PlanetGrove.US05/15/2007
The lyrics are a mix of social comment and reflection, and nostalgic descriptions of younger life and the process of maturing. “Paper in Fire” is a cautionary tale concerned with the cost of chasing our dreams. “Down and Out in Paradise” chronicles a series of stories of economic and social hardship as if told to the President. “Check It Out” is a commentary on day to day existence that fosters the hope that future generations will understand better how to live. “The Real Life” continues the these of concern about the way lives are lived, and includes two vignettes of the lives of “Suzanne” and “Jackcon Jackson”. “Cherry Bomb” is a nostalgic but fundamentally happy review of the narrators life - “we were young and we were improving”. “We Are the People” lists categories of people - the homeless, the oppressed, people in pain - against the refrain “May my thoughts be with you”. Unemployment and its effect on the narrator and his wife Maryanne, is the subject of “Empty Hand”. “Hard Times for an Honest Man” continues the existential theme, noting, against a backdrop of two more cautionary tales, that “the rent we pay to stay here gets high”.
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