This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
The sun is shining
We should be making hay
But we're dead from the waist down
Like in Californ-i-a
Victory is empty
There are lessons in defeat
But we're dead from the waist down
We are sleeping on our feet
We stole the songs from birds in trees
Bought us time on easy street
Now our paths, they never meet
We chose to court and flatter greed
Ego-disposability
I caught a glimpse and it's not me
Make hay not war
Make hay not war
Make hay not war
Or else you're done for
When we're D from the W down
There's no contracts binding
No bad scene beyond repair
But when you're dead from the waist down
You're too far gone to even care
We stole the songs from birds in trees
Bought us time on easy street
Now our paths, they never meet
We chose to court and flatter greed
Ego-disposability
I caught a glimpse and it's not me
Make hay not war
Make hay not war
Make hay not war
Or else we're done for
When you're D from the W down
Make hay not war
Make hay not war
Make hay not war
Or else we're done for
When you're D from the W down
When you're D from the W down
D from the W down
D from the W down
We should be making hay
But we're dead from the waist down
Like in Californ-i-a
Victory is empty
There are lessons in defeat
But we're dead from the waist down
We are sleeping on our feet
We stole the songs from birds in trees
Bought us time on easy street
Now our paths, they never meet
We chose to court and flatter greed
Ego-disposability
I caught a glimpse and it's not me
Make hay not war
Make hay not war
Make hay not war
Or else you're done for
When we're D from the W down
There's no contracts binding
No bad scene beyond repair
But when you're dead from the waist down
You're too far gone to even care
We stole the songs from birds in trees
Bought us time on easy street
Now our paths, they never meet
We chose to court and flatter greed
Ego-disposability
I caught a glimpse and it's not me
Make hay not war
Make hay not war
Make hay not war
Or else we're done for
When you're D from the W down
Make hay not war
Make hay not war
Make hay not war
Or else we're done for
When you're D from the W down
When you're D from the W down
D from the W down
D from the W down
Lyrics submitted by Mainstreet
Dead from the Waist Down Lyrics as written by Cerys Matthews Aled Richards
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
No Surprises
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Amazing
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Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
There is no harm in casual sex between consenting adults. It's natural, like hay.
(We stole the songs from birds in trees) Our past sexual experiences influence our current sexual experiences.
an interesting translation of the lyrics, I never really thought about it like that before.
yes i thought it was about war and the post-war world where we're all only concerned with our own welfare "flatter greed" and "too far gone to even care" etc
I really wish I knew what this song meant, that first translation dusn't really click and the second one is prob a lot closer, but not spot on, I have no idea!
Cerys Matthews (the singer/writer) has said in several interviews that this song is about male impotence but I've never really been able to work out what the lyrics mean!
I'd never thought of male impotence... but that'd make sense
Hmmm... IMHO this song is about sexual, and also emotional, abstinence. About people who, perhaps after a broken relationship or a bad experience, refrain themselves from the good and bad things love can bring, and choose to live in a state of blissful apathy.
"There's no contracts binding, No bad scene beyond repair, But when you're dead from the waist down, You're too far gone to even care.
We stole the songs from birds in trees, Bought us time on easy street, Now our paths, they never meet, We chose to court and flatter greed, ego disposability, I caught a glimpse and it's not me"
I think those lines prove it... Btw, don't mix politics into the bag, I'm not saying i'm seeing pro-life issues in this song!. In my oppinion, she's singing about the 'bah-I-don't-give-a-damn-about-sex-n-stuff' kind of abstinence rather than about the 'god-says-I-must-remain-pure-until-marriage' one, if you know what I mean...
The chorus is so moving....
To me this song is about selling your soul, and how focusing on success and material things at the extent of your emotional life ends up killing that part of you.
that's a good interpretation. I think your right.
At the time catatonia had achieved a modicum of success but the band were, as always, fighting. I read this song as a metaphor for the band’s impotence at this time. They should be making money and making songs but they weren’t able to. They were all living in different places, fighting and the songs they used to write so easily just weren’t coming. This was Cerys’s way of getting the band into peace talks. The reference to California was a trip they took there and it was a bit of a disaster in terms of relationships.
The songs we stole from birds in trees was a reference to their past ability to write songs and the easy life they had with a record deal and success. The paths that never meet is a reference to the bands separation and their individual greed and egos. But that’s not who Cherys was. Make hay not war means make the best of our fortunes and let’s stop fighting and do what we love.