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Interpretations:Careful What You Pack

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Mmm. From the look of the lyrics (and I've not heard the music) it looks like the song will be all about the impact of the tune. Let's hope so. From the lyrics alone the song is about exactly what it says on the tin. For those of us who generally prefer early era Flans - as i do - the complaints lie in the "oh this will do" nature of the lyrics. I have long felt that this more pop throwaway style is Flans' deliberate or perhaps unconcious effort to write "hits". Initially this policy did bear fruit, working in a sense on Flood, when songs like Twisting had a great groove and clever lyrics. Since then its been much more hit and miss, the worst offenders in this misguided "hit" strategy being The Guitar; Drink; and the godawful Spy and It's Kickin' In. I miss the clever clever lyrics from the pre-Electra recordings. I'm hoping the tune kicks, as apart from the co-written "Damn Good Times" which was superb apart from its indulgent outro, most of Flans' contributions on the Spine were inferior to Linnell's lacking music (heavy emphasis on clever vocal effects) and decent lyrics. Worst still songs such as the aforementioned "It's Kickin' in" render the Giants ungiantlike and just MOR. If an album is a bag and the songs are items, the Giants may well want to pack more Linnell songs. Hopefully I will be proved wrong when I hear this song and Flans' tunes on "The Else". If so I will change my interpretation. (Mr Tuck) Having heard the song I loved it. I still think the lyrics are the least important bit of it though.

Are you kidding? I'm really astounded by these lyrics. They're brilliant. I have a good visual of the song, but I don't know exactly what it's about--which is how, in my mind, TMBG songs should be. ~Anna Ng hears your words. 05:01, 14 April 2007 (UTC)
The lyrics (which I quite like) are most probably connected to the plot of the movie the song was written for. I don't know how probable it is, but I can't help thinking about "Coraline", because the lyrics are so much in accordance with the spirit of the book. The song just gives me creeps when I think of WHAT kind of trouble "she" is about to get into. Flute

Having thought it over, I've come up with an interp! The song's about a curious girl--I keep imagining her as a teenager with a somewhat childish streak. She is happy, but naive--partially due to her lack of life experience, and partially because she's just so absorbed in what she's doing. Still, she thinks she knows it all, that she understands what she's doing ("She thinks she's smart; she's just curious"). It's never stated what kinda trouble she gets into. Maybe she lets her guard down and is hit by a car or murdered; maybe it's something as minor as not paying attention in school. I'm guessing somewhere in between. Either way, the narrator knows her curious, naive, childlike nature is going to get her into trouble someday. She doesn't know what might happen to her, and he is indirectly cautioning her, because she can't just "go back" if she screws up really badly. ~Anna Ng hears your words. 04:19, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Even though we all know not to take TMBG songs at face value immediately, I did some very basic research on the film - even looking at just its poster, you can kind of see where the lyrics come from. Regardless, it's a very well-written song. Several hoorays to Flans for this. -j2

The sense I get about this song is a sort of post-9/11 paranoia. The first hint is in the opening line, "The known, the unknown and the underknown" parodying the infamous doubletalk of Donald Rumsfeld ("known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns"). The subject of the song is an unaware citizen, someone who doesn't know that she's "in trouble". She's doesn't realize that she's under constant surveilance "She thinks she's alone Doesn't even know someone's watching her." She has to be careful what she packs because of new security measures brought on by the "new year," i.e. the new era of the war on terror.

(that's where I lean too, considering Flansy other songs dealing with the same type of shadow government/working undercover for the man) -nekrobomb
I thought the same about the Rumsfeldian language, but interpreted the subject of the song as America... "careful what you pack" referring to the lack of body armor, enough troops, etc. that would have been needed from the outset, but were not "packed" ahead of time, getting us into trouble. "There's no going back" ... we can't call a do-over now that we've started the war in a naive fashion. -concerned citizen 13 Aug 7

After reading that this was intended for a Neil Gaman movie, I sort of questioned my initial impressions. However, I believe that good song are open to a variety of readings, even if they weren't necessarily intended by the authors. Tutt 19:40, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

I think this is another song about the Hotel Detective, perhaps her origin. Compare these lyrics from "(She Was A) Hotel Detective" - "Come on and swing with me / From the top of a tree / And make me feel like a bee" - to this lyric from "Careful What You Pack" - "Shaking up the bees, swinging from that tree".

It could be a coincidence, of course, but there are also a couple of references to detective-like qualities ("Look at what she found / Digging all around / By the goldfish pond" and "She thinks she's smart; she's just curious"), and packing is an activity associated with hotels. I like that if this is true, it implies that although the Hotel Detective may think she knows all ("If you've got a secret boy, forget about it"), in truth "she thinks she's alone" and "doesn't even know someone's watching her". brandons 22:18, 20 July 2007 (UTC)

This song is actually kind of disturbing when you think about it. There's an innocent girl minding her own business, who's new in town and is not used to the neighbourhood. Someone's watching her, maybe holding her captive but she doesn't realize. She's in trouble becuase of the thing she found in the ground by the goldfish pond (whatever that is, we might not even want to know) and probably because she's not supposed to be where she is. There's no going back to her hometown.

-jdc

This makes much more sense when you know the story of Coraline. I did a project in... oh... 7th grade on the book, and I feel I should read it again, it's a really good story. The song kind of obscurely relates to the plot, really. --Lemita 01:09, 8 February 2008 (UTC)


I think that what Flansburgh is doing with this song is linking the story of Coraline (the movie which this song was written for) and his own views of our current social situation. Taken from the wikipedia article for the novella Coraline :

"[Coraline] opens the door to find...a dark corridor which leads to another apartment, seemingly a twisted copy of her own."

John is talking about how he feels that we are living in a twisted copy of our own world right now. Thing are the same superficially, but have changed dramatically.

With this in mind I believe John is telling the story of a naive, young girl at the airport who is trying to bring something in her luggage that is either embarrassing, or will not be allowed on the plane. If you have ever had your luggage riffled through at the airport, you know that they do it in public and with little concern for privacy (in this case, it seems, near a fountain with goldfish in it; i.e. goldfish pond). She doesn't think that what is in her luggage is a big deal, but apparently the security does ("Doesn't understand she's in trouble now"). Apparently, what she has in her luggage has gotten her into real trouble or at least delayed her because she's "waving from the shore", meaning that she has missed her flight; analogous to waving goodbye to a ship sailing. Also, the line "there's no going back" seems to lend to this idea of bringing something to the airport in your luggage that shouldn't be there. Once you're there, you are sort of stuck with your decision to pack the object.

-Saubrey

This song is clearly about the character Coraline from the Neil Gaiman book of the same name. It is obvious, I mean it was originaly suposed to be for the soundtrack to the movie. If you have read the book it is obvious that Coraline, the girl, is beiing described here. Not to say this isn't a great song but, it is a pretty simple song for a movie.

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