The lyrics are pretty vague, but I think this song is generally about grey area: how no sort of ending or perfection can be reached in life, but the climb, or floating, towards this idealistic perfection, or sky, is really itself the closest we can come to perfection: stop thinking, start living. this person in the song dreams of this perfect life, but all he's really doing by attempting to make things perfect is bringing himself down, because the real perfect life is actually in the grey area, living in imperfection and embracing it. "grey's where the color should be" because things aren't meant to be/can't be perfect and there is no "right way." the only thing there is in life is grey area in every aspect. no question has an answer and no problem can be solved. we create constructs to try to grasp concepts, but really, every answer leads to another question until there is no answer. "sky" in the song is a perfect world or a definite, core answer, or an idealistic point in which happiness is reached. floating indicates moving towards this point. this person wants to have some affirmative sign telling him that he has made it to this idealistic "sky," when really, "the point of the horizon is hiding from you." nobody ever reaches this point in any aspect of their life, but this is a good thing, the song says, because part of the beauty of life is this never ending quest for happiness and fulfillment, just living. as in life, this idea is very circular: life's purpose is a quest for perfection, and perfection is really the quest itself. sky is a perfect metaphor because the sky is never ending. if we floated up into the sky for an infinite amount of time, we would never reach any sort of end, therefore, nobody can ever have the sky, but the sky is also beautiful.
it's sort of ironic that in the midst of all of this deep thought in the lyrics, the taxi man says, "you betta give me some money. stop daydreaming, dude" because the lyrics in this song are really an attempt at some sort of closure, or course, the thought can not be completely finished and closure is never reached because no ending can really ever be reached until death, and the taxi man is calling this person in the song back to the real world - living the real world is the closest this person, or anyone, will ever come to the sky because "i should be floating but i'm weighted by thinking."
- about what would i want sky
Braco Dimitrijevic, Accidental Painting, 1968
design-is-fine: Joost Schmidt, Bauhaus typography, 1931
A temporary vacant lot serves as driving range amid high rise buildings, December 1979.
Photograph by H. Edward Kim, National Geographic
Andre de Dienes
‘Shirley Levitt’
the graduate (1967, dir. mike nichols)
