Interpretations:Fingertips

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Everything Is Catching On Fire - The moment of conception, sperm meets egg, magic happens.

Fingertips (banjo) - The first sensation after birth: fingertips.

I Hear The Wind Blow - The baby hears its first sounds.

Hey Now Everybody - General confusion after birth. "It's a boy, Mrs. Walker!"

Who's That Standin' Out The Window - Everybody wants to see the new baby. "Awww... he sneezed!"

I've Found A New Friend Underneath My Pillow - Unclear, perhaps the kid has an imaginary friend? (Perhaps a reference to learning about the Tooth Fairy, and thus the whole magicalism of youth.

Come On And Wreck My Car - Youth, the kid smashes toy cars into wall, trying to act tough.

Aren't You The Guy Who Hit Me In The Eye? - People got sick of the stupid kid and his toughness, decide to teach him a lesson.

Please Pass The Milk - The kid learns manners, stupid kid.

Leave Me Alone - The kid is having a bad day, sod off.

Who's Knockin' On The Wall - The kid has monsters in his closet, oh no.

All Alone, All By Myself - Teenage angst.

What's That Blue Thing Doing Here? - Combolations, idiot, you went and got some chick pregnant, or got pregnant. (The blue of a positive pregnancy test)

Something Grabbed Ahold Of My Hand - The kid does the right thing(Or is forced into doing the right thing): marriage.

I Don't Understand You - The marriage is rather... unhappy.

I Heard A Sound - The guy goes senile and paranoid. "Is there anybody out there?"

Mysterious Whisper - The guy is now mentally unstable, he's hearing voices.

The Day Love Came To Play - The bloody pervert: he cheats on his spouse.

I'm Havin' A Heart Attack - A heart attack.

Fingertips (whispered) - The last sensation, fingertips trying to revive him.

I Walk Along Darkened Corridors - Some kind of afterlife.

Note: This was adapted from here

This song is about touching things.

I agree in part with the first interp.

It is indeed a summation of someone's life but the first vignette is the end of someone else's life ("everything is catching on fire") and the last vignette is the beginning of someone else's ("walk along darkened corridors").

The middle person's life is seen in full and is bookended by the "fingertips" on either end, a method use by Beckett

The structure:

Person A's death ("everything is catching on fire")

Person B's birth (First "fingertips")

Person B's life ("I hear the wind blow" through "the day that love came to play")

Person B's death ("I'm having a heart attack")

Person C's birth (second "fingertips")

Person C's first life experience ("I walk along darkened")

The middle is the story of one person's life told through the his/her most significant moments. What exactly the vignette are referring to, only the speaker knows. The specifics (the whole story) are only significant to "Person B", we are only seeing the tiny remains. The only two things connecting each person, is that each of them received a birth, a "fingertips" if you will, and that each of the people must end and make room for the next life.

To paraphrase some Macbeth: Every player struts and frets his hour on the stage and then nothing, a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing.

My Opinon: The main thrust of the song, I believe, is the brevity of life and how we have come to judge the life of others. We look back on the most significant parts and fail to see the good stuff that falls between. We forget those tiny battles.

Or maybe we hold on to those small things a little to tightly. Our lives are lived to tighten our grip on our small realities instead of the larger ones.

But I am probably projecting what I want at this point.

I always thought they were just trying to mimic a bunch of different artists that have had an influence on their songs.

I just thought it was a representation of "fingertips" rolling through the dial of a radio. You get different types of music, some talk, etc.

I agree with the post above, they're just little pieces of music played together. They've even said that they weren't always in that order. Plus, most of those "interpretations" in the first post are really pushing it.

Well... even if it does all mean something, I still kinda like to think it's all just random short songs. It makes it funnier too.

Considering they included "Fingertips" in Podcast 2A, which supposedly has a "show business" theme, I think it may just be like flipping through the television channels. Fingerips are what you use to press the button on the remote control, hence the title.

Has anyone else noticed that "Fingertips" rhymes with "acid trips"? - Tzion (9/2/2006)

I think that the fingertips are pressing buttons flipping through the radio stations. By the looks of the length of the other interpretations, that was definitely less than two cents. User:Stupak

When I listen to this I always imagine flipping through random, stupid TV stations looking for something to watch. I love how it's just made up of all these silly little things that aren't good enough ideas to warrant a whole song but in 10-20 second sound bytes are hilarious.

