What does The Tide mean?

The Spill Canvas: The Tide Meaning

Album cover for The Tide album cover

The Tide Lyrics

And there's three, count 'em three
Children playing on the beach
They were eager to learn,
To be taught and to teach

There's Veronica
She's biting her lip
As she watches the waves turn white at the tip
And there's Vada
Radiating with...

  1. 1TOP RATED

    #1 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
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    Jun 26th 2011 !⃝

    I think this song is about the four kinds of love
    Veronica- the physical love- she wants to feel love physically and she just needs love in her life
    Vada- the innocent love- she is jealous of her sister and wants love just not the physical kind she wants to be loved on the inside
    Dade- the mysterious love- he wants to know about love wants to know why people who love each other fall apart
    The mom- fallen love- her husband divorced her and she still loves him and misses him so much she doesn't pay attention to her own children that remind her of him
    The tide- the world- all the good and bad things in life that the children get sucked up in because their mother doesn't pay attention and doesn't really care what they do

  2. 2TOP RATED

    #2 top rated interpretation:
    RoadWhacker
    click a star to vote
    Apr 22nd 2007 !⃝

    Alright this one isn't hard. It's all a bunch of symbolism. This song about 2 parents divorce and the mother didn't take it all that well seeing is ow she was "bedridden by her ex-lover" and the beach symbolizes safety of home and the safe good life. The ocean symbolizes society and all its let downs and everything that society does to people like get them to do drugs and whatever. The tide represents the bad people in society that do drugs and drink alcohol and stuff and the mother didn't realize that by being bedridden she was ignoring her children and the bad people in society got them to do bad things and emotionally they hut down and stopped living the safe life they knew by the time they were 15 as in "And she didn't even notice or pay much attention as the The Tide came in and swept her 3 into the ocean. Now all her advice seems useless" Yeah that's about it.

  3. 3TOP RATED

    #3 top rated interpretation:
    anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 2nd 2007 !⃝

    i think when they say "their mother who was bedridden by her ex-lover" I think it means she was heartbroken and couldn't go on with life because he hurt her so bad.

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 16th 2013 !⃝

    The mum didn't listen to the children the two girl went in the ocean thinking they cud swim they went out to fair and there brother went in after them after he realised he cud swim back with them both he held them out of the water for 8 hours only surfacing for air he unfortunately drowned

  5. tay
    click a star to vote
    Oct 31st 2011 !⃝

    i honestly think its about the parents fighting and it ripes the family apart. and the mom wont get out of bed cause she is to heart borken. and the kids cant stand it anymore and dont know what to do so they go out and get taken by the ocean.

  6. anonymous
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    Mar 6th 2011 !⃝

    I believe this song is about triplets(Considering they never lived passed the age of 15) and they saw the world in their own ways, and were filled with so much potential. It showed how they lost their inosence as time went a long and stoped being so care free and started thinking about other things (love, loss, jealousy) I believe that the mother loved the children very much, especially Dade because he was phylisophical like her. And the neglect that the children's father had shown to the mother started a chain reaction, and when her children disappeared into the tide or the negative parts of the world, everything she had was gone and her thoughts and eeverything she stood for just seemed useless.

  7. anonymous
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    Jan 13th 2011 !⃝

    I think it really could be about three children drowning because their mother wasn't watching them, wrapped up in her own heartbreak. But I do agree with all the personalities.

  8. anonymous
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    Feb 9th 2010 !⃝

    When I listen to the song, I think it is talking about the types of love, like previously suggested. However there are somethings I interpreted differently:

    -By saying "there were three, count 'em, three children playing on the beach" points out there are three different "faces" of a subject being protrayed. By saying "they were eager to learn, to be taught and to teach" to me A. points out child-like qualities. Child pick up what they know from watching others. in this case, they are watching their mother.
    -I agree with Veronica represents the lustful love. She is the type of person that seeks love in a physical form. she comes off to me the most desperate to feel real love, but she seeks it in the wrong ways.
    - Vada to me seems like the youngest of the children and she to me like she is the most optimistic about love. I think the reason she is jealous of her sister is the fact she has attention from boys in general. You know how younger sisters sometimes try to look like or act like their older sisters who can date, when the younger sibling maybe can't. She is the version of more innocent love, new if you will.
    -Dade to me is the oldest and more affected sibling of love. I think he sort of shows two different loves: 1. The parent/child relationship and 2. Love that is gone. He wants answers and is obviously hurt.
    -I think the mom is so wrapped up in her own heartbreak that she doesn't see the ways her children are growing and searching for love. She can't see how her actions and heartbreak are teaching her children the ways of love. She keeps telling them that love is real so just forget it. And the sentence about heaven, is maybe where Veronica learned to live for the physical connections.
    -I think where it says that they didn't live past the age of 15 do to neglect means that the children stopped trying to figure out love and they because as hopeless as their mother. They gave up like their mother did and after that, it was too late.
    -i think the tide is just life in general. the good and the bad. I think they got lost within the "tide". If you think about how overwhelming the idea of the middle of the ocean is, now think about the waves of the tide coming at you little by little. It comes and it goes and it is so much less stressful compared to if you were in the middle of the ocean.

