Good post, I've thought about this quite a bit as well. We pretty much only know the original meanings to the songs when they tell it to us through an interview or whatnot, and the rest you have to assume a meaning to the song. I remember on the old board there was a thread about bashing on people trying to interpret SY song meanings on
www.songmeanings.com, but personally I think that you can interpret it however you want, and that's one of the joy's of music. I'm with you for the most part. I know if I took part in a popular band or music project and people attempted to interpret the meanings to my songs, I would probably find some of them rediculous, and I probably will laugh, but I would also respect their assumptions