(TV) Television Set List: Prove It

["Casey, Leo J" <CaseyL@VOLPE.DOT.GOV>]

I was thinking of the probable set list for the upcoming shows 
and it made me think about one song in particular.

The song "Prove It" has always been a tough nut for me to 
crack [see lyrics below].

I like to think I have a pretty good handle on what most of 
the lyrics in Verlaine's songs mean (stop your sniggering) or at 
least connote.

OK, if I don't know then I've got some well thought-out theories.  TV 
must feel somewhat special about this tune since it's always included 
in the Television shows (and even his past solo band concerts). 

Does anyone know *what* this song is about (or at the very least its 
subject matter)?  Or failing that, can you propose a theory?


My lousy theory/guess:    

The narrator/Verlaine is the "him" referred to in the song 
(that's the easy part).  The whole song is supposed to be 
ironic.  Namely, this man, who already knows that he's recently 
fallen passionately in love, is disingenuously asking himself 
(or anyone) to prove it to him.

Many of the lines describe his almost drug-like, rapturous 
encounter with his environment--- "... the smell of water ....  
... of light the unreal night. .... that flat curving of a 
room" , a Blake-ian view or feeling--- "the world is 
just a feeling you undertook"---  that only love can cause.   
This hyper-awareness and dream-like distortion of his surroundings 
is (should be) sufficient evidence to prove it, but the narrator continues. 

" [F]irst you creep"  (he tries to go slow when he first meets 
this person)  "...then you leap up about a hundred feet .." (eventually he's 
so intoxicated that he feels super-human)   "..yet you're in 
so deep " (so seriously involved/in love) that   "... you could write the 
Book [of Love]."  

So he repeats what he has been forced to admit earlier in the song:  there is no 
need to continue his detective work any longer for evidence that he's in love.   
"This case, this case that I ... I've been workin' on so long ......This case is closed."
	Leo  
PS: Of course, in a TV song a word  is not just a word, it often possesses 
multiple meanings. E.g., the words  "..case closed..." also represents the Fact that his 
pursuit and wooing of this  person has successfully ended. 

PROVE IT (Verlaine) 
The docks 
the clocks 
a whisper woke him up 
the smell of water 
would resume. 
the cave 
the waves 
of light the unreal night. 
that flat curving 
of a room. 
PROVE IT... JUST THE FACTS... THE CONFIDENTIAL 
THIS CASE, THIS CASE, THIS CASE THAT I... I'VE BEEN WORKIN' ON SO LONG... 
first you creep 
then you leap 
up about a hundred feet 
yet you're in so deep 
you could write the Book. 
Chirpchirp 
the birds 
they're giving you the words 
The world is just a feeling 
you undertook. 
Remember? 
Now the rose 
it slows 
you in such colorless clothes 
Fantastic! You lose your sense of human. 
Project 
Protect 
It's warm and it's calm and it's perfect 
It's too "too too" 
to put a finger on 
This case is closed. 
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