I don't think that's the case at all. I think each verse follows fairly consistently with the song's overarching idea, to be honest. Then again, it's open to interpretation. If you didn't get anything from it, then there's nothing to be done about it.

However, I do find his use of metaphor and imagery to be generally consistent per-song.

Album Rating: 3.5

"I just hate everything about this man's voice and the overbearing corny cornholes he shunts it into."

with johnny on this one

love his new stuff tho

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ok, fair enough. so in king of spain, what does this verse mean, and what does it have to do with the central theme of the song?



And I will settle in Pamplona

And I'll provoke the bulls with words

And then I'll send a man to meet them all

The blood is fake, so I have heard

So, my interpretation if 'King of Spain' is about who he is as an artist and the perceptions put on him from the listener; his overall authenticity and/or who he can fashion himself into if he can be anyone. It's probably most evident in the line where he speaks on the comparisons that come with being compared to Bob Dylan, but as the chorus suggests, if he's going to be perceived as anything, let him be the 'King of Spain'.

"Well if you could reinvent my name
Well if you could redirect my day
I wanna be the King of Spain"

Going back to the verse you shared,

it's an extension of this identity tying to Spain where he'll be this bull runner in Pamplona. Though, he's not going to face the bulls himself, he'll send someone else (not like it matters, because the blood is fake, right?). So basically again, going to this idea about authenticity and reinvention. If he's going to be interpreted as anything, then why not a bull runner in Spain but he powders a shade of doubt on the image when he mentions that the blood may be fake.

Similarly does this in a previous verse:

"And all the senoritas sighing
Will be the fountain of my lies
But while we're floating in siestas
You search for bottles and for knives"

Which is connected to this overarching idea of letting him reinvent himself but others insisting he's something or someone else.

"Why are you stamping my illusion?
Just cause I stole some eagle's wings (This is Bob Dylan)
Because you named me as your lover
Well, I thought I could be anything"

Album Rating: 4.5

tbh i think king of spain is supposed to be kinda silly. i wouldn't assign a profound meaning to it

I mean yeah, it is basically a tongue in cheek response to the comparisons he got about being like Bon Dylan or singing with an American accent.

It's not meant to be particularly profound. It's just him saying he'll be whoever he wants to be. A lot of those earlier songs were just him playing characters. It wasn't really until Dark Bird is Home that I got a sense he was being autobiographical what with the ending of his marriage.

Album Rating: 4.5

Oh yeah i do like your interpretation of it btw



a few songs from his 3rd album already feel more personal but yeah basically. love the first two albums but the lyrics aren't really a meaningful reason for that for me

I think they're fantastic but I just don't get a sense they're necessarily about him exactly. I mean, there's not much to relate the person in 'Wild Hunt' to the person in 'Burden of Tomorrow' but they're still wonderful imagery and relatable.

Whereas with Dark Bird is Home, it's very notably about how his life as a touring musician isolated his wife and found them growing apart. Not an uncommon thing among couples in music and film.

Album Rating: 5.0

"I think he is a good wordsmith and crafts some seriously great imagery. It's open enough to interpretation too, so I can project my own meaning onto the words."



Yeah, definitely agree with that. He's one of my favorite lyricists for those reasons, most often can't say exactly what a particular song is about but they always have emotional power and lots of poetic turns of phrase.

Album Rating: 4.5

agreed as well. i do like the lyrics here, but never personally connected with any of them. Don't think i need to anyway, they perfectly serve the imagary and songwriting

He does have a core idea with each of these songs, though. For example, with King of Spain, the references are too exact and recurring in theme to be a throwaway accident.

There is obviously an intention to each idea of the song, even if his metaphors can be obtuse, I believe he has a point.

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ok so it's about dylan comparisons, but opens with:



I never knew I was a lover

Just cause I steal the things you hide

Just cause I focus while we're dancing

Just cause I offered you a ride



Doesn't really add up for me.

