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Interpretations:I Palindrome I

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The song title itself, and the references to Palindromes within the song, should give you a big hint as to how the song is structured. The ideas presented are supposed to be presented in such a way that they read the same backwards as they do forwards. Going off this idea, I came up with the theory (well, I don't know if it's been said before) that the son has killed his father and wishes to end his mothers life as well, or, ends his mothers life and wishes to kill his father (depending on perspective.) If you look at it backwards, the middle (the Zig zag medical charts) can apply to his father, if you look at it forwards they apply to his mother. -- Timus

I think this song criticizes the human greed for money and power:

Let's say this "mother" is in fact "mother" nature. Life is a gift but many people don't respect it. They kill animals and destroy the rainforest only for profit ("I'll get the money"), but our "mother" nature dies. you should not take more from nature than it can restore, but humans take a lot more and exploit it. Also, people want to gain control over natural powers, especially life and death ("now I'll help it decide") --> first it was a random zig zag, now i will control it! Maybe "The hands of my offspring making windmills" could mean that people (Offspring of nature) now build windmills to use the wind's power --> humans build items for themselves while animals live with the things that nature gives to them. A snake head that eats the head on the opposite side kills itself in a way, because the other head is a part of it's body, too. So, people destroy the world we live in, but they also kill themselves by doing so. So everyone who destroys nature for profit acts like someone who kills his mother to get the inheritage and like a snake that eats the head on the opposite side

I'm inclined to take this song literally. I believe that they are singing about a spider. Some spiders protect their young until they hatch at which point they get consumed by their offspring. The parent spider seeing as how this is nature has the same sentiments.

Lyrics like "and I am a snakehead eating the head on the opposite side" could describe a web. It's not really certain where the web ends and begins so it could be described as a snake that consumes itself.

"See that Bullet proof dress hanging from the clothesline" seems like it could describe a web which would be impossible to shoot with a gun. "See the hands of my offspring making windmills" describes spiders making webs.

But I guess you could get abstract and say that humans are going through the same life processes that spiders go through. We get nurtured up until a certain point at which point we figure out how to take care of ourselves. Then we leave the nest not really looking back at those who nurtured us(other than maybe a heart felt thanks...any more would go against nature.) and nurture offsprings of our own who continue this cycle.

---At the begining it's talking how his mother will die and he will get her fortune. I think that the "on the medical chart see the random zig zig" is the heart beat of his mother in the hospital (thus soon mother will die) and then it says "I'll help it decide" saying that I'll either let her live or kill her to get the money. Then at the very end of the song it talks about his children and I think that his children killed him to get his fortune (his mother's fortune) thus I Palindrome I, it just keeps on going.


I don't think that it's as clear-cut as it seems. I think the mother is rather iffy about the whole life gig anyway. I mean, she could protect herself by changing her will so it doesn't include her son, but she doesn't. I think she enjoys the challenge of competing against her son, but won't be upset when her son finally succeeds. -Bill

'"Something I never did quite get until maybe just now is the line "My sentiments exactly" from the mother in the first verse... could it be that she did the same thing to her mother/father when she was younger? In that case, "You son of a bitch" would certainly be a more accurate self-reference. '

I always thought "my sentiments exactly" was said by the mother meaning that the son WILL get the money... but not until she dies... in an "over my dead body" sense. Hence the "you son of a bitch" (you're not getting your money if I have anything to say about it) which is of course, in the context provided, hilarious.

Let us not forget the larger palindrome here, the mother brought the son into the world, now the son is taking the mother out of it

Quite simply, this song is about a viciously evil son whose mother lay on her deathbed, and he wants to speed up the process of her death so he can get his inheritance. Just as he's about to kill her, his dad comes in and stops him from doing so, presumably through force.

I completely agree with this last interpretation, except I don't believe that the Dad comes in and stops the son. The line "see the spring of the grandfather clock unwinding / See the hands of my offspring making windmills", at least to me, resembles that the son has grown up, collected his inheritance, and raised a family. The kids making windmills is a metaphor for time passing, and that everything comes back around. "Dad palendrome Dad, I palindrome I" is when the son realises this, and that his own kids want to do the same thing he wanted to do to his mother. Everything comes back around, and that's a palindrome in itself.

The "hands of my offspring" are simply the hour and minute hands on the face of the grandfather clock, powered by the unwinding spring. The "windmills" are the circles the hands repeat every hour (or twelve hours) across the clock's face. "Offspring" is a play on the mechanism and repeats the generational concept implied by a "grandfather" clock.

