Quoth Michael Lebovitz <lebo@locke.ccil.org>:

It's about a guy who's in love with a copy shop clerk; that part's obvious. I'll leave the first verse alone as to not insult your intelligence.

The chorus is how the singer pictures the relationship progressing.

We could be sleeping in the flowers

This is a somewhat peaceful idea, rolling all those love images into one. Flowers, sleeping together. The singer would like to love this clerk.

...we could sleep all afternoon.
You declare that you're an island

In his head, she doesn't want anything to do with him. She says that she's an island, an unreachable thing.

I declare that I'm one too

He's saying something similar to "Hey, I can be moody, too!" in order to sway her. notice the repition of the word "declare;" he's doing the same thing she is.

Then we float into the harbor, with just peers and boats around

Floating is a common dream senerio; this fortifies the idea that this is all in his head as well as paralleling the "sleeping" image. The use of water reflects on the island idea. The lack of other people shows just how lonely these two islands are.

I declare that I am England

"Declare" again....

The singer is liking the idea of being alone with her so much that his island becomes England. England is a big island...

You declare that I have drowned

...and that's not the island that the clerk called herself. She dumps him because he, apparently, was fake in his statment of being alone.

The last verse I'm not so certain about. I think the singer goes off to a bar and laments to the bartender. The singer gets drunk and is ungreatful for the advice given.

Or maybe he hoped into the NyQuil Driver's car, got into an accident on an Interstate 91 overpass, and took a dirt bike home... all the while questioning himself as to why must he be sad? Why couldn't he have the extra savoir-faire that the bartender had? He wishes that he'd gotten to know the clerk before he fell in love.

MAYBE THE WHOLE ALBUM IS A STORY ABOUT THIS GUY BEING IN LOVE WITH THE CLERK, AND S.I.T.F. IS ONLY PART 1!!!! It might be like a Quentin Tarintino film and not go in order! hmmm....

Quoth Andy Friedman <noise@nando.net>:

Although I was fooled at first by the upbeat nature of this song, (man, I sound like a music teacher!) I think I understand it now. This guy loves this copy shop clerk, but, when he asks her on a date, she says something along the lines of "Maybe when I'm dead!". Sleeping in the flowers is often used to describe being killed. So, maybe, he's dreaming about being dead with her, buried in a garden or something.

Anyway, after he asks her out and gets rejected, the guy gets a ride home with, of course, a drunk guy. It's possible that he got the drunk guy to get into a car accident with her and kill the drunk guy, the girl and him. Someone needs to tell the boss he isn't going to be at work anymore (tell the boss I've been fired). When they crash and all die, they are really sleeping in the flowers and he is pondering the burial during the last verse. (We'll be sleeping in the flowers.)

Quoth Raoul the conqueror <mlokshin@students.uiuc.edu>:

The song seems to be a commentary on having a rich fantasy-life as a means of escape from a really shabby real-life existence. I don't think the John-incarnate ever does ask out the copy shop clerk; he's the outsider who can only come in and stare, lacking the confidence to actually do anything. So...he reverts to fantasy... the thought of "sleeping in the flowers" is an idyllic one, where rest coexists with beauty and imagination takes away mortal shortcomings. Here, anything is possible; the change to a more upbeat tempo during the chorus underscores this (sorry, I'd describe the musical aspect in greater detail, but me musically illiterate).

Returning to real-life, the hero once again must face life's unpleasentries, this time in the form of a drunk driver. "John's" willingness to get a ride home with him is a semi-suicidal act, again showing his dissatisfiction with living. Also, the "drunk guy" represents an alternative to fantasy as a means of escape--liquor (and, by extension, drugs) is the other option, one which the "John" deems unacceptable through his ungratefulness. So...he again turns to fantasy, where he can get rid of his capitalist opressor and relax...

Quoth Rob Palkowski <Yorx333@aol.com>:

The narrator, as it blatantly ovbious, has a crush on a copy shop clerk. Now, he (the narrator) just can't get the nerve to ask her out, or if he does, she rejects him, and he lapses into fantasy or dreaming (see below):

We could be sleeping in the flowers
We could sleep all afternoon

A reference to the stereotypical "picnic in a field", the classical love scene. Then we get back to "reality" for a second:

You'd proclaim that you're an island
I proclaim that I'm one too

This is the copy shop clerk saying that he can't get to [go out with] her, saying she's too isolated from others (an island, as it were). He does the same, in hopes of being able to say "see, we've got something in common".

Then we float into the harbor
With just piers and boats around

The "floating" implies again that this could all be a dream; floating or flying is a common dream experiance. And, in keeping with the island metaphor, there are piers and boars, no people; he and the clerk would still be "islands" from other people, as it were.

I declare that I am England

Getting back to the first two lines of the chorus, the narrator is once again "proclaiming" himself an island, England, an island near Ireland, another island thich he hopes she will identify with; to be an island close to him...

You declare that I have drowned

... and she just says "no".

I got a ride home with a drunk guy
How ungrateful I must have seemed

Perhaps AKA Driver is related? It seems he got smashed with a "drunk guy", perhaps a friend, or himself...

He showed me how to spin my head round and round
We'll be sleeping in the flowers
Tell the boss that I've been fired

... who seems to have crashed his car, killing the narrator. This time, "sleeping in the flowers" refers to being buried, sleeping, as it were, rather permenantly. "Tell the boss that I've been fired" indicates that the narrator cannot do so himself, supporting the death hypothesis.

Quoth Josh <josh@fyi.net>:

I dont know if anybody has noticed this, but there is a pretty clear connection between the songs Snowball in Hell and Sleeping in the Flowers. In Snowball in Hell there are the lines:

Side effect or drug trip
My panacea's in a Xerox shop

Have a nice day, you want it when?
Have a nice day, have a nice day

The line "my panacea's in a Xerox shop" leads the listener to believe that there is something in a Xerox shop which the singer of the song really cares about. The next two lines are something that a Xerox shop worker might say, asking the customer when he needs his copies done. Well...In Sleeping in the Flowers the lines are:

I got a crush; copy shop clerk
But she won't look up at me
Don't want to be known as the freak
who just comes around to catch her eye

This seems to be about the same person. I don't know if this person really exists. I don't know if everybody already knows about this connection. Just thought I would mention it :)

Quoth Baas <baas@interpac.net>:

At a free concert in Brooklyn, the song was introduced, "This is another song about getting high in the park."