Notes

The Pantaloon: This of course has the theme of life, death and getting older losing part of yourself but it can be interpreted in many different ways with that one theme in mind. The first verse is when our character is very young and he finds out his grandpa is a pantaloon. Now a pantaloon means someone who is old and basically lost their mind from aging and as the dictionary describes it "a foolish or greedy old man" but how would a 9 year old know so much of what a pantaloon is and add together that his grandpa is a pantaloon? Well firstly, he had to be influenced by his older family members (parents, aunts, uncles, etc.) But he would have also had to see his grandpa before his passing and realize "what is wrong with him?" Because a pantaloon can link to dementia or Alzheimer's the grandfather can't be trusted because you have no idea if he is speaking the truth or having a flash back of some sort. Later in the first verse he has grown up and is around the age of 23-30 and his father is now the pantaloon. "You are tired, you are hurt, a moth ate through your favorite shirt, and all your friends fertilize the ground you walk, lose your mind." He probably had a special relationship with his father and to know that he will never be the same again hurts you emotionally and puts a lot of the added on stress. A moth ate through your favorite shirt part is just metaphorically showing more stress and anger within him because he has already had enough put on him, it could also mean because he is emotionally hurt he probably hasn't been able to get dressed on a normal basis and the moth part is saying how he hasn't moved in a while and his clothes are getting unused. To me the "all your friends fertilize the ground you walk" will have a different meaning throughout the song. Right now it means his suppose call friend's are throwing dirt, meaning they don't care about what is personally happening with him and aren't helping him get through the pain and sorrow so our character is losing his mind (not literally yet, just showing he has had enough stress). The second verse seems to me a third person's view showing the character's father side of the story. The changed view of a chair can mean that he is too old enough to glide across the surface like other people so his chair is like a tiny island in a sea of people who glide across the surface meaning 1, that he can't do things he likes to anymore, he isn't that accessible and able to move so his chair has been used more and more while other people around him are adventuring. 2, people mostly his family is surrounding him trying to take care of him and trying to understand what is going on since he can't express himself as well as before. The father is contemplating whether he is ready to go or not but either way no one would be able to help him, you also have to remember that the grandfather is most likely the father's dad and he knows from the other hand what it is like taking care of a pantaloon. We're back in our character's point of view saying how he is even more stressed now because his father has probably passed away and now he has to recover from it, this time I think the "all your friends fertilize" part is now his friends throwing flowers at him meaning before they didn't really care but now that the father has passed away the friend's are actually trying to help our character recover but what if they are giving him too much pity? Before they didn't care about our character's father but now that he has passed they do which could be a fake caring or our character hasn't gotten over the fact they didn't help him awhile ago, it could also mean the friend's are throwing too much pity at our character and he wants them to stop but they aren't and he is losing his mind (not literally yet). "You like to sleep alone, it's colder than you know, cause your skin is so used to colder bones, it's warmer in the morning than what it is at night, your bones are held together by your nightmares and your frights." This part is him at the age of 45-55 (little older than middle aged person) He is hurt and likes to sleep alone, it is colder then he knows, which to me I get the feeling that he wants to be alone/independent but learning that he isn't as strong as he thought he was to be perfectly by himself, he still needs help but his skin is used to colder bones meaning he is depressed and has seen the pantaloon more than once and experienced tragic death more than once and is just hurt. In the morning the sun is coming through and he doesn't have to suffer in darkness. Our character is depressed, he is reliving his insane (depressing, alone, unstable, etc.) moments (which are his nightmares) and is thinking of worse situations that could happen (frights). The last two parts of the song is just a repeated part of the hook/chorus. But this time the friends fertilize part represents his actual friend's dying and are representing that he is getting older along with his friend's and they are dying as he walks the ground. You tired, you are hurt can relate to him being even more tired now since he is older, his skin and bones are getting weaker and feeble (the way his father was) and can get physically hurt more easily now. A moth ate through his favorite shirt since he can't change his clothes on a daily basis now so his clothes in his closet are getting unused, like he was before but instead this is due to age and not something emotional happening. When he says lose your mind he literally means it this time. Wow! What a long interpretation, I think I put too much detail and it's probably not what Tyler had intended but that's what I got out of it.