However, I personally think it's more likely that the intent is just that he allows himself to wander for a little while, something which regularly happens, but he never truly escapes the nagging discomfort of fully open soul searching. It could be interpretted that Sonny is having a spiritual breakthrough and allowing himself to wander beyond his interior walls. These are my favorite lines (in part because I have thinning brown hair). In the very end of the song, there is the line "Sonny wanders beyond his interior walls, runs his hands through his thinning brown hair".
In later life, the phrase "why deny the obvious child?" is more of a pondering as to why any person would deny themself that internal spiritual exploration, something so obviously basic (in the beginning of the song, the question seems to be posed more to the parents). The phase continues even into his later life as he finds all those beliefs his parents instilled still control his mental/spiritual exploration. Hence the phrase "Why deny the obvious child?" However, from a young age, Christianity is all his parents teach him, and in fact, they discourage exploration into other spiritual thoughts and beliefs. It seems that "The Obvious Child" chronicles a man who wishes to ponder all the possibilities of the meaning of life. I will throw my interpretation in the ring. Maybe the Dad (the singer) has made his peace with the inevitable and no longer fears it. Given the above, it is rather uplifting that the song is not a dirge the arrangement is in fact very upbeat. In this context, "Why deny the obvious, child?" could be telling Sonny to face up to it: his father is going to die soon (and so will Sonny, eventually). The lines about Sonny leafing through his yearbook, with some of his classmates having already died, could indicate that Sonny, who is also getting older (thinning hair), is nostalgically or wistfully looking back at his life, remembering how it was.maybe even thinking about his own mortality.Īll of this is leading up to my interpretation of "the cross is in the ballpark." It means that death-symbolized by the cross, a common grave marker-is coming soon. "some rooms are like cages": Sonny could be thinking about another problem of aging, possibly affecting his father: an illness like a stroke or perhaps a broken hip, limiting his mobility and making him bedridden or otherwise confined to his room (which thus becomes a cage) "I don't expect to be treated like a fool no more": asking not to be patronized because of his age
"I don't expect to sleep through the night": due to urinary frequency from prostate problems "Or maybe I'm a dog who's lost its bite": losing one's teeth, or perhaps (more abstract), becoming ineffectual While I can't interpret every line, there are several that could refer to the problems of aging: Remember, the singer is a grandfather-his son, Sonny, has at least one child. My interpretation of the song is that it's about confronting the inevitability of dying. Runs his hands through his thinning brown hair How it's strange that some rooms are like cages Sonny sits by his window and thinks to himself I watch the night receive the room of my day I've been following the light across my room We had a little son and we thought we'd call him Sonny I don't expect to sleep through the night I don't expect to be treated like a fool no more
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