Interpretations:Thermostat

From This Might Be A Wiki

Another John Henry song about car accidents and potential road death... to join Subliminal, AKA Driver, End Of The Tour, Sleeping In The Flowers.

Wow! I never noticed that theme! Granted, not all of them (namely Sleeping In The Flowers and The End Of The Tour) are entirely about car crashes, but it's definitely interesting to note. Good catch! :) ~Anna Ng hears your words.

I think that overall the song is about how insatiable we all are: When it gets too cold, just turn the heat up...but wait! Now it's so hot it's engulfed in flames!! Turn it back down!! There doesn't ever seem to be a reachable happy medium in life. The song says that maybe the thermostat should be "disconnected", that we shouldn't be able to control the temperature, that maybe we should just play the hand we're dealt with. Our minds see this, but our bodies have minds of their own, which want instant gratification, and instead of following this advice, they just continue driving themselves knowing that they're out of oil. Another great Linnell song about self-destruction with a message!! - Stiddy

Mechanisms, tricks, and cleverness are ultimately unreliable, prone to wear out, and we could do without them -- but they're so useful, and fun to fiddle with. And they give us a sense of control, which may be entirely pretended: In many office buildings, there are fake thermostats on the walls; they don't actually regulate the temperature (they are, in fact, disconnected from the central heating system) but they allow the office drones to pretend that they have control over their atmosphere by turning the "heat" up and down. --fubar o.

I'ma thinkin' this song is about how we shouldn't rely too much on technology. The first verse describes a person becoming an unnecessary part of a car operating. Your hand loses control of the stick shift, and the car and the wheel have learned how to operate themselves, and apparently how to do basic math. To give the human a sense of security, of course, the car asks the driver if he/she still wants to drive even though it will soon be unable to due to lack of oil. All you have left is a lousy thermostat, it's the one thing that you can still control, the only thing justifying your existance. You may be inferior to machines in every way, but you can still change the temperature, darnit! But this parade is being rained on. Your precious thermostat is unreliable, and is going to explode if you don't stop overusing it. But the people shout out together, "Turn it up, turn it down!" It's all you have left! And so, the thermostat blows, and people are no longer necessary in the world. They still shout to command the thermostat in a poor attempt to remain in control, but I'm sure it won't be long before we have "The Terminator" happen all over again.

In addition, this may also be a metaphor for the fact that people have hardly any control of their own lives, and the one unimportant thing that they can control isn't even stable.

My idea is somewhat similar to the above, but taken in a different direction. As explained above, the car is becoming so advanced that the human is unnecessary to operate it. I picture the verses being sung by either the car's designers, or maybe even the car itself. In any case, the claim is that the thermostat is unreliable, not because it's defective, but simply because it's controlled by human hands. Humans, quite simply, can't be controlled by the car, and therefore the car can't control the thermostat either. So, all it can do is sit there saying, "You know, you can't be trusted with working something. It makes things unreliable." But the humans simply retort with something that just boils the machines' blood. "Turn it up, turn it down!" and thus, they adjust the thermostat anytime they dang well feel like it. But, lo and behold, the thermostat catches fire. The car now says "Ha! I told you so!" The humans pull through this, however, and continue to use the thermostat as they see fit, completely ignoring their more intellegent car.

Basically, if you wanna ditch all the technology whatnot in the song, it's about the fact that though things in your life (the thermostat) may go wrong, you're the one in charge of it, and need to act accordingly. Don't just give up your life to fate's whimsy (or the car).

THE BODY IN REBELLION

There is a TMBG theme of losing control of one's body, of one's body as foreign and misbehaving and even unrecognizable. My Man, Montana, Am I Awake, I've Got A Fang, are examples. In End of the Tour, the speaker envisions his body as an auto, sailing along full of anxious squabbling selves, and compares a relationship to a fiery car crash.

I think the speaker and the car are one here, too, and the speaker is uncomfortable and disconcerted and can't get himself regulated - turn it up, turn it down, turn it up, turn it down again - but he is never comfortable.

The speaker tells us that the car is not under his control, apt to burst into flame, and he can't even tell when it might happen:

When the hands that operate the motor lose control of the lever
When the mind of its own in the wheel puts two and two together*
When the indicator says you're out of oil should you continue driving anyway?
There's a thermostat that regulates the temperature
That might not be reliable, that should be disconnected

snip

Or was it a loud explosion?
Or is the thermostat engulfed in flames or is it just me?

In other words, the car (my self as machine) has a rebellious mind of its own and I have no idea how to treat it to make it behave. Finally, it explodes! Yikes.

~Is the thermostat engulfed in flames or is it just me~ is a pun - am I correct that the thermostat is on fire OR am I on fire and it makes the thermostat looks as if it's engulfed in flames. This also dovetails neatly with another theme of TMBG songs - being overcome by fire: Statue Got Me High, Rest Awhile, End of the Tour. The fire might be romantic passion, as in End of the Tour, or simply be passion in general, a source of heat and destruction. You can overlay sexual passion easily on fire imagery, and as much as I like to, I know that is actually my own prurient mind at work, so I will go with passion in the sense of intense emotion, emotion that can destroy or hurt you.

Alternatively, the speaker may be wrestling with some part of his life over which he has no control, not himself, and envisions his poor stewardship as causing disaster, which causes him anxiety.

~Christina Miller, October 2005

I agree with many of the above interpretations. To me, this song makes me think of manic depression, or rather, the intense emotional fluctuations of the temperament of the sensitive intellect, whether in an introspective, creative, social, or relational context. fractal tact, 9/19/07

---

This is as good a song as any to relate my theory.  Perhaps better than most.   I honetly think that the songs chronicle the life experiences of the band (well duo of songwriters specifically)   I am not trying to denigrate their genius in any way.  I just think they are completely imbued with music & musical inspiration.  So yeah they have car trouble perhaps an oil leak.  Perhaps something else.  either way it comes out in song.  Seriously, I have been listening (and loving) them for years & their songs follow a life pattern.  to the point where my daughter the other day was wishing they had a cSAT prep song.  I told her wait a few year until Henry was mid-high school.  I totally love this & pretty much all their songs.  Please don't get me wrong.  But I honestly think if you listen long enough & close enough you will find more of a diary than a philosophical treatise.   Then again I could be wrong.  they have surprised me many times before.

I agree with Christina's interpretation above, the thermostat in someone's brain has gone haywire and now he's perpetually wracked by alternating fever and chills. --The Cowch

Thermostat

Interpretations:Thermostat

Navigation

other

songs

Search

Toolbox