As I mentioned, it's not really just about Dylan but being interpreted as being something by others.

"I never knew I was a lover" is exactly that. Other people are telling him he's a lover (maybe because he writes love songs), so they assume that this is who he really is. News to him. Really, he's just fashioning himself into character.

He's also, believe it or not, a bull fighter but he fancies he could be so long as he doesn't have to get his hands dirty.

'Steal the things you hide' could be because his lyrics reveal a hidden truth about those that connect with his songs. Doesn't mean it's actually real to his life.

But yeah, I think the Dylan comparisons were the catalyst of it's creation. The reference to 'Boots of Spanish Leather' infers the whole Spanish theme of the song.

https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/interviews/tlobf-interview-the-tallest-man-on-earth-24962

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joe, your interpretation holds up in the middle, but for me it's still problematic. that opening sounds to me like the narrator is addressing a lover, and it's about how he's surprised that he was chosen because of basic things that are natural (steal the things you hide = opening up to each other, letting down your guard, focus when we're dancing = present and invested in the moment, offered you a ride = kindness).



I could be wrong but I feel the misdirect is a little heavy handed if that's incorrect. I feel like I'm being put firmly on a path, but the middle doesn't support the bookends because we're trying to codify something else into the song in order to be "clever". And if I'm taking this trip, I get subjected to a bunch of Spanish clichés encapsulated in big list energy. I see where you're going but I still think "And then I'll send a man to meet them all" is such a flat, dead line, on par with "Perhaps I'll reach the other side" or "But while we're floating in siestas".



If this is some comment on authenticity or perception of self then I think tonally it's not great.

I don't see it that way. I don't think "just coz i focus while we're dancing" is meant to be taken literal, either. I think he's just saying that he's attentive or exact in his writing. just because his

I don't really see your interpretation being about a particular lover either given the fact that this is simply not what the song is about in the middle. It's easier to understand this as the 'you' in this song seems to also be the critic of his illusions. I'm not sure why you think there's two yous here.

Somewhat ironic you'd call the cliches while also battling to find their meaning. XD

To be honest, I think your interpretation lacks any imagination. Even if it were addressing a lover, the concept would still apply if that person (and not plural critics) still insisted he is something that he doesn't see himself as. And so long as we are defining him, let him be x, y and z. He calls back to this in the last verse. It's not like these ideas are remotely unconnected.

Though I suspect given the connection to his Dylan criticism that this isn't necessarily a single person.

I think pointing out they are cliches for the sake of pointing out they're cliches doesn't really contend with what their purpose is. It's like Cinemasins criticism.


" I see where you're going but I still think "And then I'll send a man to meet them all" is such a flat, dead line, on par with "Perhaps I'll reach the other side" or "But while we're floating in siestas"."

Okay but to be fair, at no point have you expressed that you think the writing is flat or blunt. Rather, that it doesn't serve a purpose. Which is a separate criticism entirely, right?

Edit now that I'm not on my phone: My point being that, it's not like any of this isn't connected. It obviously is. He didn't pick Spain purely by chance, it was born out of the Dylan reference and informs the whole concept of fantasy and reinvention as the chorus cites repeatedly. Whether or not the 'You' is a lover or not is besides the point as they're still some person who is insisted on stating he is something that he doesn't see in himself and, while we're at it, he may as well say he's 'this' and 'that'.

I'm more inclined towards not believing it needs to be a lover exactly, though that interpretation comes more from the Dylan criticism and the fact that he has expressed his annoyance over people calling him that. I'm more inclined to believe it doesn't have to be someone he's intimately involved in but the song works either way.

I don't really know how you can't see the middle as supporting the song when it reinforces the chorus...

The whole song could be see in as "Oh you think I'm a lover? Oh I'm Bob Dylan am I? Well, while we're at it, why can't I be the King of Spain too then?" In informal terms. :P

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"I don't see it that way. I don't think "just coz i focus while we're dancing" is meant to be taken literal, either. I think he's just saying that he's attentive or exact in his writing."



well then i think it's not a very good way to say or imply that.



