“Closing Time” is about leaving a bar.

And childbirth.

At the same time.

That second answer sounds like one of those internet theories created by somebody who has spent too long analysing lyrics.

It isn’t.

Semisonic singer and songwriter Dan Wilson has confirmed it.

His girlfriend was pregnant while he was writing the song, and partway through the process he realised that his new song about being pushed out of a room was also about being born.

Once you know that, “Closing Time” becomes a completely different song.

Why did Semisonic write “Closing Time”?

Initially for an extremely practical reason.

Semisonic needed a new song to finish concerts.

The band had been closing shows with the same track and Dan Wilson got bored of it.

So he thought:

Why not literally write a song about closing?

That’s where the bar imagery comes from.

Lights on.

Everybody out.

Go home.

Perfect final song.

Then Wilson’s subconscious apparently decided to make things more complicated.

How is “Closing Time” about childbirth?

Think about the central images without assuming they’re describing a bar.

A room is closing.

Someone has to leave.

Doors open.

The person is pushed out into the world.

Suddenly the metaphor becomes obvious.

The bar becomes the womb.

Closing becomes birth.

Leaving one protected space means entering another, unknown one.

Wilson has said he didn’t consciously begin with the childbirth concept.

He realised it while writing.

That’s probably why it works.

It isn’t a clever concept forced onto the song.

The second meaning emerged naturally.

Was Dan Wilson actually becoming a father?

Yes.

Wilson’s girlfriend, Diane Espaldon, was pregnant.

Their daughter was subsequently born prematurely and faced serious health problems.

That gives the song’s theme of wanting to take somebody home an even deeper emotional resonance.

What sounds like someone choosing a partner at the end of a night can also be heard as a parent waiting to bring a child home.

Is the song literally about a bar too?

Absolutely.

That’s what makes it good.

The childbirth meaning doesn’t cancel the bar meaning.

Both work.

If you’ve ever been in a pub when the lights suddenly come on, you know exactly what the surface-level song describes.

One moment you’re comfortably inside.

The next:

music off.

lights on.

outside you go.

Birth is admittedly a more dramatic version of the same process.

What does “every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end” mean?

This is the philosophical centre of the song.

Something beginning usually requires something else to finish.

Birth ends pregnancy.

Leaving school begins adulthood.

A breakup begins whatever happens next.

Leaving a job creates another chapter.

Closing a bar ends a night.

The lyric works because it doesn’t require you to know anything about childbirth.

Everybody has experienced endings that were also beginnings.

Was “Closing Time” Semisonic’s biggest song?

By far their best-known international recording.

The song arrived in 1998 on the album Feeling Strangely Fine.

It became one of those late-1990s alternative-rock songs that has now escaped the band and become a cultural shorthand.

Need to tell people an event is ending?

Play “Closing Time”.

Subtle.

Why does it still work?

Because its title gives it a real-world job.

Certain songs are useful.

“Happy Birthday” has a job.

“Auld Lang Syne” has a job.

Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” has effectively acquired September 21 as its annual job.

“Closing Time” tells people:

We’re finished.

Get out.

Bars, weddings, parties, sports venues and radio shows can all use it.

A song with a function gets repeated.

What genre is “Closing Time”?

Alternative rock.

Power pop.

Post-grunge-era rock.

It belongs to that late-1990s world of melodic guitar bands that could cross from alternative radio into mainstream pop culture.

Songs like “Closing Time”

Try:

Third Eye Blind – Semi-Charmed Life

The Verve Pipe – The Freshmen

Gin Blossoms – Hey Jealousy

Goo Goo Dolls – Slide

Matchbox Twenty – 3AM

Fastball – The Way

Harvey Danger – Flagpole Sitta

New Radicals – You Get What You Give

Better Than Ezra – Good

The Wallflowers – One Headlight

What does “Closing Time” really mean?

On the surface:

the bar is shutting.

Underneath:

a baby is entering the world.

And underneath both:

every ending forces you somewhere new.

That’s a lot of meaning for a song that most people hear while somebody is stacking chairs around them.