In this song, we start with a pensive guitar and bass bit, then the accordion comes in. Halfway through the first verse we get distorted right guitar entering with snare clicks. There’s a strong guitar transition into the chorus, which is a great heavy part featuring a lovely recurring bass dive. The intro repeats and goes into the second verse with the full band this time. There’s a nice little syncopated drum fill at “syncopation”. After the second chorus, there’s an instrumental bridge leading into the last vocal section, which is similar to what I’ve been calling the choruses, except with starts and stops accented with a bunch of flourishes, noises, feedback, and stuff. There’s a drum fill marking the transition to the outro that pauses for the right guitar in a really cool way. The track ends on a dissonant, screechy groove with a cello or something, and did I hear a sheep bleating somewhere in there?

The bird that plucked the olive leaf   
Has been circling like a record ’round the spindle of my mind   
Where the needle’s worn the grooves too deep   
And scratched the wax that’s blistered from the heat besides   
From any movement in the room-   
If my cat walked by the arm skipped!   
But to my surprise, my interrupting cat improved   
A sound already so severely compromised

The needle’s worn the grooves too deep   
The needle’s worn the grooves too deep   
The needle’s worn the grooves too deep   
The needle’s worn the grooves too deep

He’s endlessly ruminating on the dove Noah sent in Genesis after the flood that returned with the olive leaf, which signified that it had found land. This suggests that he hopes there will soon be peace after a hardship. His cat interrupted his train of thought but it took his train of thought to a new and better place.

I’m not sure it’s worth reading too much into, but his love interest has metaphorically been a mouse in the last two songs and cats kill mice.

——————-

I’m a donkey’s jaw on a desert dune   
Beside the bush that Moses saw   
That burned and yet was not consumed   
She’s the silver coin I lost   
I’m the sheep who slipped away   
We pray with fingers crossed   
But you listen patiently anyway

He sees himself as an implement that could be used for God’s will (“donkey’s jaw on a desert dune” – Samson used a jawbone of a donkey to kill his enemies, “beside the [burning] bush” – God). 

“I’m the sheep who slipped away” refers to the parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7), which is immediately followed by the lost coin parable (Luke 15:8-10). Both of these parables are about losing faith and repenting. So he sees himself as one who needs to repent. He also lost contact with either a woman or the divine feminine depending on how you interpret it (“She’s the silver coin I lost”). 

He recognizes his efforts to pray are not honest but God listens patiently anyway.

——————-

I wrote a little song for you   
With a melody I’d borrowed put to words that didn’t rhyme   
To repeat what you already knew   
As the stones thrown at your window tapped in syncopation   
You kept a distance out of fear you’d break   
But what good’s a single windchime, hanging quiet all alone?   
The music our collisions would make   
Is a sound that turns the road-that-leads-us-back-home   
Into Home

The music our collisions make!   
The music our collisions make!   
The music our collisions make!   
The music our collisions make!

This verse is directed toward the divine feminine. He tries to get her attention with efforts he realizes are not all that impressive. He wants her to join him, saying we’re wind chimes, we’re no good alone. Come with me, we’ll make beautiful music when we collide. But she is afraid and stays away. 

Also, there’s a Rumi reference in there of “turns the road that leads us back home, into home.” I’ve also seen the idea that the path is synonymous with attainment (enlightenment/salvation) expressed in Eastern traditions.

——————-

I had a rusty spade but I’m not the fightin’ sort   
If I was Samson I’d have found that harlot’s blade   
And cut my own hair short!   
Then in a market dimly lit I come casually to pay   
You see my coins are counterfeit   
But you accept them anyway

His efforts failed but he didn’t put up much of a fight (had a rusty spade but “not the fighting sort”; as Samson, took his own strength instead of having it taken from him). 

He goes to pay back the silver coin he lost. He doesn’t have it, so he presents a counterfeit. God sees this and accepts it anyway.

——————-

*So spare me your goodbyes   
Your waving-handkerchief-good-byes   
Given my tendency to err so on the sentimental side   
I’ll spare you my goodbyes   
The truth belongs to G-d   
The mistakes were mine*

A less than joyful goodbye, but left with the lovely line “the truth belongs to G-d, the mistakes were mine.” If I steered you wrong at any point, blame me, don’t blame God. This is a line paraphrasing Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, a Sufi mystic. Bawa founded the Bawa Muhaiyaddeen Fellowship in Philadelphia. Aaron has stated that he was introduced to Bawa’s teachings by his parents. Bawa’s teachings inspired the title and a lot of the content of It’s All Crazy! It’s All False! It’s All a Dream! It’s Alright.