Your silver tongue laughs at the clowns of our age
A slow production line of cheap-shots from both sides
Shot from the hip to my seventh rib
A spoiled tomato lies in all that you say
And I was the last of us to know

Sound the alarm for my sentimental ways
Have come in view and we've all got our own knives
Sold to the worst of the devils we know
Our mind and tight skin will be old
But this wasn't meant for us to know

Youth's open shutters
Give way to another
Taken by slight of hand...
And every American
Has the mouth of a pelican
Now can I share that pillow with you love?

They've got us in fits to find a way out
Of this exploded view of a life once so simple
First with the curse that my sentimental ways
Are drawing my innocence to a close
And these were not meant for me to know


Lyrics submitted by evapor8ed

My Seventh Rib song meanings
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    General Comment

    This seems to me to be a coming of age song, where Mercer begins to lose his innocence as he comes to discover all the lies he was told when he was young (the "rotten tomatoes" that lie in what many people say). Partly, Mercer wishes he never found out about these things ("these weren't meant for us to know"). At the same time, however, he recognizes that this ignorance is what gives bad people the power to do bad things ("we've all got our own knives, sold to the worst of the devils we know"). By believing the lies of what people tell us, we hand over our power to do something good to these "devils". Mercer wishes that he could live an innocent life like he did as a child, but he is torn because he also realizes that this innocence is exploited by bad people.

    nowhereman1980on May 03, 2008   Link

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