Belle & Sebastian – Belle and Sebastian

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I left the school, I left my job
You saw me looking like a slob
When I was young you were the only fun in town

Everyone thought it was a shame
For Belle and the boy Sebastian
Belle was okay but, oh, Sebastian
Went too far again
Crashed his car in the rain

He wants to love and he wants to care
But when the girls hear that, they think he's so square
Sebastian, for once just leave your troubles home
Sebastian, for once just leave your troubles home

She goes to school around the way
The boys are queueing up to tell her she's a star
Poor Sebastian is heading for a fall

Everyone thought it was a shame
For Belle and the boy Sebastian
Belle was okay but, oh, Sebastian
Went too far again
Crashed his car in the rain

Oh, Sebastian wrote his diary that
He would never be young again
But you will
Fellow, you are ill
You'd better take a weight off of your mind and listen
To what other people say
Because things are going wrong your own way


Lyrics submitted by michaelbondy

Belle and Sebastian song meanings
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12 Comments

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  • 0
    General Commentthis song reminds me of the Catcher in the Rye. Holden Caulfield was "heading for a fall" . Its also about him having to grow up and "He would never be young again". the bit about him being ill and telling him to "listen to what other people say"....the bit about crashing the car reminds me of Bob Dylan's tangled up in blue. ithink that is a metaphor for having a mental breakdown or something? i dont know. great song though!
    sOCS479on April 06, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Commentbelle and sebastian are friends making music. belle is cool and popular and sebastian's just a freak. sebastian has no confidence and thinks he messes everything up. when he actually does mess something up, he gets even more down. so he falls into a spiral. he can't come to terms with himself. he's nervous, shy and not really social. on top of everything he has a crush on belle, which makes him even more messed up, because he'll always think that he can never get her, because she's the popular cool girl.

    i kind of think i used to be that kid sebastian.
    proximaon December 20, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General CommentBelle and Sebastian is a french TV show from the 60s, based off of a series of books. Belle is a big dog, and Sebastian is the boy. I'm not sure what the show was about, i've never watched it. But i have a feeling it has something to do with this song.
    iknowmyonionon February 01, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General CommentAnyone have any idea if this song is autobiographical. Is "Belle" Isobel Campbell and is "Sebastian" Stuart Murdoch? The insert for "Tigermilk" and this song seem to be pretty much a biography of these two people.
    skiguskion February 24, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment"Belle and Sebastian ran 64 22-minute episodes in the early eighties. It highlighted the adventures of a young boy named Sebastian, his Pyrenean mountain dog, Belle, and the little puppy he carried in his pocket, Poochie. Sebastian was searching desperately for his mother, Isobelle, and his journeys took him throughout Spain, Andorra, and France. It was an animated version of an earlier series, Belle et Sébastien , based on a book by author Cécile Aubry."
    sylveawongon April 17, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Commentur mom
    whyy24on May 28, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Commentočigledno programatska pjesma
    mali_djavaon September 04, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General CommentStuart claims that he worte this song shortly before he met Isobel, and he used it as a line when he met her for the first time, so according to him it's not directly about him and isobel, but then he denies most songs are about her, even the ones that obviously appear to be!

    Maybe it's a common chat up line he uses, "oh i just wrote a song about xxx", this one turned into a relationshipn so he had to actually go and write the song, it certainly seems to be very evocative of the early stuart and isobel stories. Who knows, what i do know is, it's a great song.
    undersessionson January 24, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General CommentI've always got the impression that the song is about two sides to the one personality, or even one being the public face and one being the abyss you hit sometimes (the 'crashed his car in the rain' line - when it's pushed over) and always fear you'll fall into permanently.

    Just my uninformed supposition.
    clockworktoastieon July 25, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General CommentYou know how there's this feeling in the world now that if you don't find a significant other by the time you reach middle-age you'll be alone forever? I think that's what the first two verses are about. Finding food is finding a "solemate" which is becoming more and more far-fetched with the ease of internet communication and less and less face-to-face communication. The third verse is about spinning your wheels; realizing you're wasting your time doing something that started out as a hobby but now you just do it out of boredom, and now you're not getting paid for it, not enjoying yourself, etc. The last verse is in contrast to the previous three showing that when you're young, anything can be fun. We grow old and our senses become numb to virtually everything enjoyable.

    Not that I don't agree with almost everyone's take on the song... This may even be a regurgitation of one such take.
    dojobugon April 03, 2008   Link

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