Oh, it should have been that'. And they devolve into a conversation about the difficulties of capturing that live bud blossoming on record. And I remember a perfect night in the spring of '91 at Belvoir Amphitheatre in the Swan Valley on the rural outskirts of Perth. Chiselled into a hillside, the step seating and amphitheatre floor was packed 3000 full. It's just that thing right on the moment - taking the whole crowd with you, it's a really exciting thing.
Records are just as valid though.
What you're trying to do is put out a soundtrack for people's days and so that atmosphere has to leap off the record and jump straight into somebody's house or their car or whatever. It's very important also for a lyric to have a sense of place and time about it. I don't have to invent a story, I just have to invent a character that seems real and various images associated with that character that are common ground for people. He mulls over the big picture and concludes that what people draw from analysing his lyrics are, sometimes, more interesting than what he originally intended. It leads to something even more definitive.