Interpretations:Words Are Like

Interpretation 1

Sometime when people ask me what I am thinking I honestly try to tell them. This song is about how no matter how many words you know sometimes none of them will do any good to express yourself. Obviously John is looking for the write words to discribe words but none of the words he tries is right for the job. --DTG 22:43, February 9, 2005

Interpretation 2

It seems like all of these could be reasonable similies to words if they were elaborated into, but they just kinda sit open ended for us to wonder about. --SweetAfton23 09:36, March 20, 2005

Interpretation 3

One of Flans best recent songs. Another example of the bands love of word games and the use of what they used to call "random" in the 60s. Brilliant fun as he jumps from one thing to another. A close relative to early songs such as Weep Day which plays similiar tricks. Robin's beautiful voice compliments Flans' perfectly. One wonders if they'll do an album version. I hope not as the demo seems definitive --(Mr Tuck) 14:50, January 31, 2006

Just wanted to comment that I agree - their voices do work wonderfully together. Also, it does have that 60's feel to it, almost a Simon and Garfunkel style. I do love the natural feel to the song...there's no electric guitar or bass to boost anything, which is uncharacteristic of Flans' style. When I first heard this song, I thought "It's a No! outtake." Because it does remind me of a children's song. I think it's beautiful and easily one of Flans' best. - Overjoy 06:47, August 2, 2006

Interpretation 4

Lost Simon and Garfunkel bedroom recording? --Balb Kubrox 18:40, February 6, 2006

Interpretation 5

Like that old French surrealist painting, This Is Not A Pipe. It's just paint on a canvas that looks like a pipe. The things mentioned in the song aren't the things mentioned in the song, they're just examples of words. It also lyrically sounds a lot like Art Gurfunkel's Waters Of March. --ASL 08:39, February 17, 2006

Interpretation 6

This is easily my favorite of all the 'lesser known' TMBG songs (Reprehensible takes a close second). They're right you know, words are like all those things, especially a mask. Now that I think of it, words are like all things, because that's what words are. Words are everything. --Blompkin 00:13, August 16, 2007

Poetry?

It reminds me of some of the more simplistic poetry I wrote as a teenager. You know, stuff that rhymes but doesn't necessarily mean anything. Words can be "like" a lot of things, as long as you connect the ideas somehow; simply listing a bunch of unrelated images doesn't necessarily qualify a poem as "brilliant". But of course, this is TMBG, and Flansburgh was probably trying to do this on purpose, so there's that...and the harmonizing is, indeed, lovely. --MisterMe 13:33, 20 November 2012 (EST)

Interpretation 8

This might be the best written and performed song ever in the human history. At least it is to me, today.

Interpretation 9

Yup, those are all words. --DoubleDenial (talk) 19:31, 1 April 2019 (EDT)

...or are they like words?? ;-) --MisterMe (talk) 22:41, 1 April 2019 (EDT)