There is a man with no face and a name I don’t remember living in a house in the middle of the woods and he said once “Son, don’t you ever laugh out loud for they are listening, yes they are listening. Oh you’ve got to be strong, Oh, you’ve got to keep holding on, it’s now just a matter of time”

They provide the paint for the picture perfect masterpiece that you will paint on the insides of your eyelids; can you possibly see anything you want to see? No (Hell No!) “There’s nothing wrong with the way I see” and he wanted to be a soldier in the next great war he wanted to kill and fight and maim but not be told what he was fighting for. And that’s the way it’s going to have to be my friend, and that’s the way it’s going to have to be my friend.

I passed a man on the corner in the city yesterday singing “Yada yada yada and tomorrow it’ll never end” and I thought I’d never live to see another sunny day but I’m here and I’ll be here until the end. So watch your mouth or you’re going to make a grave mistake. Hold your tongue or you’re going to catch a bullet in the head. So watch your mouth or you’re going to make a grave mistake. Don’t die for anything less than the best of life.

The thing they said went to you head but you never tried to understand: in the end you will never take back what they take when take what they can because they can from you. You follow me and you follow me but you never ask why and I wonder what you’re under could this be another piece of the “I don’t know I just do what they say because they say what to do in a matter of fact way” but don’t stop because you might get burned and you might just learn to stand on your own two feet and I think that it’s neat how you learn to repeat everything that you hear in the street so well.

And everyone was resting because they thought it was the end and even if it wasn’t they decide they’d pretend and somewhere in the distance I could hear him whispering “You can fight all you want they will win in the end” sometimes in the evening when I’m lying in my bed I am taken to the forest to the isolated shed and I wake with is words resonating in my head and I can’t stop thinking about the gist of what he said. He said: so watch your mouth or you’re going to make a grave mistake. Hold your tongue or you’re going to catch a bullet in the head. So watch your mouth or you’re going to make a grave mistake. Don’t die for anything less than the best of, everyone settles for the rest not the best of, I will die for no less than the best of life.


Lyrics submitted by Wezzul

They Provide The Paint... song meanings
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  • +2
    General Comment

    I love how the title of this song is so long. Just in case anyone doesn't already know what it is, I'll put it here since it couldn't fit up top (the band's name is pretty long, too!).

    "They Provide the Paint for the Picture Perfect Masterpiece That You Will Paint on the Insides of Your Eyelids"

    Damn... now THATS a title. This song is another BOTAR masterpiece...

    Jimmifrisbeeon April 08, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    People don't think for themselves. They take what is given to them and they do what they are told. Being an individual doesn't fit in to what society, for the most part, accepts. People just don't have any standards, and even if they do, they don't follow them, they just live a completely boring and normal life. They waste it, they settle for "the rest of", or just what is there for everyone to have freely, instead of "the best of", or what you get when you try and you live a good, moral, individual life. Not much more to ask from a song then that. Not much more to ask from people then that.

    SlapsterMcFlashon April 12, 2004   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    "Don’t die for anything less than the best of, everyone settles for the rest not the best of, I will die for no less than the best of life."

    My favorite lyrics, and perhaps my motto of life.

    This song is such a great song. SlapsterMcFlash explained it perfectly.

    BOTAR is so awesome. Their instrumentals are rad, the lyrics are awesome, the messages in their lyrics are wonderful.

    E Bensonon November 14, 2004   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    The title pretty much sums up the entire song. "They Provide that Paint for the Picture Perfect Masterpiece That You Will Paint on the Insides of Your Eyelids"

    They = Society

    The paint = Thought

    Picture Perfect Masterpiece = The way we're all 'supposed' to live.

    Paint on the inside of your eyelids = How you think. Everything 'inside' your eyelids is what your mind sees.

    Egalitarian.on October 20, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    The EP is back up for sale at:

    theriscstore.com/index.asp

    THOR9595on March 14, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I was just curious if anyone else thought the old man without a face or a name is a reference to Salinger. It seems like it would fit well.

    Pretzel Goldfishon June 05, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I actually do not believe this is about Salinger, I believe it is more based on Walden(I think that's his name). He wrote an essay called "Civil Disobedience". Walden, hemingway, and Emerson are all big figures in a few songs by BOTAR and SM, at least I think so. I had lots of proof and documentation but I can't really find it now. I'm kinda drowsy because I just got my wisdom teeth pulled literally this morning... sorry.

    bfcobblerman08on June 23, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Hah, it was Thoreau, but yeah, same concept. The drowsiness makes it okay.

    lessthanthebeston July 11, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    henry david Thoreau wrote Walden Or, Life in the Woods, i haven't read it but the synopsis on amazon is

    "In this illustrated adaptation of Thoreau's famous work, a man retreats into the woods and discovers the joys of solitude and nature."

    and in the song it says stuff like

    "sometimes in the evening when I’m lying in my bed I am taken to the forest to the isolated shed and I wake with is words resonating in my head"

    thats my little bit

    tye8727on July 30, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I would have to say that the whole media controlling our thoughts is part of the song is part of the song. But another thing about it really is living for yourself and not dying for a cause you don't believe in or care about and dying for no less than the best of life as is said.

    lordlemmingon August 25, 2006   Link

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