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The TMBG FAQ

Jeremy Bronheim

Jonathan Chaffer

Dave Hendrix

Julia

Kay

Bruce A. Rosenzweig

Ryan Staib

Patrick A, Reid

First, here's a rundown of the palindromes in the song. The most apparent is probably the bridge of the song, which is palidromic if you consider it word-by-word rather than letter-by-letter: "'Son, I am able,' she said, 'though you scare me.' 'Watch,' said I. 'Beloved,' I said, 'Watch me scare you.' 'Though,' said she, 'able am I, Son.'" There are two others, which are regular palindromes. Both are in backup lyrics. The first is the "man o nam" nonsense chorus that occurs often. The second is well-known: "Egad, a base tone denotes a bad age." Of course, there are also some trivial ones, like "dad," "mom," and "I." The title is also palindromic by word.

It will prove worthwhile to go through some of the imagery in the song before the interpretation proper begins. We get a little humor early in the song from the "you son of a bitch" line. The mother says this to her son. Ponder ramifications. Ah, now you get it. One perplexing image is the "snake head eating the head on the opposite side." It is possible that They are thinking of the Ouroboros here, though that is a snake eating its own tail (not quite the head on the opposite side, but close). That idea helps out some of the possible interps below, because this mythological creature symbolizes the cyclic structure of nature (life, death, and rebirth). Taking the words of the song more at face value, though, the snake sung about must have a head at each end. Visually, this is a palindrome. This section of the lyrics also reminds some of what a snake looks like when shedding its skin.

Now for the interp itself. One certainly valid view is that the song is simply a collection of palindromes, nothing more. Most of the visual images not covered above could be said to be "palindromes" because they end where they begin (the hands of a clock, arms of a windmill, &c.). Most other people focus on the abundant family imagery in the somg for their interp. A lot of the song deals with things that could symbolize the cycle of life (see the Ouroboros, above). Hence the "palindromic" relationships of mother and son, child and grandfather, and so forth are the meat of the song. So one could say the song is filled with "conceptual palindromes," centering on those exhibited by successive generations of a family.

This is a song about a family, or at least a mother and a son, who very seriously hate each other's guts. I shall translate the song step by step: "SOMEDAY MOTHER WILL DIE AND I'LL GET THE MONEY"-The narrator doesn't give a damn about his mother. He's just looking forward to the day she dies so that he can get his inheritance. "MOM LEANS DOWN AND SAYS 'MY SENTIMENTS EXACTLY, YOU SON OF A BITCH"-The mother feels the same way. She doesn't care about her son. She wouldn't mind if he died because she would collect the insurance. "SEE THAT BULLETPROOF DRESS HANGING FROM THE CLOTHES LINE"-Let's presume the dress belongs to his mother. Seeing as how it's on the clothesline, she's wasn't wearing it when she got shot. This could be a metaphor for any kind of terminal disease or near-fatal accident the mother has been involved in. So: she's in hospital. Maybe comatose.-"SEE THE MEDICAL CHART WITH THE RANDOM ZIGZAG, NOW I'LL HELP IT DECIDE" Her heartbeat readout appears to be random. It's all over the place: maybe she's going to live, maybe she's going to die. But the narrator can help it decide: if he just pulls the plug out of the wall, she'll die, no questions asked. Which is, of course, what he wants. "SON I AM ABLE (etc) ..."-This section is basically the mother telling her son that she fears him: she's very afraid that he's just going to kill her one day. But she also informs him that she's capable of looking after herself. The son responds to this by threatening her. The last verse I'm not sure about. I think it is, as some interps say, just a description of some real-life palindromes, basically describing the rounda-bout patterns of birth, life and death. As for people who say that the palindrome "MAN O NAM" is nonsense, you're WRONG!! I think it is short for "Man of Vietnam". Perhaps this family's father was in the Vietnam war: maybe it permanently disturbed him. Maybe he was killed and the family fell apart as a result. Any way you look at it, it's a pretty disturbing song.