Now, at first it is not exactly clear that this is what the song is about, as the first lines of the song point only to the general theme of the mistakes that we make as we grow up:
Golden blunders come in pairs, they’re very unaware
What they know is what they’ve seen
Education wasn’t fun, but now that school is done
Higher learning’s just begun.
I appreciate the jab at the practical limitations of schooling here—both in terms of the incredible tedium that can accompany it and the fact that so much learning has nothing to do with testable facts and far more to do with the development of judgement (that’s the real higher learning, not university). Indeed, judgement is key because it does not depend upon rules but experience because it must be so responsive to context (in this regard Kant and Aristotle would agree in an awkward way).
Long story short, acquiring judgement requires experience, and a crucial element of that experience is failure and making mistakes, which is precisely what the chorus says:
You're gonna watch what you say for a long time
You're gonna suffer the guilt forever
You're gonna get in the way at the wrong time
You're gonna mess up things you thought you would never.
Now before diving into the rest of the song, I want to return to the question of the title and how it relates to this chorus (I’ll get there eventually, it just takes a bit of a detour into Beatles-land, a fact that shouldn’t be surprising given the melodic stylings of the Posies’ early recordings). Part of the title is a reference to The Beatles’ song “Golden Slumbers” from Abbey Road (a fact made more interesting by the fact that Ringo Starr recorded a cover of this song—although the original Posies version is much better). “Golden Slumbers” is an adaption of an old lullaby, and it is a soothing song. But the fact that you need a soothing song implies that is something troubling you, and the recurring lines of the song seem to be the suggestion that you can never go back home:
Once
there was a way
to
get back homeward.
Once
there was a way
To
get back home.
And now to get to the pregnancy part, if “Golden Slumbers” is a lullaby (and hence something you would sing to a child), then “Golden Blunders” works as a kind of lullaby that you sing to children on their way to becoming adults and, as it turns out, on their way to having children of their own. The lyrics that follow are certainly and obviously about the perils of committing to someone heedlessly, but there are hints that pregnancy is as big a danger as anything in this arrangement:
His and hers forever more, throw your freedom out of the door
Before you find out what it's for
(Chorus)
Four weeks seemed like a long time then - but nine months is longer now
But even if you never speak again - you've already made the wedding vow
The loss of freedom that comes from getting together with someone, even it actually goes as far as marrying them, is something, sure, but it pales in comparison to having a child with them. That’s what the “four weeks” to “nine months” comparison is about, and that is the real “wedding vow.” It is the responsibility for a new life coming from the irresponsibility of a brief and (relatively) meaningless interlude that gives the chorus its drama and weight (a weight that the mother will literally have to carry).
This being established, the last thing that I will note is that I find it quite surprising how moral and preachy this song gets at the end:
Honeymoons will never start, bonds will blow apart
Just as fast as they were made
Men and women please beware: don't pretend you care
Nothing lasts when nothing's there.
It’s not bad advice, but it seems rare for pop songs to carry explicit advice like this, especially since it is advice that may result in not having sex with someone, and may require exercising responsibility. While The Posies were never this preachy again, I feel like this was probably a bad indication of their mainstream rock star potential.