    It may not be dead on, but I think its a nice viewpoint of the song.

  9. MusicIsLifeMyLife
    click a star to vote
    Dec 17th 2008 !⃝

    So I think well I kind of thought of the ones that are already posted what I'm going to post is just other possibilities

    -well maybe when it talks about how dade(I think that's his name please correct me if it's not) thinks about when his dad will come home and then it says he's not well maybe the father went to war and died

    -or when it alk about how the mother was bedridden maybe she was abused by her husband and she really loved him and then he left and maybe that's whay she says love is just a hoax because she loved their father but he did horrible things to her so just because you love someone doesn't mean they will love you back or not hurt you

    -and dade is cool well kind of he's a total romantic like me and he just can't stop thinking how could love someone so passionately ,fully , and it endsand it's the wost because you gave yourself to that person let yourself open to thatv person more than you ever have with anyone else it was hard to do that
    and that person finally came along and then it ends
    and yuo get hurt

    veda (I think) well all people are different and have a different mindset and priorities so she's jealous I get jealous too
    maybe one day if she lived she would have grown out of it
    but she didn't have that miuch confidence yeah a little immature there bnut no one is totally mature because we all have different definitions of "mature"
    but getting back to the point veda. I think her mind grew up too fast because of what she had to deal with
    and before she didn't even like boys but maybe because she looked up to veronica and she tried to emulate her and she lost herself while doing that

    -veronica wow she has hormones who cares some people think she all about sex which that's how you see it I'm not goin' to critisize you for how you think
    but maybe she's just not as deep as dade
    -and idk......................
    uh I guess that..............................
    .............................
    maybe she's kissed guys before but she's never had that chemistry or sparks and she just really wants to fel a connection with someone

    -about the tide uh I never really got that one I guess it could be like a sea of bad people or something like that but I don't think it was suicide but that idea pops into my head

    -actually now thinking it was everyone because I think its all of society that was the tide they grew up too fast but I don't really know if I can explain further because I don't really get it myself

    -and their other I think she loved them in a bit of a crooked way that why she told them the things like love is just a hoax and "live by every word"

    because when she gave them advice she was thinking about he loife and how if she could do it again she wouldnt fall in love
    and she would doeverything she couldnt now

  10. MusicIsLifeMyLife
    click a star to vote
    Dec 17th 2008 !⃝

    So I think well I kind of thought of the ones that are already posted what I'm goinn to post is just other possibilities

    -well maybe when it talks about how dade(I think that's his name please correct me if it's not) thinks about when his dad will come home and then it says he's not well maybe rthe father went to war and died

    -or when it alk about how the mother was bedridded maybe she was abused by her husband and she really loved him and thenn he left and maybe that's whay she says love is just a hoax because she loved their father but he did horrible things to her so just because you love someone doesn't mean they will love you back or not hurt you

    -and dade is cool well kind of he's a total romantic like me and he just can't stop thinking how could love someone so passionately ,fully , and it endsand it's the wostbecause you gave yuorself to that person let yourself open to thatv person more than you ever have with anyone else it was hard to do that
    and that person finally came along and then it ends
    and yuo get hurt

    veda (I think) well all people are different and have a different mindset and priorities so she's jealous I get jealous too
    maybe one day if she lived she would have grown out of it
    but she didn't have that miuch confidence yeah a little immature there bnut no one is totally mature because we all have different definitions of "mature"
    but getting back to the point veda. I think her mind grew up too fast because of what she had to deal with and before she didn't even like boys but maybe because she looked up to veronica and she tried to emulate her and she lost herself while doing that

