Flightless Bird, American Mouth lyrics

Forgot the "Big pill looming" line...that means if she's gone he's going off the deep end medicating himself with drugs and alcohol.

I was a quick, wet boy
Diving too deep for coins
(First of all I think he's saying quick wit boy, but that's beside the point. This first verse means he was young, full of life, but very real. Diving too deep for coins is a metaphor for him being too real. Being real can be very attractive, yet also very scary. Often times people try and run from the truth to achieve happiness, even if that happiness involves them lying to themselves.)

All of your street light eyes
Wide on my plastic toys
(She was a young and naive girl, with wide eyes on the boy because he was real, unlike anything she had seen before from her parents or anyone else.)

Then when the cops closed the fair
I cut my long baby hair

(This is another metaphor. The cops closing the fair represents society and life creating obstacles like having to grow up and make a living changing the priorities of the girl. A lot of times women will go for a guy who has a more stable income over the guy who they truly love for security reasons. Basically this line means that innocent love tends be on the losing end when faced with real life. Life can't be all about love because of financial burdens. When he says he cut his long baby hair, it means he's lost his innocence after losing her and tried to grow up to get her back.)

And stole me a dog-eared map
And called for you everywhere

(Thru it all he still yearns for her, everyday he wakes up wishing he was with her.)

Have I found you,
Flightless bird, jealous, weeping

(Has he found her? The girl he once knew? Jealous and weeping refers to qualities she used to have...like she used to get sad about the world just the way he does/did.)

Or lost you, American mouth
Big pill looming

(Or is she now an "american" media/money driven woman? Has she changed, basically...)

Now I'm a fat, house cat
Nursing my sore, blunt tongue

(He's a wealthy famous man living the life that others envy--but I can't enjoy it because he doesn't have the woman he loves)

Watching the warm, poisoned rats
Curl through the wide fence crack

(I am constantly surounded by terrible people that are trying to use me to get what they want and i know that when I let them near me they will use me until they have taken the life out of me--but I am letting it happen.)

Pissing on magazine photos
Those fishing lures
Thrown in the cold and clean
Blood of Christ mountain stream

(I piss on the pictures of celebrities I used to admire and want to be like because I know that life is more than that--The lures of fame are evil and corrupt what life was supposed to be like)

Have I found you,
Flightless bird, jealous, weeping

(Has he found her? The girl he once knew? Jealous and weeping refers to qualities she used to have...like she used to get sad about the world just the way he does/did.)

Or lost you, American mouth
Big pill looming

(Or is she now an "american" media/money driven woman? Has she changed, basically...)

Here is my shot at the meaning of the song...

I was a quick, wet boy
Diving too deep for coins
(I was a young naive man very driven, searching for fortune and fame)

All of your street light eyes
Wide on my plastic toys
(you were wise and could see the real me and you were unimpressed by all of my material things--you could never be bought)

Then when the cops closed the fair
I cut my long baby hair

(Then one day, suddenly, it was not fun anymore the money the fame the constante games.
I saw what I had become and it changed me. I grew up.)

And stole me a dog-eared map
And called for you everywhere

(I realized that you were gone (the only person who had ever known the real me). I had to find you.)

Have I found you,
Flightless bird, jealous, weeping

(I wounded you deeply but i know/hope that you still want me)

Or lost you, American mouth
Big pill looming

(is it to late? I had caught you like a fish on a hook (American wide mouth bass) the last time but I didn't real you in and now there is somone else--like a large bird waiting to swoop in and catch you while you are injured)

Now I'm a fat, house cat
Nursing my sore, blunt tongue

(I am a wealthy famous man living the life that others envy--but I can't enjoy it because I have the regrets of things that I said and did to get here)

Watching the warm, poisoned rats
Curl through the wide fence crack

(I am constantly surounded by people that are trying to use me to get what they want and i know that when I let them near me they will use me until they have taken the life out of me--but I am letting it happen.)