"I don't really see your interpretation being about a particular lover either given the fact that this is simply not what the song is about in the middle. "



but that's my point. if the opening means what you think it means, then i don't like it or think it's good. i don't think the two things marry.



"Somewhat ironic you'd call the cliches while also battling to find their meaning. XD"



so you think calling a song king of spain, then mentioning pamplona, bulls, siestas, and flamencos is not cliche? just because you think it's a clever use of cliches doesn't mean i have to. maybe i'm battling to find their meaning because the writer is trying to shoehorn what he's trying to say into these cliches and it's not working so well, and it's at odds with the tone established by the opening and the music.



"To be honest, I think your interpretation lacks any imagination."



yeah i think he's trying to create a song that works as a love song (because people like love songs) and a diss track and he didn't succeed in making it good

For the record, I do not think this is a love song at all. The dude repeatedly rejects the idea that he's a lover. The chorus reveals what the song actually is. The 'lover' is really just a reinvention presented by someone opposed to how he sees himself. It could be 'baker', 'bartender'. It fundantemanlly doesn't matter. It's probably born out of the fact that 'Boots of Spanish Leather' by Bob Dylan is a love song.

It's fine if you don't like his obfuscation or the mystery of these lyrics. Not everyone is into that sort of thing and it's fine. That said, I do think you're struggling to understand the song too. I'm not convinced you got the Dylan angle before we went into this discussion or had some notion what any individual line was about. You seemed to suggest none of it was connected when I think it fairly obviously is.

"so you think calling a song king of spain, then mentioning pamplona, bulls, siestas, and flamencos is not cliche?"

No. That's not what I said at all, at all. I said pointing out cliches for the sake of pointing them out doesn't really contend with why they're there. I don't know how you got that from what I said.

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you're right joe, i didn't get that he was referencing the dylan comparison, totally willing to admit that, maybe if i cared about his career and press i would. i acknowledged that your interpretation of the middle makes sense. however, if you think i'm a million miles off on my reading of the start of the song (btw i don't think i am), then there's no point in arguing about it. i think the song is clumsy and works at cross purposes, let's leave it at that.

Yeah, you're right. Probably best to leave it at that. Obviously I've found the cohesion in it all and I think it entirely makes sense as a song about, plainly "You say I'm this, so if that's the case, I'm going to say I'm the King of Spain instead.".

I think we can both at least agree he's a writer that fancies obfuscation and metaphor. I happen to find that a great gateway into puzzling out or interpreting the lyrics for myself, while others may be inclined to find it needlessly esoteric and impossible to connect with.

A mate of mine had the same impression. He just found it all unnecessarily obscure.

I did some searching around online to see what other people thought it was about. This interpretation of the opening is different to mine but I also like it:

"When I first heard the line "Still I am not from Barcelona / I am not even from Madrid" I immediately thought of Dylan and then my thoughts were reinforced when he restates the Dylan's song title, "Boots of Spanish Leather". Dylan's song is about a lover (probably Dylan's girlfriend at the time, Suze, who left for Italy because her family didn't want her seeing Dylan) leaving behind her love with no intentions of returning back to him. There are multiple lines that suggest it is a sort of "response" to Dylan's song.

To begin with, the very first line of "King of Spain", "I never knew I was a lover" is a direct link to Dylan's "Boots of Spanish Leather" where both characters in the song are labeled by each other "my own true love" respectively. I think the song "King of Spain" is a derogatory stab at the lover from Dylan's song "Boots of Spanish Leather", arguing that she made the man who he is today, something he never wanted to be. So if he had the chance he wishes she could "reinvent my [his] name" and "redirect my day [life]", he'd wanna be anything else but her lover. In this case, he'd want to be the "King of Spain" presumably so he could still keep an eye on his previous lover."

Found here: https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858814838/#comments