Comments: 11

• Ben from Upstate. Nyi always thought this song was an expression of belief in evolutionary theory, and in particular how it may lead one to believe in a type of fatalism based on uncontrollable nature. the writer is comparing his thought life to how he imagines a fish would think, based on the stereotype of fishes always being drawn together down stream. the weird fishes are species that are "higher" than the fish, but the fish doesn't know that it's not a "fish", and just views it as a weird one. even though he has the space of mind to see what inevitably happens to a fish, he still doesn't have the power to act on it due to his nature still being locked inside a fish........
  
  i view it kind of as a thom yorke's progression from "optimistic" (big fish eat the little ones) where he believes that nature itself is a doom fatalism, due to evolutionary theory determining an organism's path/ fate....and when the futility of this worldview is explained by fishes being eaten by the world/ weird fishes, he has an unavoidable problem dealing with the helplessness of not having control of how the world has become what it is....
  
  he believes he has a way of escape ("hit the bottom and escape") but knows he is still vulnerable with reason to fear because the weird fishes/ world wanting to eat him still exist.....he just escaped it once and will inevitably have to deal with it again...
• Max from Pensacola Florida For me, Weird Fishes is a song about unobtainable love. As hard as the singer tries to be with his love he knows, deep down, that it will never happen no matter how hard he tries and before he falls he gets out. He escapes the trap.
• Fastboxster from LaI like the thoughts contributed here. I think it is about love. Love that he knows he can't have, but is drawn to nonetheless. Weird fishes allude to the behaviors of humans who are swayed by impossible chances at love.
• Jalapeno from CaThis song to me is a love song. It’s about how losing yourself in someone else makes you more than what you were before. You leave the safe harbor of self-interest and create something greater. The “eaten by the worms and weird fishes” is meaning what you create with the love goes on beyond you. It’s an allusion to when a whale dies, it still provides life for a host of creatures after its demise. So, after escaping your selfish interests due to love, your life is able to sustain others both by example and in reality.
• Lida from SeattleI have always thought this song is about dying, moving on to the next level of existence.
• Brad from Kansas City, KsI feel strong infatuation/love in this song also
• Brad from Kansas City, KsWe are nothing more than weird fishes that have evolved.....
• Dav from Woburn, MaI always thought this was about leaving someone you love even though you've been with them for a while (as cited above "I'd be crazy not to follow... why should I stay?" The narrator has lost the love he once had.
• Myona from Bh, CaFor me, it's someone who has lost a loved one, has gone crazed with grief, and wants to follow them. (The edge of the earth and "you turn me" part.)
• Clint from Nashville, Tn"your eyes they turn me, turn me into phantoms", this line refers to the object of affection luring him away from the normal way of living and after seeing the eyes he is changed. The worms and weird fish represent those normal people who pick over and dissect his way of life. But after receiving the knowledge from the bottom of the sea where the eyes they draw him away, they give him a means of escape. Hitting the bottom is the point when you've been ridiculed and refuse to take it anymore, the charter has stoped takeing things personal and escapes....
• Nelson from P-goula, MsI think there is a certain beauty to the abstract structure. Are weird fishes perhaps christians, being bated or simply "towed my worms"? And rather than getting towed, the narrator will, "hit the bottom and escape." Perhaps, an escape from the higher virtue. And perhaps this, "hitting the bottom" is induced by drugs.
  
  While this is one interpretation, I could easily see the lyrics as being lured by the beauty of another's eyes. The deepest ocean could be a depression that the narrator is unwilling to be towed from by the worm, the bait. And thus, the narrator hits the bottom.
  
  Regardless of subject, I think the song depicts the idea of an unwillingness to be pulled upon by another force, to follow, perpetuated by the desire to escape.
  
  Does anybody have any other thoughts or comments?
  
  

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