Pissing on magazine photos
Those fishing lures
Thrown in the cold and clean
Blood of Christ mountain stream

(I don't care anymore, the things that were important to me are now used to line the bird cage that I live in--I used shiney expensive traps (fishing lures) to get what I wanted but I was messing with somone who was better than that, pure and innocent)

Have I found you
Flightless bird, grounded, bleeding
(Are you still there or have I hurt you to deeply?)

Or lost you, American mouth
Big pill stuck going down

(Or is it to late and are you so injured that you are the perfect prey for someone else--a vulture who is waiting in the wings to snap you up?)

Meaning of Flightless Bird applied in Twilight?

ahhh.. you teenagers need to live a little and think outside the box WITHOUT over doing it... lol

But it is a difficult song, so let me clear everyone's assumptions about the song. A'll decipher the song and then it'll be crystal clear.

Summary: A young boy and girl got in envolved in the past and shared a lifestyle together. Things fells apart and they drifted away. Years after (when they were older), they found one another he wondered if they could pick up where they left off in the beginning.

The breakdown is as follows:

I was a quick, wet boy
Diving too deep for coins
(a young boy envolved in making easy money illegally, trouble, the streets, breaking the law, drowning in crime)

All of your street light eyes
Wide on my plastic toys
(the adventurous girl he was with witnessing and possibly sharing his material things.. good clothes.. expensive cars... etc.)

Then when the cops closed the fair
I cut my long baby hair
(the law caught up to him and he was arrested putting a stop to this lifesyle. he was forced to grow up and leave his child mentality behind. in the song they used a metaphor because when prisoners do time, they usually shave their hair off)

And stole me a dog-eared map
And called for you everywhere
(another metaphore, he basically got out and looked for his long lost love from the past. he went back to where she was located, where they together, looking for her again)

Have I found you,
Flightless bird, jealous, weeping
(he found her, and standing before her explaining every thing to her.. he wonders if he's found the girl inside her that still wants to be with him.. is she thinking that we wanted to leave her? she's crying obviously)

Or lost you, American mouth
Big pill looming
(another metaphore.. am i too late american woman.. is there a remedy or medicine around for this pain?)

Now I’m a fat, house cat
Nursing my sore, blunt tongue
(now he's an older man, no longer in the streets, he's a homey soul.. aching from the story that he's telling her.. all the truth.)

Watching the warm, poisoned rats
Curl through the wide fence crack
(he looking around at the youth that he once lived in the past, seeing other make his same mistakes.. slipping, losing their minds like he once did too)

Pissing on magazine photos
Those fishing lures
(young boys trying to live the glamour and gain all the goods that movie stars have.. but doing it the wrong way.. magazines usually fill our eyes with vanity. we all want to be like movie stars)

Thrown in the cold and clean
Blood of Christ mountain stream
(put in jail like he was.. the cold and clean.. learning to pay for their mistakes and their sins)

Have I found you
Flightless bird, grounded, bleeding
Or lost you, American mouth
Big pill stuck going down
(but then he focuses again and comes back to the woman before him and continues asking her over and over again. have i found you flightless bird.. meaning am i on time to be with you - lonely, sad woman? apparently this woman never got to move on with her life either. or have i lost you, american mouth? meaning.. am i too late and have scared you off with my confessions american woman? )

So this is what the song means.. go back and listen. You will all get the story down. It doesnt mean that this song can only be used for people with criminal backgrounds. Not at all. Pretty much.. anyone that ever knew someone special in their past.. love someone.. or never got over losing someone.. Things didn't work out because we make mistakes, we're young and foolish. But somehow we come across with this person from our past, we all have the right to wonder if we can once again re-live that and try again. Hoping that what never was, could still be.

The song wasn't made for Twilight but somehow they applied it to Edward and Bella due to everything they went through and kept them from being together. After their differences and her nearly getting killed, Edward wondered if they still had a chance to continue their platonic relationship from the beginning of the story, or if nearly getting Bella killed should put a stop to everything.

Its interesting.

Good Day everybody.
Ciao.

i fking love this song soo much!!!