What does On Your Porch mean?

The Format: On Your Porch Meaning

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Album cover for On Your Porch album cover

On Your Porch Lyrics

I was on your porch, the smoke sank into my skin so i came inside to be with you and we talked all night, about everything
We could imagine cause come the morning ill be gone and as our eyes start to close i turn to you and i let you know that...

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  1. anonymous
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     Oct 3rd 2018 !⃝

    I feel the song is about taking chances, even if that means to go against other's wishes. I feel Nate is singing this as a reflection of his own relationship with his family, primarily his father. The song is about Nate taking a chance with his music career, and in that time feeling he was alone for making the bold choice. In reflection of making that choice, Nate returns home due to his father being ill. While home, Nate's father tells him how proud he is of Nate, and that Nate's choices are his own to make.

    This is where I make a personal connection with the song. It reminds me of my grandfather - who I looked up to so much in my life, and when I decided to go to college and not the Army, I always felt like it hurt him. I distinctly recall sitting on his porch, as he smoked a cigarette, and the feeling of being engulfed by his presence as the smoke filled the screened in room. This is where I told my grandfather I was not going to the military, but instead college. The next week I left. After a couple years I returned because my grandfather was ill, and on his death bed, he told me how proud he was of me. It's a memory I hold close to my heart as it was the last time I spoke with him before he passed. For that, this song will also remain close to my heart because it reminds me of the man I continue to try and be each day.

  2. anonymous
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     Jun 30th 2016 !⃝

    There's also the song where he says "you live your life for a heart attack". Does anyone know what really happened with his dad? Has he ever talked about this because I've also been very curious about this.

  3. anonymous
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     Jun 3rd 2016 !⃝

    I think it's about redemption. When faced with the opportunity to be there for someone he loved even though it was painful and difficult, instead he chose to run. In this situation now he is reflecting on his dad's words. His father wasn't angry. Because love is unconditional he could basically return to the scene of the crime and be forgiven. So now in this new situation he chooses not to run and rather meet the possibility of a permanent loss of a lover or the return of the light and growth in his life. Either way he can't lose. He has overcome his inability to deal with the painful side of love, which is loss. So he can take a risk and put himself out into the sun. The idea of the sun versus the desert is this. He might have been living his life beneath the same kind of light up until now. But up until now he wasn't able to see his surroundings as clearly. The desert is the sun. But also a vast wasteland. Eventually if you keep walking through it and not in circles you'll make it out. The sun will light your way to greener pastures. That is not to say it is an easy path or that you may not thirst or hunger along the way. But instead of chasing your own shadow, you keep going and you get through. You overcome the emptiness that is the result of your fears. So back to the porch. Maybe he is able to come back here and see if someone he loves might feel the same because he has seen love unconditional from his father to him and his mother to his father. Now he must hope that his fears won't drive him from almost losing something really important again.

  4. anonymous
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     Apr 12th 2014 !⃝

    live your own life for nobody but yourself. If you can't make your self happy then why try? get out of someone's shadow that dictates your life and into the sun to grow your own.. "don't let me keep you miserable if that grass over there will make you happier, for I have lived my life, live yours." "even by yourself"

  5. anonymous
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     Jan 31st 2011 !⃝

    This song is about Nate's father getting very sick. Listen to the song "The Gambler" by "fun." . There is a verse in their about his dad getting sick and his mom caring for him

  6. anonymous
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     Dec 8th 2010 !⃝

    Son* sorry about that. haha

    But anyway, tried to look at it that way and see if that makes more sense

  7. anonymous
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     Dec 8th 2010 !⃝

    I think the war interpretation is a really good way to look at it, but I don't think it is the way the artist intended. His dad is definitely dying. And then I tried to look at as if both could be happening, but the point of it is that even though his dad died, his love and wisdom lives on in his sun now.

  8. HowCouldYou
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     May 1st 2009 !⃝

    Reminds me about myself and what makes a family a family, and the way we may need to be to survive all there is, either way we choose we need to confront our destiny in our own way and sometimes we need 'an intervention' to show us the way to bring us closer to becoming that one big happy family

  9. Vitcusky
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     Jan 19th 2009 !⃝

    I think its about falling in love kind of. It kind of means that falling in love with the one you will spend the rest of your life with is kind of like flling in love with your parents as you grow up.

  10. anonymous
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     Apr 17th 2008 !⃝

    I believe that it is about a soldier who has been shot and he is reflecting on his life. I believe he has been shot because of the line "the smoke sank into my skin"

    The lines "and if you fail well then you fail but not to us" is like his father telling him if he dies that he is not a failure and they will still love him.

    As well as when he says "cause in the morning I'll be gone" he means that he is going to go to war in the morning.

    Also when he says "its time to get out of the desert and into the sun, even if its alone" I believe he means that it is time to get out of (the desert literally) and go to heaven.

  11. anonymous
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     Feb 7th 2008 !⃝

    It's about someone dying of cancer.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  12. anonymous
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     May 7th 2007 !⃝

    Yes, I believe it's about taking risks to find what you believe. I also believe this may have come about through the loss of a parent that was too difficult to watch die slowly. The parent understands that there's nothing left to lose, he's done it all, life goes on and every time you watch someone close dying over time, it's hard to face, for fear you may not see them again.

  13. anonymous
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     Aug 7th 2006 !⃝

    Don't take life for granted go out there and take chances... Even if its alone.


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