In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
I was sayin' let me out of here before I was
Even born, it's such a gamble when you get a face
It's fascinatin' to observe what the mirror does
But when I dine it's for the wall that I set a place
I belong to the blank generation and
I can take it or leave it each time, well
I belong to the generation but
I can take it or leave it each time
Triangles were fallin' at the window as the doctor cursed
He was a cartoon long forsaken by the public eye
The nurse adjusted her garters as I breathed my first
The doctor grabbed my throat and yelled, "God's consolation prize!"
I belong to the blank generation and
I can take it or leave it each time, well
I belong to the generation but
I can take it or leave it each time
To hold the T.V. to my lips, the air so packed with cash
Then carry it up flights of stairs and drop it in the vacant lot
To lose my train of thought and fall into your arms' tracks
And watch beneath the eyelids every passing dot
I belong to the blank generation and
I can take it or leave it each time, well
I belong to the generation but
I can take it or leave it each time
I belong to the blank generation and
I can take it or leave it each time, well
I belong to the generation but
I can take it or leave it each time
Even born, it's such a gamble when you get a face
It's fascinatin' to observe what the mirror does
But when I dine it's for the wall that I set a place
I belong to the blank generation and
I can take it or leave it each time, well
I belong to the generation but
I can take it or leave it each time
Triangles were fallin' at the window as the doctor cursed
He was a cartoon long forsaken by the public eye
The nurse adjusted her garters as I breathed my first
The doctor grabbed my throat and yelled, "God's consolation prize!"
I belong to the blank generation and
I can take it or leave it each time, well
I belong to the generation but
I can take it or leave it each time
To hold the T.V. to my lips, the air so packed with cash
Then carry it up flights of stairs and drop it in the vacant lot
To lose my train of thought and fall into your arms' tracks
And watch beneath the eyelids every passing dot
I belong to the blank generation and
I can take it or leave it each time, well
I belong to the generation but
I can take it or leave it each time
I belong to the blank generation and
I can take it or leave it each time, well
I belong to the generation but
I can take it or leave it each time
Lyrics submitted by PineapplePrince
Blank Generation Lyrics as written by Richard Hell
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I don't think this song is about nihilsm, because Richard never seemed to be an anomie. He wrote very emotional songs. I think this is about being detatched from society, in both good ways and bad. He takes a TV and drops it in a vacant lot - he is removed from everyday news and politics, from gossip and oppinion. He doesn't want to listen to all the rubbish that everyone else does. He belongs not to generation X, or generation Y, but his own generation; and he can choose what he likes, hates, does or doesn't do. He is an idividual. At the same time, he was saying "Let me out of here!" Before he was born, he already felt trapped by the conformities of this world. He has no friends, because he cannot understand them any more than they understand him. He has reaped the benifits and the maladies that come with awareness. How true those words. By the way, anyone noticed Hell's strange obsession with triangles?
@NellieWhiskey Gen X or Y? He was born in 1949, he was an early baby boomer.
Somehow, feeling anything about this song seems to totally contradict its poignancy and meaning...
First, I believe the significance of triangles is they suggest a declaration of direction, but also the potential for instability. Being born surely fits with a declaration of direction - but to Richard only in the sense of Gd's consolation prize (born into chaos). The song is ultimately a rejection of social and other norms and a freedom from letting yourself be defined, at least by other people. he brings up how he could worry about what other people think of him, but has decided to be comfortable in his own skin/home - that's what the mirror and the wall are about - dining serving as a metaphor of something people do together with other people like them and use it to judge, manipulate, interact with one another.
But, when I dine it's for the wall that a set a place.
YEAH!
No one knows how to rock like Richard Hell anymore.
does anyone know if the so-called "Blank Generation" of American novelists in the 1980s (best represented by Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho and Less Than Zero) is named for this tune?
well im not sure if that is the original blank generation. i believed that the 70 s with the whole new york punk scene was named the blank generation because all these self centered and vacant punks emerged. u r probably right tho halo ape still awesome song
amazing song. theres no shit like this these days. maybe there is but no one really appreciates it.
By blank generation it means a clean slate and a fresh start, Year zero and all that
I love the second verse.