"No Answers Only Questions"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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This morning, I listened to Vulture Culture.  I have the version with bonus tracks, including "No Answers Only Questions."  I noticed something interesting in this verse:

Why do we fight?
Why do we fall?
Why do we stand there, backs against the wall?
Why don't we change?
Why don't we try?
Why don't we turn round, help the other guy?

These are the lyrics as they're rendered on the APP website, but because of homophones, that third line could also be written as "Why do we stand their backs against the wall?"  "There" changes to "their," and "stand" becomes transitive where before it was intransitive, along with other shifts in syntactical function.

I think that - rendered that second way - it still makes sense within the song.  Instead of asking "Why are we disengaged?" (or "inactive" or "passive" or whatever other word you want to use) it asks, "Why are we scrutinizing others?" which seems to be only a shade away from the first line in the verse ("Why do we fight?").