Expert: Joe - 9/7/2001

Question
hey buddy... what inspired gavin to write glycerine and what is the meaning behind "glycerine"? i know it could be a stupid question but i have always been curious... thanks bud.
leo

Answer
Good question.  The answer:  well I don't know.

If you dig around the dozens of Bush sites, many people explain the song (their intrepretation) and many people often quote Gavin.  It's misleading because Gavin has stated in an interview last year that he almost never discusses his songs and he finds it funny when people claim they know why he wrote it.

We do know that before Bush became famous and during the time Gavin wrote Sixteen Stone's songs that he was dating a girl.  I totally forget her name now - not being a girl I don't pay close attention to Gavin's dating - but he mentioned once how he loved her very much, but their relationship ended because of Bush's success.  [the band being away for so long and him and her being apart.]

It is widely accepted or assumed amoung Bush fans that Swallowed is about their breakup.  Thus, we also assume that Glycerine (if it is written about anyone) is written about her.

If you collect Bush bootlegs, Gavin once in awhile introduces songs before he plays them and sometimes gives a few words about the meaning.

Glycerine's lyrics are very surreal (odd and not connected.)  You can't take anything literally in them... for example bad moon whine again - it flat out makes no sense.  Gavin often writes things that sound cool / rhyme but don't necessarially mean anything.

So to attempt to answer your question - most bush fans accept that Glycerine was written about a girl he loved very much.  All the lyrics are about her.

Glycerine defined is actually a few different things.  Most commonly it is a chemical used by actors to make it look like they are crying.... so if you see an actor on tv crying it may only be a drop of glycerine put on their face too look like a tear - we don't know if that is important in the song or not.

Don't let the days go by is the line he keeps repeating - we're assuming he may be saying love the one you love and don't waste time.

So, I hope that kind of helps to answer your question.  :)  I realize it may not, but your question simply may have no answer.

-Joe
www.deconstructed.org