Toad the Wet Sprocket: Walk On The Ocean Meaning
Song Released: 1992
Walk On The Ocean Lyrics
Where are we going, so far away
And somebody told me that this is the place
Where everything’s better, everything’s safe
Walk on the ocean
Step on the stones
Flesh becomes water
Wood becomes...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:It may have been written about something different, but for me it's about the transience of life. The song is just too damn good and sad to be all about just some people you met while on vacation. Like Beckett wrote, "we give birth astride a grave, the light gleams an instant, and it's night once more". Christ, that's sad.
Sad, but sweet, too. "Where are we goin'/ is so far away", at least we're not walking alone. We're all chasing something, lookin' for that place "where everything's better...". Whether that's money, sex, material posessions, etc., we sacrifice parts of ourselves along the way. All the while cursed with the knowledge that one day we, too, will be left behind to die. -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:It's about a vacation. They go away and meet these people from their vacation spot. They become good friends for the time they're visiting. Then when they leave their new friends and head back home, they "had already forgotten [they'd] came." And then back home where the air is dirty and the people aren't friendly, they notice that they had no rememberances of their trip except their memories of it. It's kind of a sad song.
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I always saw this as about the Mormons traveling to Utah. Finding the Great Salt Lake.
Other metaphors are throughout the song but Joseph Smith saying ‘This is the Place’ is significant. -
Toad the Wet Sprocket was originally a Christian worship band. Many of their songs have spiritual and biblical meanings. Walking on the water is what Jesus did at the Sea of Galilee, (this lyric is literal) he sent his disciples out ahead of him, they rowed for about 3.5 miles before the see Jesus walking up to their boat. Peter left the boat and walked to Jesus, but the winds were very strong and he became scared and started sinking (flesh becomes water). It's much more literal than people want to accept.
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To me it’s about where good intentions meet with reality! Like the lyrics say ‘we promise to write, but we knew we were lying,but we smiled just the same’! As much as we wish to do the right thing , we are powerless to live up to our desire to do the greater good on our own! It’s a spiritual battle! We need God’s help to win that war
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I think it is about addiction and/or drug use. The song is about tracking through a needle and syringe, from the needle tip and down the trail to the syringe and across the ocean and back up the trail to the needle tip and homestead where it all began and was like wtf.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I do not know why but I relate it to when grand parents become some what put on the back burner because they are slipping mentally. You know it is the end your grown up and you know it might be the last time you see them. You promise to write but you can not find the time or words and guilt eats away at you. You always felt safe at the grandparents house and when younger the end of your trip was there place. You get home and choke up because this might be that last time you see them.
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This song is about the first half of life spent, and reflected back upon.
At first they're just along for the ride, with loving parents to watch over them while they grow and play at the beach.
Half an hour later, they are grown and leaving their home. Their parents move on.
Then our hero moves on down the path of life stepping on the stepping stones, working hard or sweating flesh becomes water, time passes by the wood becoming petrified wood or bone.
Back at the homestead, life stresses find our hero reflecting on his up bringing without photos, just his memories. -
All of your interpretations are good.
I think i agree with buttface. -
Sure this is about a seaside gamble, The beautifully poetic portion:"flesh becomes water, wood becomes bone." lovely metaphor for becoming one with nature and each other.
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I think it's about our aspirations as a human race, that we can be so hopeful & willing to work towards a world full of balance, peace, and love. "Flesh becomes water, wood becomes bone," to me means that we see that we are one with universe/nature. The song makes us long for this place where "everything's better, everything's safe" then takes us back to the realities of our lives. It forces us to ask ourselves why would we continue to choose keep the ideal only as "memories to hold" - why not go back?
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It's about a secret gay relationship between Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Jesse Jackson; they meet in a bath house at the end of the road, they sport a woody and take photos but never have them printed out to share with each other, I am not sure but I think they both feel shame and drown themselves in a wading pool at the end.
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I always took this song to be about the fleeting nature of friendships, especially those friendships which are developed due to circumstances and timeframe (vacations, for example). Maybe great people, but you know it's fleeting. In the end you go back to your ordinary life - perhaps a horrible job or school. When this song came out, I was in a horrible, snotty school and it resonated with me that the only way I was going to find friends was outside of that suffocating environment.
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I have always been a fan of the heavier side of music, but this one has a spot on my "guilty pleasures" list. Actually,the whole album is wonderful,its called Fear. As for the song, for some reason I always interpreted it as being about a "liason" between two strangers that occurred on a day trip. I guess Im wrong,as everyones vacation theme seems far more fitting. The line that fueled my theory was the one about forgetting they were there. No matter what the true inspiration for this very soothing song, I will always picture two lovers walking back from a secret encounter at the beach, and finding they were about to be left behind, because their friends had forgotten they had came with them.Seriously though, check out the whole album, it's a nice break from the ordinary. A better question is how the heck did they come up with the name Toad the Wet Sprocket? Or maybe I'm just the only one that doesn't know!
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