I agree with the two above except for the dad part, you could see it as rich families marrying each other and that the dad did the same as his son and kill his mother and father, thus the dad created a palindrome "dad palindrome dad" and the son creates a palindrome: "I palindrome I". I think that the father is already dead from his son and now the son just has to wait for his mother to die to get the fortune, the bullet proof dress could be that the son has shot his mother but there was a dress hanging from a clothesline in the way and when he shot her it didn't kill her, it just put her on her death bed (possibly in a vegetative state "now i'll help it decide") --Purds 23:35, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

I in turn disagree with the two above (at the time of writing) - I don't think this is a story song. I don't think the narrator is killing anyone, I don't there is any particular linear action. The song's very conceptual. SOME DAY his mother will die and the narrator will get the money... she's his own flesh and blood but all he cares about is the money. One day his children will want him to die for the money. I suppose it's a callous interpretation of the whole "Circle Of Life" thing.

Incidentally, the supposed palindrome sung in the middle section is a reference to the famous palindrome, 'ABLE WERE I ERE I SAW ELBA'. ASL

The lyric "and I am a snake head eating the head on the opposite side" seems to be referring to the mythical snake creature - with the near palindromical name - Oroboros.

Yes, though it's also the Amphisbaena, which is the two-headed snake. Ouroboros doesn't have two heads. -Paul McCann

The mother saying "You son of a bitch" to the kid is a funny self-referencing thing, too.

I made a short Flash to illustrate the word palindrome, "Son I am able, she said..." Watch it three times and you will always remember the impossible lyrics and amaze your friends.

[[1]]



Something I never did quite get until maybe just now is the line "My sentiments exactly" from the mother in the first verse... could it be that she did the same thing to her mother/father when she was younger? In that case, "You son of a bitch" would certainly be a more accurate self-reference.

It could also be that the mother's mother (AKA the narrator's grandmother) is still alive, so the mother would like to get HER inheritance. *shrug* I dunno.

Calling her son a "son of a bitch" is an insult, but conceptually, something of a palindromic one: in doing so, she's calling herself a bitch.

I think this song goes beyond the fact that this situation is palindroming itself, I think that it's saying that life palindromes life. It starts out with his waiting for his parent to die, and ends with his children waiting for him to die, hence the line dad palindrome dad, as if to say that the parents palindrome, too.


It's like this: Verse 1: "Someday mother will die and I'll get the money..." he's a kid who doesn't take what he's talking about seriously and doesn't consider his own mortality.

Verse 2: "See that bulletproof dress hanging from the clothesline, See the medical chart with the random zigzag, Now I'll help to decide..." now that fateful time has finally come and he plays a part in ending her life.

Verse 3: "See the spring of the grandfather clock unwinding, see the medical chart with the random zigzag dad palindrome dad i palindrome i" Everything comes full circle, he too must go and his children take the perspective illustrated in the first verse. -Think about that


--- I think that what happens is the son thinks out loud, unintentionally portraying his true emotionsand intentions; ergo the first line of the first verse of the first stanza.

The "My sentiments exactly" thing is sarcasm. Think about it. You don't discuss such things while near a person on their deathbed. It is the same thing as if she would have replied something like "Aw, how considerate of you to discuss your celebration of my death WHILST I AM ON MY DEATHBED!!!" Then proceeds to chew the crap out of him. I also like to imagine her beating the son in the head with a cane during the "You son of a bitch" line. I know it doesn't say she does it in the song, it's just a good, funny mental image. ^_^ The bulletproof dress might be a metaphor discussing the realization of the mother's imminent death and her inability to do anything about it(A bulletproof dress cannot do you any good if you aren't wearing it). The medical chart with the random zigzags part is obvious. He helps it decide to go to the bottom of the chart by killing his mother. The word-for-word palindrome part("Son I am able...") is the mother trying in a last-ditch effort to stop the son from killing her.

As for the rest of the song, it all has so many shallow and deep meanings to debate and discuss, it isn't funny. I say pick a good interpretation from one of the other discussions and be happy.

"Someday mother will die and I'll get the money"-The narrator doesn't give a damn about his mother. He's just looking forward to the day she dies so that he can get his inheritance. "Mom leans down and says 'My sentiments exactly, you son of a bitch"-The mother feels the same way. She doesn't care about her son. She wouldn't mind if he died because she would collect the insurance.

"Someday Mother will die and I'll get the money"

Obviously the Narrator (i.e. the son) is looking forward to the day his Mother dies so he can collect his inheritance."

"Mom leans down and says 'My sentiments exactly, You son of a bitch'"

Mom is aware that the only thing her son cares about is his inheritance and is basically saying, "over my dead body, you son of a bitch." The "son of a bitch" portion is meant to be a situational palindrome, as many have suggested, but I think the importance of this exchange is that Mom is perfectly aware of her son's intentions and is basically setting the terms for him.

The lines about being able are most likely a reference to the phrase "Able was I ere I saw Elba", perhaps the most famous palindrome of all time. It is 'attributed' to Napoleon, even though he, not speaking any English, clearly didn't say it. Elba is the small island on which he lived while in exile.

