Don't Uncork What You Can't Contain

This song presents three scenarios of people, each opening a mysterious container.

In the first, "a man finds a bottle" and begins to uncork it. In the second, Pandora of myth accidentally opens her box of evil.

And in the third, a genie is released from a lamp-- not by Aladdin but by Macklemore, who found it at a thrift shop (You see, there was this rapper in the early 2010s who went by "Macklemore," whose first single was a novelty tune about shopping at a "Thrift Shop." It went to #1. Yup.)

But when the man tries to open the bottle, and when Pandora did open the box, and when the genie did emerge from the lamp, each thought or said the same thing: "Don't uncork what you can't contain."

Like "don't bite off more than you can chew," this expression means to be careful or you might get in over your head. The one about food is about attempting what is beyond your capabilities, and the one about a drink is about not unleashing forces you can't control (just ask Dr. Frankenstein.)

Also, in each case the person "must" or "couldn't help," opening the container, or simply didn't consider what they did to have any consequences.

Ah, but what if you are the container? What if you have something inside that you can no longer keep bottled up? And you shouldn't, or "your head will spin/ And your mouth is all tongue-tied."

Then you have to put that into a container. The speaker suggests you channel it into art, "the page or the stage."

Words or performance (or the visual arts, one infers) can contain those "feelings."

But the container the speaker has in mind is not a bottle, box or lamp, but a "cage." Why? Because "rage" is like a "tiger." One that'll cause you "pain."

So, a tip of the (tall, striped) hat to Dr. Seuss: "The page and the stage [are] the cage for that tiger rage."

In conclusion: Don't uncork what you can't contain-- unless you can pour it into your artwork, which can contain it.


Next Song: Jacob and the Angel