Flock of Words
Trey Anastasio Lyrics

The lyrics of Trey Anastasio's song "Flock of Words" are filled with ambiguity, making it open to interpretation. The opening lines suggest a communication breakdown, where the singer hears a change in the voice of their partner, perhaps indicating a trickling of bad news or impending doom. The subsequent line "A shadow that suddenly covered my eyes," implies a loss of hope and warmth, and the line "A ripple of water quite smooth otherwise" adds a sense of passive aggression, suggesting that the singer had been taken by surprise. The following stanza implies that the singer might be longing for closure - they want to know what had caused the sudden change and what exactly had gone wrong, as the verse intones, "Let me know let me know I need to know."

The second half of the song speaks of a moment of silence, where beauty meets decay. In the verse, "Every bird on the wing leads the others along, Inside your flock of words something went wrong," the birds, alluding to words, mean that the words were supposed to bring warmth, but that something had gone wrong somewhere. Then there's a seemingly contradictory line, "I don't think that I was expecting a lie, I just saw them pass me, and one couldn't fly." This stanza of the song suggests that while the singer might not have anticipated a lie from their partner or friend, something was amiss, and the singer had spotted it earlier. And so, at the end of the song, the singer pleads to be let go. Perhaps that suggests he's tired of the drama and the hidden meanings.