Ball of Wax 42 Songs: Levi Fuller – The Meaning of Life

Levi Fuller‘s “The Meaning of Life” bucks the Volume 42 trend of largely unintelligible vocals or abstract lyrics, presenting a straightforward narrative about finding books at Elliott Bay and movies at Scarecrow Video before stepping through the process of trying to sit down and write a song about this ambitious topic. Not surprisingly, there’s no straightforward explanation of the meaning of the life, but the song posits answers in two different directions. First, it becomes clear that Levi is addressing the lyrics to someone, that someone likely his infant son. Like the Foghorns’ paternal yearning, this song posits a meaning with the far-off invitation, “maybe someday you can explain it all to me.” Second, during the latter part of the song, the vocals drop out and Levi’s deft finger-style guitar playing shifts the song from mildly meandering storytelling to focused contemplation. In a “dancing about architecture” kind of way, maybe Levi makes his case with music. That works.