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In an interview with VH1, lead singer Pat Monahan revealed that he wrote this song about the death of his mother. Train released their first album in 1998, and were touring that year when Monahan's mother was dying of lung cancer - she was a heavy smoker. This was before the widespread use of cell phones, and Monahan made many stops to pay phones on the tour to speak with his mom during this difficult time. In December of that year, his mother died, and in early 1999 Train was working on their next album when their record company started pressuring them for a hit. Monahan returned to his childhood home in Pennsylvania, and woke one morning with the words "back in the atmosphere" in his head. Beginning a time of healing, he started to compose the song. Said Monahan: "Loss of the most important person in my life was heavy on my mind, and the thought of 'what if no one ever really leaves? What if she's here but different. The idea was, she's back here in the atmosphere."
He recorded a demo of the song and played it a week later for Donnie Ienner, who was president of their record company, Columbia. While Monahan wasn't sure how the song would go over, Ienner loved it and told him it was his Grammy song. He was right: It won Grammys for Best Rock Song and Best Instrumental Arrangement With Accompanying Vocalist. Ienner had Train record the song quickly so they could put it on the album and use it as the title track.
The string section was arranged by Paul Buckmaster, who has done arrangements for Elton John, David Bowie, and The Rolling Stones.
Monahan said of this song: ""It was an obvious connection between me and my mother. 'Drops of Jupiter' was as much about me being on a voyage and trying to find out who I am. The best thing we can do about loss of love is find ourselves through it."
Train was in danger of becoming a one-hit-wonder before they released this. Their first hit, "Meet Virginia," was released 2 years earlier.
It was a few years before Monahan revealed the story behind this song, and the common interpretation is that it was about a woman who leaves her man to find out if they belong together. Monahan would give vague answers when asked about the song, at one point saying: "This is a woman who's strong and has to find out who she is and a man willing to let her do that."
This is the type of song which lends itself to personal interpretation, and was most often considered to be about a former lover, a young woman or just someone the writer knew who went on a voyage of self-discovery - not necessarily by traveling to distant lands.
When they suffer personal tragedy, many people feel a closeness to their departed loved one. This is not a song about reincarnation as such, but about the idea that no one ever really leaves us. In spite of the different subject matter, it bears a striking resemblance to the Cat Stevens composition "
On The Road To Find Out." Whatever, it obviously struck a chord with many people, and deservedly spent over a year on the Billboard Hot 100.
Monahan said of the song: "It was an obvious connection between me and my mother. 'Jrops of Jupiter' was as much about me being on a voyage and trying to find out who I am. The best thing we can do about loss of love is find ourselves through it." (thanks, Alexander Baron - London, England)
Monahan has a permanent scar on his chin, which could explain the line, "One without a permanent scar."
Brendan O'Brien produced this track. He has also worked with Pearl Jam and The Stone Temple Pilots. He became interested in the band when he heard their cover of "
Ramble On" on the radio.
Train performed an updated version of this song at the 2002 Grammy awards, which included a cello prelude by Denise Djokic and a full orchestra. When Train won the award for Best Rock Song, Monahan thanked his mother.
This ascended to the top 10 of the Adult Contemporary chart in its 49th week, marking the longest climb to the top 10 on that tally by any act.
On December 25, 2009 Two and a Half Men actor Charlie Sheen was arrested on charges of domestic violence against his wife Brooke Mueller. According to Us Magazine their Christmas Day brawl was caused by this song. Sheen allegedly told police that he and his daughter share a love for Drops of Jupiter, which angered Mueller. She lashed out, "You have a song [that] you share with your daughter, but not one with me?" which ignited the fight. Patrick Monahan responded to the news on Twitter, "I'm pretty sure that Drops of Jupiter is a positive part of Charlie Sheen and his daughter's relationship. Just gonna look at it that way."
The song returned to the UK singles chart in April 2012 after being performed by audtionee Phil Poole on The Voice.
Comments (66):
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Train is one of my favorite bands man, and i could go on, on, and on on how great this song is. He's saying the how much the world would suck without the little things like fried chicken, and just talking on the phone with friends.
Everyone's right about the main idea: The girl leaves the guy because she needs to go find herself out in the world before she can love the person again. So she goes out and indulges in the trends of the times (Mozart, Taebo was huge). The guy is scared that when she comes back he'll be too boring for her (plain ole Jane). And all along he keeps asking her questions about their relationship. He always asks if she can imagine life without him, if life would be better with someone else rather than him. The majority of the song is questions asking her this. He keeps asking if she finally understands that life without him is flashy at first, and may sweep her off her feet (wind sweep you off your feet), and she may fall for a guy like that too, who is awesome at first but then turns dull. the main question he asks is if she always misses him while shes trying to find herself. Then he asks her if she can imagine life without all the things they used to do (phone conversations, soy lattes, most importantly, him).
Finally, the last line is the major one: "Are you lonely looking for yourself out there?" The line changes from "did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there?" It shows that the guy finally got tired of waiting for her to come back; he's moved on. It's not worth waiting around for someone who doesnt want to come around either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHor4VN8090
... Next some idiots are going to tell me that the record execs were behind Pat with a gun during the interview making sure he tells us that the song was about his mother.
With your Mother?
I'm laughing with you Pat lol.
So afraid of commitment. Always looking for herself.
To me personally, this song reminds me of someone who left me, and kept coming back. Said person has actually gone forever now, but knows (or I hope they know) that I'm still waiting for them, should they ever decide to come back.
When I hear it, I can strongly associate with the "Tell me" parts, for these are often what I'm silently asking this person. (Who I do still see on a regular basis)
the nicest thing about this song is that it talks about CERTAINTY, that in our journey towards the unknown we might want to get back to our old, defined selves...
~~ally
One without a permanent scar", he's asking her if she met another guy other than him (other than a guy with a permanent scar; himself)
-Dan,city,CA- I don't know if this is what the band had in mind or not, but "drops of Jupiter" makes me think of Jupiter's moons. Have you ever seen them through a telescope? They look like pearls. I imagine this beautiful woman with pearls and dew drops in her long hair. (The dew drops because, to the Victorians, pearls were a symbol for tears, so the two go together in my mind.)Like I said, that's just the mental image that comes to my mind. Hope it helps some.
-Ashley,Grand Rapids,MI-If it's not about a woman leaving a man to discover herself, then what is it about? Try http://www.mtv.com/bands/archive/t/train01/index3.jhtml, an interview with one of the band members says it's about a "journey of self-discovery." And there are so many obvious lyrical references, like "did you miss me?". If you can offer up another valid theory, that's fine. I realize music, like all art, is dynamic and there's a relationship between the piece and the creator and between the piece and the viewer and between the artist and the audience and each participant's experience is different. That's what makes art so wonderful. But to just say others don't know what they're talking about when they have good grounds for believing what they say, and then not even offering an alternative idea doesn't help anyone grow, and art should help people grow as individuals. There's a difference between pruning and hacking down.
10/10 song
more specifically, what does "drops of jupiter" mean?
My theory is that it's part of a list of things she'd miss if she wasn't with him (i.e. was still out in outer space), along with those five-hour phone conversations and "the best soy latte that you ever had". I think the fried chicken was picked because it's so prosaic, unlike the Milky Way. I think that and the "freeze-dried" romance reflect the protagonist's fears of being boring, or too down-to-earth for this girl.