Quoth Neil Freeman <u14635@uic.edu>:

Well i've always looked at W & M as this:

A boat full of people pulls up on a shore. they pour out. they start to stream into the jungle, that grows into a river, and then an ocean. This ocean carries more ships, which repeat rthe process, endlessly.

It's just a silly thing about how people sure do multiplty alot.

Quoth Matt Shapiro <shapir15@pilot.msu.edu>:

Musically, I think "Women and Men" is a swipe at Enya, because this song sounds remarkably like her song "Orinoco Flow". Maybe John and John were PO'd that her "Watermark" CD sold more than "Lincoln" did...go figure...I liked them better when they had the cult following anyway...seems like everyone I know knows the words to "Particle Man" now...

Quoth <bgreenst@miracosta.cc.ca.us>:

I think that it's pretty obvious that "Women and Men" is sort of about man's evolution.

Quoth <JATKINS77@aol.com>:

For a long time, I always viewed "Women and Men" as being about the evolution of man, as many others did, it seems. But one day I was listening to the song and I got a new, although similar impression of the song. Consider this - 'women' does not necessarily have to mean human, just females. In the same way, 'men' could just mean males. Now recall the lines "Women and men across the ocean, they now begin to pour, out from the boat and up the shore. Two by two they enter the jungle, and soon they number more, three by three as well as four by four." If we think back to the stories many of us learned as a child, Noah had two of every animal on his arc, one male and one female, and was told by God to use these animals to repopulate the world with love and kindness, hence "Bringing with them messages of love and everywhere they go, love will grow." I think if we examine the rest of the song under the impression that it is about this popular Bible story, we will see that it matches almost perfectly.

Giantisms:

• A cyclic song: The women & men become an ocean carrying women & men.