Story Behind the Song
The music to Four Dimensions was written in 1993 while I was in college. My roommate, and dear friend Kevin Leary was teaching himself to play the guitar, and he would come up with the most beautiful chord progressions. I was truly amazed at how quickly he became comfortable playing- and how creative his ideas were. He came up with the main chord progression of the verse. We loved it and we would play it over and over again. I later added the chorus section, and played it as an instrumental for about two years.
The lyrics came in two parts.
The verses just kind of happened. The weird thing is that what the lyrics describe is the process by which they were born:
I was lying in bed, and I suddenly felt the need to jump up and start writing. And out the words came. And I started thinking what a strange and mysterious force was at work here- something inexplicable.
Then I began to think about the act of writing songs, and how tedious it can be when you are trying to write because you have to, and how much better it is when it just comes out naturally, as it was doing at that moment.
I later wrote the "Hooray" part the day I took my last exam for college. It expressed the freedom I felt after having finished all of my work. What I realized later was that I could apply that idea to the verses I had written earlier- essentially saying, "I can't wait until the day when I don't have to write songs, but can simply enjoy playing them."
The title comes from the line: "Like seeing four dimensions, it always makes me say that it just one more crazy, foggy, hazy, messed up thing I can't explain today..." The fourth dimension is Time, and seeing Time is something inexplicable, like the process I was going through.
Lyrics
There's something flowing through my veins,
the nature of which I cannot explain.
Its like an old ghost lost in the rain
trying to wash off his eternal pain.
Its like a thousand angels falling to the ground,
their mouths are open, but they hardly make a sound.
And its flowing gently, yet violently around.
It takes a second to be hidden, but a lifetime to be found.
Its just one more crazy,
foggy, hazy,
messed-up thing I can't explain today.
But maybe someday I will reach that final line and then I'll say,
"Hooray! Hooray!
The murky tide has given way.
Hooray! Hooray!
My work is done and now it's time to play."
I feel it circle around my head.
It's looking hungry and its looking to be fed.
It's sometimes like a yellow clock at midnight turning red
and reaching out its pointed hands to grab me from my bed.
And 'though it sometimes frightens me, I let it have it's way.
It comes when uninvited, but I always let it stay.
And its just one of many ways to pass the day.
Like seeing four dimensions, it always makes me say,
That its just one more crazy,
foggy, hazy,
messed-up thing I can't explain today.
But maybe someday I will reach that final line and then I'll say,
"Hooray! Hooray!
The murky tide has given way.
Hooray! Hooray!
My work is done and now it's time to play."
Take a rose and rip off the petals,
and all you've got is an ugly green stem.
Pick a side or stay in the middle,
either way you'll get to the end
Take a shower in the rain of a brain-cloud,
water soaking your thoughts to the core.
Take a walk in the fields that you just plowed.
Who said life would be such a chore?
One more crazy,
foggy, hazy,
messed-up thing I can't explain today.
But maybe someday I will reach that final line and then I'll say,
"Hooray! Hooray!
The murky tide has given way.
Hooray! Hooray!
My work is done and now it's time to play.
I finally know what I've been trying to say.
There's nothing standing in my way."
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