Quoth Andrew Boyd <aboyd@felix.vcu.edu>:

You'll Miss Me is about a murder. It's told from the victim's point of view. The thing is, the victim knew what was coming, and set it up so that the murderer is discovered.

Let's examine the lyrics:

You'll always miss my big old body
In its prime, and never shoddy

Healthy. Did not die from natural causes.

While bloodhounds wait down in the lobby
You'll eulogize my big old body

They're tracking you down and you're unaware becuase you're putting on a facade.

You'll miss me with effigies
lighting up your house like Xmas tree
As tears roll down below your knees
You'll miss me with effigies

You're putting on a big show of mourning

Go find a man to fit my shoes
Left one's old and the right one's new
And I bought the right one just for you
Go find a man to fit my shoes

This is the kicker. The clue is in the fact that he was wearing two different shoes. And the victim set it up that way "and I bought the right one just for you"

You'll see my teeth in the stars above
Every tree a finger of my glove
And every time push comes to shove
You'll see my teeth in the stars above

kind of gloating. I'm dead, but free, while you're confined. Every tree a finger of my glove, you're in the palm of my hand

Your money talks but my genius walks
Morticians wait with a shovel and a fork
As detectives trace my hands with chalk
Your money talks but my genius walks

Glaring evidence presented by "my genius" cannot be bought off. i.e. you bribed the morgue to ruin the autopsy, but the detectives caught it.

You'll miss me so
You will miss me

Ha ha. Got you.

It must be raining because a man ain't supposed to cry
But I look up, and I don't see a cloud

Now you're lamenting your mistake

Incidentally, the lyrics for "You'll Miss Me" were recorded through a Chandler Tube Driver, I think. Ironic in itself, as Raymond Chandler was the master of gritty film noire detective novels.

Quoth Jessica Gluckman <143071@ev.ef.maricopa.edu>:

Maybe I'm not deep enough, but I didn't see 'You'll Miss Me; as a murder song...

It sounds more to me like a man who is REALLY sore about his girlfriend giving him the boot...

You'll always miss my big old body
In its prime and never shoddy

She is going to regret ever having gotten rid of him, he was quite a specimen.

You'll miss me with effigies
lighting up your house like xmas trees
as tears roll down below your knees
you'll miss me with effigies

She'll try to get over her 'loss' by flaming her memory of him, i.e. burning him in effigy, but she'll be crying as she does so.

Go find a man to fill my shoes
Left one's old and the right one's new
And I bought the right one just for you

Basically telling her that she can try but she cannot replace him or what they had together (perhaps that new right shoe) with another man.

You'll see my teeth in the stars above...

She can throw him out, but she won't forget him, she won't ever get him out of her head.

Morticians wait with a shovel and a fork
Your money talks but my genius walks

I got the idea that he was living off of her money... and he considered himself to be some misunderstood genius, some man of great vision who needs just the right amount of money to get his butt moving. When she threw him out, she 'killed' what could be a great man.

You'll miss me so.
You will miss me

Just insisting upon it.

It must be raining because a man ain't supposed to cry
But I look up and I don't see a cloud

The reason he goes through all this is because of his own sadness. He is really the one going to do all the missing.

I thought the deep voice was effective in making the narrator sound more arrogant, obnoxious, and suggestively violent.

Quoth <DarfNol@aol.com>:

I have often laughed at the lyrics of "You'll Miss Me." However, after reading other interpretations of the song, it seems so obvious that it is a reference to Christ, though put forth in an interesting manner:

You'll always miss my big old body
In its prime and never shoddy,
While bloodhounds wait down in the lobby you'll eulogize my big old body

Christ knows that he is going to be killed, a "lamb without blemish." There are bloodhounds (Judas and those who want his blood) lurking at the gates of Gethsemane to take him away after he has taken on the sins of the world.

You'll miss me with effigies
Lighting up your house like Xmas trees
As tears roll down below your knees
You'll miss me with effigies

One has only to see a christian cemetary or group of Christians to see those effigies (ranging from crosses to pictures of Christ with the crowned heart surrounded by thorns), etc. In addition, how many tears are cried over his death? Christmas-Xmas is a form of an effigy.

Go find a man to fit my shoes
Left one's old and the right one's new
And I bought the right one just for you
Go find a man to fit my shoes

The shoes could represent the Law of Moses and Judaism (left shoe) and Christianity (right shoe--right hand of God; right side of God--rife with allusions), and the changing from the "old law" to the "new law." And his atonement in Gethsemane and on the cross could represent his "purchasing" the "right one just for you" i.e., Christianity is available for everyone--even on an individual basis ("Every nation, kin, tongue, and people"). He also said, "Come follow me." A sure invitation to "find a man to fill my shoes," and missionary work.

You'll see my teeth in the stars above
Every tree a finger of my glove
And every time push comes to shove
You'll see my teeth in the stars above

Contributing to the God is (in) nature concept, his "teeth" and "finger [in His] glove" are possible references. And even though the "bloodhounds" got him, when "push comes to shove" He is still to be found (existing in nature, etc).

Your money talks but my genius walks
Morticians wait with a shovel and a fork
As detectives trace my hands with chalk
Your money talks but my genius walks

30 pieces of silver was the price. There were those ready to bury Him, but "detectives" still chart his life and course; thus leaving Him a genius, because His death completed his immortalization.

You'll miss me so
You will miss me
It must be raining because a man ain't supposed to cry
But I look up and I don't see a cloud

Christ is missed, and still those of the House of Israel and many others await his "coming." They are "miss(ing) him." A personal responsibility and denial are shown in the "raining" and "a man ain't supposed to cry." But, when he looks up--the sky is clear...Christ is missed.

This is a literal Christian interpretation, yet I think that it is very close to being correct. Many of TMBG's songs have allusions to religion (Kiss Me, Son of God, She's an Angel, Dead (about reincarnation), et al,).