Motion Picture Soundtrack

By Mutt Vanderpool

This song is about a relationship that won't work no matter how hard Thom and whoever he wrote it to try. It seems to be about a romantic relationship, that while extremely passionate, was also extremely volitile. The chemistry between the singer and the female being sung to must have been intense and explosive.

I know there are variations on the lyrics to this song, but they're all basically the same.

1ST VERSE
white wine and sleeping pills
help me get back to your arms
cheap sex and bad films
help me get back where I belong

All of these objects are used metaphorically to represent the feelings of meaninglessness with and without the beloved. Thom feels that he needs to return to the relationship (get back where I belong) but understands its dysfunction.

2ND VERSE
Stop sending letters,
Letters always get burned
It's not like the movies
They fed us on little white lies

This is an expression of the desire to leave the relationship. It is also a recognition of the fantasy/reality distinction that is the source of most of their problems. Thom views the relationship in terms of "fairy-tale romance" such as is found in movies, and the discrepencies between that idea and the real relationship leave him unsatisfied and disturbed.

3RD VERSE
Beautiful Angel
Torn apart at birth
Limbless and helpless
I can't even recognize you

This seems to signify some traumatic event that happened at the beginning of the relationship. Either that, or some sense that the relationship was doomed from the beginning. The second half of this verse exposes Thom's inability to even recognize what made him fall in love in the first place.

CHORUS
I think you're crazy, maybe
I will see you in the next life

This is a reference to the idea that she is not fitting into the mold which Thom expects her to. Thus, the idea that their relationship would be perfect makes her inable to make mistakes. When she inevitably does, Thom can't help but think she's crazy. Perhaps it also reflects Thom questioning his own sanity. Seeing her in the next life seems to be a line of resignment. It's not working this time around, but he feels they were meant to be together. Maybe in the next life.

By Steve Goodman

i believe this song is sung to one's recently deceased lover. if white wine and sleeping pills are taken together, they can kill someone. he wishes to get back in her arms, where he belongs, by joining her in the after life (i will see you in the next life).
By Rob

The person who this song is about seems to be very sad, and has cut off communication with the people who care about him/her.

"White wine and sleeping pills
Help me get back to your arms
Cheap sex and sad films
Help me get back where I belong"

The person is filling this void in his/her life with things like to cheap sex and sad films, and even contemplating suicide (white wine+sleeping pills is unhealthy, as steve goodman pointed out.)

"Stop sending letters
Letters always get burned
It's not like the movies
They fed us on little white lies"

The letters represent attempts that people who care about this person have made to make things better. But this person feels that the situation is not fixable and/or is too sad to accept help. The person is explaining to these people that things won't necessarily turn out great, like in the movies. That is something depressed people are likely to do, move far away from everything, even people who care.

"Beautiful angel
Pulled apart at birth
Limbless and helpless
I can't even recognize you"

The person could be talking to his/herself for some of the song, such as the above verse, as well as the

"I think you're crazy, maybe" parts.

The above verse could be other people talking to this person, perhaps what is written in the letters.

"I will see you in the next life"

This is indicative of completely surrendering to suicide or something similar, or it is a hint that the person is going to try to create a new life and become another person, perhaps a better person, or he/she has finalised his/her decision to have no more communication with anyone in his/her other life. I think this is a very beautiful song regardless of its true meaning, whatever it is.
By Doug Meyer

my interpretation of this song is mostly the same as Mutt's, except that in the first verse I took "back in your arms" and "where I belong" to to be opposite places, rather than one and the same. Also, I interptreted the third verse more to be about a disenchantment about the songs subject. At first he perceived them to be an angel (innocent and good), but he now realizes this is not and has never been true (since birth), and his opinion, his image of her(?) is essentialy dismembered. he then suggest "maybe in the next life", perhaps just an idle suggestion, or perhaps hope of what would/could happen if things were jsut a little diffrent, as they might be in "the next life".
By Mark M

it seems simple enough. and it is. thom looks throug hdecadence and fame and money and sees a dying girl...she's beautiful..she's tragic...television and the movies have lied to her and destroyed her...just like they do to others..letters get burned...fed on white lies...she's ending it for herself..and all thom can do is sing her to sleep..and wait to see her a little later on.