    -veronica wow she has hormones who cares some people think she all about sex which that's how you see it I'm not goin' to critisize you for how you think
    but maybe she's just not as deep as dade
    -and idk......................
    uh I guess that..............................
    .............................
    maybe she's kissed guys before but she's never had that chemistry or sparks and she just really wants to fel a connection with someone

    -about the tide uh I never really got that one I guess it could be like a sea of bad people or something like that but I don't think it was suicide but that idea pops into my head

    -actually now thinking it was everyone because I think its all of society that was the tidethey grew up too fast but I don't really know if I can explain futher because I don't really get it myself

    -and their other I think she looved them in a bit of a crooked way that why she told them the thoings like love is just a hoax and "live by every word"

    because when she gave them advice she was thinking about he loife and how if she could do it again she wouldnt fall in love
    and she would doeverything she couldnt now

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  11. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Dec 2nd 2008 !⃝

    "Heaven's not a place that you go when you die
    It's that moment in life when you actually feel alive
    So live for the moment
    And take this advice, live by every word
    Love is just a hoax so forget anything that you have heard
    And live for the moment now "

    i just love that line.
    idk if im even interpreting it right but i think shes saying that shes realized that youre not gonna be happy whn you die because you were never happy in life.


    again, idk.. i just like that line.
    :)

  12. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Aug 28th 2008 !⃝

    I think, this song is really about how we spend our whole lives searching for love when really it is nothing but a 'hoax' like the mother says. The mother lost what she thought was the love of her life and she was not bedridden with diseases like somebody else said, she no longer felt alive.

    The 3 kids, Vada, Veronica and Dade were tainted by what their mother had always told them about love being a hoax etc..

    Veronica thought of love as a 'sexual' thing and as she sat 'on the beach' she waited for love to come along.

    Vada is too young to understand any of it but is jealous of her sister.

    Dade is still getting over his father leaving, supposedly parents love their children but so for his dad to walk out dade wanted to know what was wrong.

    The three kids were later 'swept away' by the 'tide' due to all of this longing for love. no people have said what I believed this meant, but I believe the kids took their lives.

    They had to sit and watch their mother falling apart, and they were left feeling lonely, therefore the tide took them away.

  13. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Aug 12th 2008 !⃝

    The song is about different types of love and how love can be corrupt.
    veronica - erotic love where one needs to be sexual to love and be loved.
    vada - jealous love. wants something because someone else has it.
    dade - the ultimate corruption of how all types of love really can affect people negatively.

    When the tide comes it and sweeps the 3 into the ocean is represents the flaws of love to which all of the children (who represent people on earth) are sucked into.

    The mother didn't notice her children when they were swept away from the ocean because bad love affects ALL people involved even if its not directly.

  14. anonymous
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    Jun 26th 2007 !⃝

    The song is about the many faces of love and how they all see differently Veronica sees love as just sex note the sexual references. Vada is still in the stage where boys are not appealing to her. and Dade is the one who in my point of view is the oldest and saw all that his mom has done and is doing. and then is the mother she has seen the side of "love" that has turned her away and she tells him to not believe in love and it can't be trusted. This is a powerful song it really show that love can be take in so many different ways

  15. midnitegreen
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    May 9th 2007 !⃝

    Above me has it right on the money.

  16. Selo
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    Jan 18th 2007 !⃝

    I really love this song, and I think it has perhaps some of the most amazing lyrics I’ve ever heard, so I couldn't resist coming here to interpret it. I see the verses about the children on the beach as a description of just a few of the billions of broken people in the world and how they deal with love. Each of these three teenagers has their own story, some parts of which are shared because they are siblings. Veronica is searching for that one person, Vada is still afraid of finding hers, and Dade can’t believe his relationship is over ("He’s wondering what love is and why it has to end"). Their mother ignores them, but they can still imagine her telling them how to move on ("His mother whispers quietly, heaven’s not a place that you go when you die / It’s that moment in life when you actually feel alive"). Their dad left them and gave his wife a disease, assumedly AIDS, as in the words "Their mother who was bedridden by her ex-lover". However, with no parents to take care of them, the triplets are all washed away, lifeless, by the waves. The last verse is heartbreaking, and put all together, it makes perfect sense: "There’s three, count ‘em, three children missing from the beach / But the sad thing is that they never lived past the age of fifteen due to neglect from their mother / Who was bedridden by her ex-lover, their father / She didn’t even notice as the tide came in and swept her three into the ocean / Now all her advice seems useless". Wow.


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