Song Details
- Album Release Date: 2012
- Genre: power-pop
Song Meaning of “Waving At Airplanes” by Guided By Voices
In ‘Waving At Airplanes’ by Guided By Voices, the narrator reflects on a bittersweet memory of a past love, longing to return to through surreal imagery. The song conveys a slow-burning nostalgia in which the narrator and an unnamed partner are standing by a roadside ‘waving at airplanes.’The powerful imagery invokes an ethereal nature and closeness between the two aboard the flight, a path of escape from reality that will never be taken.
The narrator compares his relationship to the flight and its destination, noting that it too ‘was never quite engineered to be.’ Despite the passing of time and knowing that they can never go back to that moment, the narrator takes comfort in the memory, stating that they’re ‘waving away all the pain.’Concluding with the classic line ‘we could’ve been happy and free’, the narrator quickly realises the finality of the situation, suggesting that the love was doomed; yet, still holding onto the hope that it could have been better.
Ultimately, ‘Waving At Airplanes’ is a song about the power of memory, and how one can find solace in their recollections of the past. While no longer in control of the love between them and the partner, it serves as a reminder of what could have been, framed into an ethereal situation in which they will never actually walk onto the airplane together.