And say, "Your life is on fire!
It's all over the evening news
All about the fire in your life on the evening news" Paul Simon (Ft. Stimena) – Crazy Love, Vol. II
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The narrators don’t know what went wrong within the relationship, as they hint within the next four lines. Also emphasized by the 12 seconds it takes to utter these four words.
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What is this?
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What is this?
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This line might have garnered much controversy if not for the fact that people notoriously had trouble understanding Kurt Cobain’s lyrics.
In a 1993 interview with The Advocate, Cobain claimed that he was “gay in spirit” and “probably could be bisexual.” He also stated that he used to spray paint “God Is Gay” on pickup trucks in the Aberdeen area—he did attend church throughout his youth, but became dissatisfied with religion. Aberdeen police records show that the phrase for which he was arrested was actually “Ain’t got no how watchamacallit.”.
Cobain’s mug shot from the arrest
Incidentally, one of his personal journals included the following statement:
I am not gay, although I wish I were, just to piss off homophobes.
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Little girl, you're in the middle of the ride
Everything, everything will be just fine
Everything, everything will be alright, alright Jimmy Eat World – The Middle
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The “middle of the ride” refers to adolescence, the period in “the middle” of childhood and adulthood.
Also, within the context of the song, it’s reminding you that you may have hit a few snags, but life isn’t over yet. Don’t write yourself off, because it’s only the middle, not the end. There’s still plenty of time to achieve (insert goal here).
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In the album’s titular title track, Simon represents Graceland as both the physical place—Memphis, Tennessee—and as a spiritual place where visitors are “pilgrims” and imperfect sinners are received without question and without obligations. Though Simon is prepared to “defend” his sins—”every love, every ending”—the beauty of Graceland is it requires no such explanations of its pilgrims.
Graceland is a mansion and Elvis’s home, an idyllic representation of conventional and traditional domesticity. Elvis may have aspired to the sort of life represented by Graceland, but his life was not conventional or traditional, and was lonely.
The singer is taking his son to a place, narratively, Graceland, thematically, an idyllic representation of home, where they can never live.
The overall theme of this song – midlife weariness and regret – reaches its conclusion here: that perhaps some transgressions and failures cannot be healed in mortal life, but only by a higher power. The narrator is left ruminating whether to believe that such a higher power would grant that grace, or whether he’s doomed to repeat his regrets and sorrows. Implicitly, he’s weary of defending himself, perhaps because he feels undeserving. In popular depictions of the “pearly gates of heaven,” Peter judges the character of the deceased soul, who, presumably, may “defend” his actions in life. Yet, in typical Christian theology, God grants Grace by His will, not because the person receiving it has “earned” it or “deserves” it. Some Christian theology has expanded this notion to universal grace – that ALL shall be forgiven: “Maybe I have a reason to believe / We all will be received in Graceland.”
It’s sort of implied by this line that Simon was defensive at the beginning of the song. He’s not sure, but now there’s a reason to believe he will be received even if he isn’t defensive–he has no obligations now and can be free. This parallels the change of “Graceland” from a physical to a spiritual place. Perhaps the newfound spirituality makes him feel free? Either way, it’s an arc for our narrator