Most of the interps here -- quite rightly, I believe -- see the narrator as a rather nasty fellow, but I think we shouldn't ignore that the mom seems like a pretty viscious woman herself. Of course, this is coming back around to her, as her son is just as bad, and is now trying to kill her. Tutt 15:08, 10 Oct 2005 (EDT)MasterChivo

It's worth noting that the nonsense word "manonam" is a palindromic way of writing "mano a mano" - two snake heads sharing the same "o" mouth. --M. Fudd 19:39, 9 Dec 2005 (EST)

Egad, a base tone denotes a bad age a very long palindrome - Paul Evins

Without disagreeing with the other interps above, I think there is another layer (or context, or what-have-you) to the song, which is the science of DNA. The genetic code is a series of 'letters' (GATC) which are repeated in the double helix structure (discovered by James Watson and Francis Crick) of deoxyribonucleic acid. This is the source of genetic inheritance (which the song plays with by referring to 'inheritance' in the legal sense). The two strands of the DNA helix unwind (like the spring of the grandfather clock in the song) to produce two identical 'letter' sequences. Placed end-to-end, these strands would form a palindrome. The song is about how we inherit destructive tendencies from our forebears and pass them on to our progeny. For a funny poem on the same topic, see Philip Larkin's "This Be The Verse". --Nehushtan 11:21, 6 Mar 2006 (CST)

This song is a rather obvious reference to Robert A. Heinlein's All You Zombies- a book about a government agency that travels back in time. you learn at the end that every single person in the book is the same person. The angency's symbol is a worm eating itself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22%E2%80%94All_You_Zombies%E2%80%94%22

This song is about a man who kills his mother for an inheritance, but ends up getting killed himself by his child, hence the theme of the song being "what goes around comes around."

"One day mother will die and I'll get the money" This line is obvious everyone has gone to their parents as a child "If you die can I have this?"

"Mother leans down says my sentiments exactly"

His mother was exactly like him when he was young and was just waiting for her parents to die

"You son of a bitch"

His mother is saying that she is a bitch for what she wished on her mother and now it's all coming round again...like a pallindrome.Then later in the song the son has grown up and his children say the same things to him. --- You people do realize that something that repeats itself is a cycle, not a palindrome, right?

Palindrome: A word, phrase, or otherwise that is read the same backwards as forwards Cycle: Some series of events that lead to events such that the events repeat themselves.

---

To the above: yes, but a valid comparison exists when you call a palindrome something that goes to its end, then comes back to what started it. So the son committing murder (assuming that that's what happened) is the forwards of the palindrome, and then the act of murder comes back to him as the backwards reading of the palindrome. Sui 02:30, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

---

What I always thought the "Bullet-proof dress" line meant was that he shot her, but she didn't die, and that is why she is on her deathbed. In order to get rid of the blood, he washed the dress she wore when she was shot, and it is hanging on the clothesline. However, since she isn't dead, he dubs it a bullet-proof dress, and says it as a curse.

But I'm normally wrong on these things. -Alchemy Prime

I'm inclined to read the "see the hands of my offspring making windmills" line as the method his offspring killed him; by stabbing him, perhaps in the heart. To do so, they would (or could) take the knife and bring it over their head and then down into his heart, essentially making a windmill motion.

And "egad a base note denotes a bad age," aside from being a palindrome itself could perhaps mean that the narrator has become too old to defend himself properly or in other words, a "bad age."

The "snake head eating the head on the opposite side" might be a reference to the caduceus, the symbol for medicine. With this interpretation, the repeated reference that he is the snake head becomes the more sinister. He could be musing over the power he has over life and death, or he could actually _be_ a doctor.

Some musical palindromes, too. During the bridge section, the pitches form a near palindrome to mirror the action of the words. Also, the dominant rhythm of the song is a repeating pattern of: quarter-quarter-eighth-eighth-quarter-quarter-eighth-eighth-quarter-quarter.... as in: Some - day - Moth - er - will - die - and - I'll - get - the .... This rhythmic palindrome is intensified by layering over a standard non-palindromic back-beat, just to make sure we get the joke.

"Mom leans down" has always given me pause. Leans down? Isn't she bedridden?

I've never understood why people think she is bedridden from the start of the song. I've always felt the song goes through several time periods-- A point where the mother is alive and well and "someday she'll die", a point where perhaps she got shot because of not wearing her bulletproof dress, though that is possibly only symbolic, this point possibly being where she actually dies, and the point where the narrator himself has children and is plotted against by them.

This song is, again, about me. Except my mother is not a whore. HTH, --HearingAid


"They might be giants" is a quote from Don Quixote in regard to windmills. If the offspring of someone who destroyed windmills rebuilt them, then there would indeed be a palindrome in time, either played forward or backward, the windmills exist, are destroyed, and are then rebuilt to exist again. With the band's own name as evidence, the only conclusion I can see is that the line "See the hands of my offspring building windmills" is another palindrome in the manner stated above.

-Berg

Except it says *making* windmills, not building windmills. Making windmills is a fairly common way of saying "waving in a dramatic circular gesture like a windmill's vanes", kind of like the hands of a clock seem to do when "time flies".

That's not to say the Don Quixote interpretation is completely invalid.

-AJF

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