Barenaked Ladies: Same Thing Meaning

Same Thing Lyrics

What does it mean to wake out of a dream
And be wearing some else's shorts?
I've been around the block, at least on my bike
I was prepared for the news but not for a full scale war
I found me an answer, in a grocery store
I found me an...

1. anonymous

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   Oct 31st 2020 !⃝

   It's about divorce from the point of view of a child.
   
   "I was prepared for the news but not for
   The Third World War" --he was mature for his age and ready for the news of the divorce, but not the fighting and court battles around it.
   
   The charlie brown references: charlie brown was always sad and depressed and unlucky, as the narrator of the song was as a kid. "Didn't I see you on TV?"-- he was so melancholy, a guy at the store actually mistook him for charlie brown.
   
   Fantastic four: engaging in escapism through comic books to try to get away from his miserable childhood.
   
   In the live version, they added two more verses that make it come full circle:
   
   "I'm in a jewelery store
   Lookin' at a wedding ring the size of three or
   four paychecks and in walks the girl next door
   I say "I do!", It's funny how fast things change"
   
   He gets married. After this he says "These things all end" indicating his marriage has ended.
   
   "Now I'm in a general store
   Lookin' at a photograph of a smiling eight year old
   He's got a fist the size of his younger brother now,
   Tugging on his shirt saying 'Let's go home!'"
   
   The eight year old is his son, the fact that he has to pick up the photos from the general store (back before digital cameras when you had to develop film), and he comments on how big the brother is getting, indicate to me that he lost custody of the children in the divorce and don't see them. His son is in the same position he was in at the start of the song, just wanting to go home-- to go back to normal pre-divorce.
   
   "still seem to be getting Struck by lightning... must be Something in my veins" --lightning (divorce) has struck him multiple times in his life
   
   Another important key is the: "Must've been the same thing Mom and Dad went through" marriage and divorce just like his parents.
   

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