Look back at boat feet and that winding knee Panic! at the Disco – Northern Downpour
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Ross has been writing many songs about his lover, including songs dating back to the previous album. He realizes that he spends a considerable amount of time thinking of the past.
“Boat feet” is a term for having big feet, and “winding knee” refers to dancing. At the time this was written, Ross was dating a girl named Keltie Colleen, who was a dancer. This connects the romantic theme of the song by using the classic rom-com cliché of one partner having big feet and stepping on the other’s toes while dancing.
Hey moon, don't you go down
Sugarcane in the easy morning
Weathervanes my one and lonely Panic! at the Disco – Northern Downpour
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When the moon goes down, the night will end. He wants the night to last because he can mourn, be his own man, and shield himself from the greed and superficiality of others.
These are memories of the better times, a sharp contrast to the first verse. The first verse represents life as a man, and this portion represents memories of childhood. Everything was sweet and easy, and there was always a clear direction.
Note the wordplay with the term “one and only” to “one and lonely.” Your “one and only” is who you love more than anything. But this play on words paints the two of them as different things: “one”, a synonym for “whole”, and “lonely.” Loneliness is a feeling associated with emptiness and a lack of fulfilment.
Northern downpour sends its love Panic! at the Disco – Northern Downpour
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This couplet continues on the ideas present in the previous two lines, which discuss genius and its rarity.
“Tripping eyes” seems to be a reference to drug use by many incredible lyricists and musicians, including Panic! themselves, who were often high while writing the Pretty. Odd. album. “Flooded lungs” may refer to smoke, which would tie it to the drug reference. However, it could also refer to drowning, which happens when someone’s lungs are filled with liquid, which would help tie this section to the rest of the verse, specifically the lines that mention water. Both of these phrases could also be used to convey the confusion of a non-genius when being exposed to genius ideas and thoughts.
While a large amount of water could drown and kill someone if it entered their lungs, the “northern downpour” mentioned is more likely to be a reference to tears or the bittersweet nature of their relationship. Ryan could be referring to his own sadness over the relationship ending, and wants to let her know that he still loves her.
Genius only comes along in storms of fabled foreign tongues Panic! at the Disco – Northern Downpour
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What is this?
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Then we should feed our jewelry to the sea Panic! at the Disco – Northern Downpour
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“Life is but a dream” is a reference to the children’s song “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” which describes an idyllic life or moment in time. The line is used as a darker tone compared to its original use – although our lives may seem perfect, there may be no reason for our existence. The line also heavily mirrors the epilogue poem from “Alice Through The Looking Glass”:
“Ever drifting down the stream —
Lingering in the golden gleam —
Life, what is it but a dream?”
This establishment of the meaninglessness of our life is used to reflect on humanity’s desire for materialistic value, or our “fantastic posing greed.” “Feed[ing] our jewelry to the sea” is another intertextual reference, this time to James Cameron’s 1997 film adaption of the Titanic story. In the movie, the main character Rose discards a highly valued diamond necklace known as the “Heart of the Ocean” by throwing it into the sea at the end of the film. Ross says that we should give up our desire for material objects, suggesting it will set us free. Of course, “the sea” also connects to “Row, Row, Row, Your Boat.”
S'how I kill him with MINI MUM DRIVE Don't Flop (Ft. Deffinition, Marlo (Battle Rapper) & Shuffle T) – Shuffle T vs Marlo (Bad Bars Battle)
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This line is wordplay of Minimum. A dwarf mother is a mini-mum, and the fact that she’s hitting you with a car means that she’s in drive. He’s saying he’s going to kill him with The mini mum driving / minimum drive (no effort).
We were just getting to the part...
Where the shock sets in
And the stomach acid finds a new way to make you get sick Panic! at the Disco – Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off
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He is confronting his girlfriend about her cheating. However, he isn’t begging for her to come back to him. He doesn’t feel sad or hopeless, but rather angry and wants to humiliate her by taunting her.
She never thought her boyfriend would find out about her secret, but he did and now she regrets sleeping with someone else. She has to deal with the guilt that comes after cheating and the fact that she must accept the consequences of her actions – it makes her feel sick to her stomach.
Than any boy you'll ever meet, sweetie, you had me
Girl, I was it, look past the sweat, a better love deserving of
Exchanging body heat in the passenger seat?
No, no, no, you know it will always just be me Panic! at the Disco – Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off
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Ryan feels that he’s the better choice for her in every way. He asks her to look past the testosterone, past the moment, at the long-run. Pull back the pretty boy exterior and realize this guy is nothing more than dull. He wants to know if the boy she cheated on him with was worth having sex instead of staying loyal to him. He believes she’ll always love the narrator, and that she’s blown it.
In his mind, he has a visual of them being intimate in a car. Imagining what your ex is doing with someone else is a dangerous situation many people find themselves in. As Brendon shared with us on Genius, Ryan believes that “..when she is fucking this other dude she is saying my name.” This bridge represents those thoughts.
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This is a reference to L. Frank Baum’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which was adapted into a film titled The Wizard of Oz in 1939. In both the book and the film, the main character, Dorothy, has to click her heels and wish to return home in order to leave the Land of Oz.
Both people in the relationship missed each other while they were apart. Just as Dorothy wished to return to her home in Kansas, the narrator’s lover wants to return to him.
here, let’s establish a wizard of oz metaphor. the wicked witch of the east has green skin, and she also has the ruby slippers, which if heels were clicked with, will transport you home. who is home for the wicked witch of the east? if set in the musical “Wicked” (2003), the wicked witch of the east is Nessarose, sister of Elphaba. there are a few possibilities for who is home, but the most obvious one is Elphaba (the one who turned the slippers magical so Nessarose could walk) or their father (who gave her the slippers).
this is from the Wicked wiki:
the shoes are symbols of what Elphaba has secretly craved all her life; love, respect, acceptance, and family.
The sun rises in the East and, in contrast to the usage of the moon in the song, symbolizes beginnings. Perhaps that of a relationship or simply a reference to youthfulness and joy before longing took hold. Where the writer & the subject only needed it each other.
But also, in The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy clicks her heels, she wishes to go home(“There’s no place like home”). So the lyric “you clicked your heels and wished for me” may also be saying that the person the song is about is “home” to the author.
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Also, Brendon was in Seattle at the time of Ryan’s 21st birthday, while Ryan celebrated in New York with his girlfriend- until he took an impulse flight to Seattle. Seattle is in the northwest, while New York is about as far east as you can get in the US. This line may have been written/contributed to by Brendon, taking place from his point of view about Ryan. There’s been no confirmation of a relationship between them, but if that was the case this line would make a lot of sense in that context.
The previous line ‘both feet and that winding knee’ maybe refers to the fact that the woman is a dancer. She was possibly on the east coast for work. The narrator missed her very much, and ‘you clicked your heels and wished for me’ implies that the woman missed him as well.