Do They always play this song in the same order during shows? I mean, it says in the liner notes that Apollo 18 should be played on Randome Play... so shouldn't They mix up the order of Fingertips? With 21 different parts of the song, there are over 510,909,000,000,000,000,000 different orders they could be played in. They should get started on those. 06:12, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Whenever I hear this song, I think of Dissociative Identity Disorder... set to music. - Ms Fernandez, 18 Dec 2007

Well, TMBG is famous for those insane what-the-crap-is-this-supposed-to-be? songs, so it's hard to tell if it's actually supposed to have interpretations that are what they mean or if it's(they're) supposed to be those nonsense song(s), but even if it isn't, I don't know what to make of it. In my opinion, the songs have a different meaning for each, instead of being all connected to do/mean something. But I really think that the song 'Fingertips' is about... um... I have absolutely no clue at all.

I thought it was like trying to do every genre of music in one song, which does make sense in a way as most styles od music are there in some form or another. However I'm pretty convinced that its about life after reading this. However it could be....just a song.

I've seen Fingertips as a song about paranoia. Indeed its structure, jumping from segment to segment, to me reflects the irrational thought processes of a paranoid person.

Everything is catching, yes Everything is catching on fire (Everything's catching on) Yeah (fire) (Everything is catching on fire)

Paranoia consumes you like a fire.

Fingertips Fingertips Fingertips

A paranoid person sometimes might hear something in the breeze, and think it is something else. They may think they are hearing soft fingertips and that there is someone near them or following them.

I hear the wind blow I hear the wind blow It seems to say, "Hello, hello I'm the one who loves you so."

The man, all alone, starts to hear things that aren't really there.

Hey now everybody now Hey now everybody Hey now everybody now

I put more stock in the delivery than the content here, and it was dizzying, irrational.

Who's that standing out my window?

Either seeing someone out there and immediately being alarmed or seeing someone not there at all.

I found a new friend underneath my pillow

Not entirely sure. I love this line though. Irrational, like the thoughts of a frantic paranoid

A come on (come on) and wreck my car A come on (come on) and wreck my car A come on (come on) and wreck my car A come on (come on) and wreck my car

More pandemonium. More hysteria.

Aren't you the guy who hit me in the eye? Aren't you the guy who hit me in the eye?

Mistaking a random person for a threat.

Please pass the milk, please Please pass the milk, please Please pass the milk, please

More irrationality.

Leave me alone Leave me alone

Paranoid man wants to be left alone.

Who's knockin' on the wall?

Again hearing a sound (or thinking he heard a sound) and becoming alarmed

All alone, all alone All by myself

He is alone. He is both wanting to be away from people and feeling alone and vulnerable to the noises around him.

What's that blue thing doing here?

More irrationality, but also more of being alarmed by a harmless thing.

Something grabbed a hold of my hand I didn't know what had my hand But that's when all my troubles began

His hand brushes against something and his first reaction is that someone is grabbing him and that's where all his troubles began.

I don't understand you (I don't understand you) I just don't understand you (I don't understand you) I don't understand the things you say I can't understand a single word

I don't understand you (I don't understand you) I just don't understand you (I don't understand you) I cannot understand you (I don't understand you) I don't understand you (I don't understand you)

He doesn't understand what's going on around him.

I heard a sound I turned around I turned around to find the thing that made the sound

He hears a sound and it alarms him.

Mysterious whisper Mysterious whisper Mysterious whisper Mysterious whisper

He hears a mysterious whisper, and it alarms him.

The day that love came to play

More irrationality.

I'm having a heart attack I'm having a heart attack I'm having a heart attack I'm having a heart attack

He's frakkin stressed out from paranoia.

Fingertips Fingertips

A reminder of the simple sound that started all this.

I walk along darkened corridors And I walk along darkened corridors I walk along darkened corridors And I walk along darkened corridors

Because is paranoid and doesn't trust anyone he meets, he is doomed to walk along a bleak darkened corridor on his own.

Not everything in the song amounts to paranoia, but a lot of things to and to me that just what I think of on the keystone sections. And I really see a strong emphasis on the effect that sounds have a person, which leads me to paranoia.

They said in an interview that they were making fun of those commercials for compilations CDs where the names of the songs scroll down the screen and little snippets of certain songs play. You know those commercials?

Fingertips

Interpretations:Fingertips

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