[dar-list] The Ocean

[janicefitz at aol.com]

I too, have always loved this song, and always struggled with its meaning.  And I've always wanted to get some feedback from this list.  I haven't yet completely sorted it out in my mind, but my interpretation is more literal than Sander's.  (I never did well with symbolism in high school.)
 
I see this song as a story about the evolution of a relationship.  The three voices are the narrator, the ocean, and the lover.  The town is representative of their relationship, and the ocean is the ugly dark side (of the town and thereby of their relationship) that she is blind to in the early relationship when everything is so thrilling and full of wonder.
 
"When I went to your town on the wide open shore,
Oh I must confess, I was drawn, I was drawn to the ocean,
I thought it spoke to me, it said, look at us,
Were not churches, not schools, not skating ponds, swimming pools,
And we have lost people, haven't we though?"

The first verse is about entering a new relationship, with the town representing the relationship.  She was initially drawn to the novelty of the town and the beauty of the ocean.   The ocean demanded her attention because there was nothing familiar or ordinary about it - but it had enough danger to make her wary.  So she comes back to town (him), which remains new and wonderful yet still secure.  She thinks she can enjoy the wonder of the ocean and decouple the danger from the whole.
 
"This town is a song about you"  How much more straightforward can that be? 
 
"You don't know how lucky you are, you don't know how much I adore you, 
You are the welcoming back from the ocean. "
 
You don't know how lucky you are (to have this wonderful life in this wonderful exciting town),  you don't know how much I adore you (and the life you are lucky enough to lead), you are a welcoming back from the ocean (all the beauty of the new relationship without the danger.)  Isn't new love grand?
 
In the second verse she goes back to the ocean, because the wonder is still more powerful than the danger.  But as she becomes more familiar with it the ocean shows its true self, becoming angry and threatening, and it's aggression overcomes its beauty - in her initial wonder she'd overlooked the strength and power and anger and had only seen its novelty.
 
But then she reassures herself, saying the ocean can't come to this town - on the edges of the relationship there may be some struggles, but the core of it is still solid.  She still sees the town and the ocean as seperate entities.
 
"And the ones that can know you so well are the ones that can swallow you whole. 
I have a good and I have an evil, I thought the ocean, the ocean thought nothing, 
You are the welcoming back from the ocean."
 
When you're in an unhealthy relationship (like hers to the ocean), once you show your vulnerability the other partner can "swallow you whole".  Every thing/body has good and evil, but while she thought the ocean (was everything she ever wanted) the ocean thought nothing (she meant nothing to the ocean.)  Baaaddd relationship.  But she's still in the stage where she believes he will welcome her back from the ocean.  That their relationship is strong enough to tolerate the difficulties of living with the ocean, and that the ocean can't penetrate the security of the town (and the couple).  But we'll come back to this later.  Unfortunately she's wrong, and the difficulties she's blowing off now are real and will crush the relationship in the end.
 
Verse three - she wants to show him that she understands that things aren't perfect, but that she loves the true him, not just her initial ideal.  And she asks him to see how grounded she is and that she has now made the distinction between her initial fantasy of perfection and the reality.  The town (and her relationship with him) is what she's interested in, not the ocean.
 
"I wanted to show you that I was more land than water"
"Look at me, look at them, with their salt up the stem"
 
But the town can't be separated from the ocean, and he dismisses her, pointing out that she still doesn't know who he really is.  She's still blind to the town and its faults (him and his faults).
 
"Let me tell you the song of this town, 
You said, "Everything closes at five. After that, well, you just got the bars"
 
Then the ugly dangerous side of him surfaces (as it had in the ocean) and he frustratingly tries to make the point that he is not sweetness and light, but that living with the ocean is a part of who he is and the two can't be separated.
 
"You don't know how precious you are, walking around with your little shoes dangling, 
I am the one who lives with the ocean"
 
You are "precious" in your naivete.  This town is not perfect- it's difficult.  And you don't become magically protected from the ocean when you step on dry land - it is part of the town and integral to his life - the difficulty and ugliness are all a part of who he is.
 
Then there's the unignorable statement about wanting to wade in in his workboots and finish the job.  He's the one who is depressed, and unhappy in his life, and sometimes he feels like surrendering to the difficulties and giving himself up to the ocean.  And she as an outsider could never truly understand.
 
"You don't know how precious you are, I am the one who lives with the ocean. 
You don't know how I am the one. You don't know how I am the one."

So that's the way I see it.  Sorry to ramble, it's hard to shorten.  I'd love to hear what you all think.
 
>From: jeffebner at comcast.net
>Reply-To: Dar Williams Discussion List <dar-list at folkserv.net>
>To: dar-list at folkserv.net
>Subject: [dar-list] The Ocean
>Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 17:51:05 +0000
>
>I love the song "The Ocean" and have heard Dar introduce it several 
>different ways.  Many of the lyrics speak to me, but I was interested if 
>anyone knew Dar's story behind the song.  Once she said, "this song has a 
>you, and I, and a them"  or something close to it.
>
>I am very curious about the story behind "The Ocean"  Can anyone help?