moment
Has passed"
"When we remember the dreams
of the past"
Eric once again gets it right in his first attempt by writing, "We're gonna find what we're after at last." Possibly struggling with the renewed optimism in the lyrics, Eric tried a few other lines with less promise for brighter days ahead. Each alternate line dashes hopes for a better future, but in the end Eric goes with his initial thought.
Even with his disclaimer that "Boats" is a "song to hang yourself by," I can't see anyone getting to this line and feeling like all is lost. In fact, I have always felt that the chorus to "Boats" is a promise of redemption for anyone feeling lost and at odds with the forces working against a relationship.
"And even when the dream has passed"
"Feelings that we left in the past"
"Feelings that we lost in the past"
Once again, Eric pens three lines, each of which brings a completely different interpretation to the lyrics. The line he sticks with is the one with the greatest optimism. If the thing we're going to "find what we're after at last" is "feelings that we left in the past" then we're talking about love that is not relinquished or lost but love that is rediscovered and redefined.
"There's romance in the sunset
We're boats against the current
To the end"
Just like the change from "I'll" to "We'll" in the first line of the chorus, saying "We're boats against the current" to me can be assigning that phrase to the couple—together, not apart—as they struggle to face the world rather than their individual problems. And of course, how can you not feel hopeful when there is "romance in the sunset?" I'm not sure how that can be bad.
"But tomorrow
We'll run a little bit faster
Tomorrow
We're gonna find what we're after
At last
Feelings that we left in the past...
There's romance in the sunset
We're boats against the current
To the end"
It's clear from my interpretation of "Boats" that I'm a "glass half full" kind of guy. It's also clear that I'm one of those people who has always seen "Boats" as a positive song. I've never wanted to "hang myself" after listening to it—quite the contrary. The song makes me feel that love can flourish in unlikely places, even when it is not smooth sailing. It also comforts me because I have always felt that sometimes couples face great odds when trying to establish their love. At times it may not look like their love will survive, but there is always hope. There is always tomorrow. And by sticking together (even when they face off against the rest of the world) they can (and will) survive.
Your mileage will certainly vary on this interpretation. I'm sure Eric himself might disagree with a few of the things I've said. But the song has always meant these things to me. My glass is half full.
Coming up next: the third verse.
4 comments:
I've read EC's comment's about this song in the past - that it's a song to 'hang yourself by'. I have to admit - I must be one of those optimistic types - as I've never found it quite that bad.
I've always interpreted the song a bit differently. Although the two people may never be able to get together - they are 'boats against the current' to one another - there is still 'romance in the sunset' - so they'll end up finding love, happiness, and fulfillment, just not with each other. Even looking at EC's other versions of the lyrics, you can see he's not taking the most depressing choices - he's leaving the door open to the possibility of hope.
So, yes, it is a depressing song for these two people in the song, but he says that there is something in life to look forward to.
I guess song interpretations are always based on our personal experiences. As I get older, I hear a lot of things in songs I never heard before. My own life mirrors my interpretation of the song - so that's likely why I hear it the way I do. It's great that everyone sees something different in songs. I always wonder if that's interesting or frustrating for the songwriter - to mean one thing, and to have it totally interpreted another way.
Can you tell I absolutely hated high school English class? I constantly had different interpretations than our teacher about symbolism in books. When I was writing essays about how the colour pink symbolized childhood, my teacher swore that the author was hinting at communism. That's about the point I decided on a career in science! ;)
Bernie...This is fascinating...Getting inside the guts of the evolution of one of Eric Carmen's best songs...I have like you always heard a little optimism in the lyric...Although it may be a "We'll stay together for the sake of staying together" kind of optimism...I believe as long as there is still that much left of a relationship...Perhaps it is valued highly enough to eventuall revive.
Congealing what I once believed could have been said, and finding what was drafted as having been thought, I can see this interpretation to the use of the word "I'll": That times and opportunities pass before we realize them, and when one wants a second or third chance, they know that they have to run a little bit faster than they did before.
And this makes the lines in these drafts as well concerning dreams make so much sense to me. This is awesome.
...And, as I suspected, I thoroughly disagree with this interpretation!
Here's why I would guess Eric went with "we'll" instead of "I'll": not because he envisions the couple in the song striving on together and resolving its problems, but because it is truer to the original words of F. Scott Fitzgerald: "Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before [i]us.[/i] It eluded us then, but that’s no matter — tomorrow [i]we[/i] will run faster, stretch out our arms farther... And one fine morning ——"
The "us" and the "we" in that line are collective: "we" human beings. Each year we see our dreams continue to elude us, but we keep chasing after them anyway, in the belief that one day they will come true. That's true of people in general.
Why do I believe that Fitzgerald sees that perpetual belief in the pursuit of dreams as being futile, rather than resulting in victory? Well, because, if he didn't think it was futile, he would have given The Great Gatsby a happy little ending in which Daisy and Jay get back together and Tom, who's been cheating on Daisy with the now-dead Myrtle (and how did she die? *cough cough*), ends up alone as his punishment for being such a boor. But he doesn't. Jay ends up dead, along with Myrtle, and Tom and Daisy move on with their loveless marriage and their careless lives. Nick, who's had a front-row seat for the carnage, turns his back on it all and goes home (to the Midwest, the same place Fitzgerald came from and the same place Eric came from). And it is he who has the final word on whether or not Gatsby's "running faster" paid off in the end. "He had come such a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close he could hardly fail to grasp it. But what he did not know was that it was already behind him..."
Optimism? No. I don't see it. Others' mileage may vary, but that's my take.
Oh, and "There's romance in the sunset"? I guess when others hear these lines, they imagine lovers in silhouette leaning against each other ever so romantically as they watch the sun go down, like something out of an ad for a honeymoon destination. Not me. I always interpreted the line as meaning "The sun is setting on this romance." Nothing else.
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