It keeps on getting harder
To keep on keepin' on
With everybody screaming an order in my ear
I want to be my own man; I'd love to walk alone,
But every time I leave my home, this is what I hear

Keep your nose clean, your head above water.
Keep your feet on the ground, keep your hands off my daughter.
Keep your back to the wind, keep your thoughts to yourself.
An eye on the clock, keep an eye on your health.
I wish they'd let me just keep to myself
I do fine on my own.

I keep up with the times; I keep up with the Jones.
I keep up with the rest of your class.
So I keep an open mind and this close-minded world
Keeps on telling me to keep this grass

Keep your nose clean, keep your head above water.
Keep your feet on the ground, your hands off my daughter.
Keep your back to the wind, your thoughts to yourself.
Keep an eye on the clock, an eye on your health.
I wish they'd let me just keep to myself
I do fine on my own.

Keep your nose clean, keep your head above water.
Keep your feet on the ground, your hands off my daughter.
Keep your back to the wind, your thoughts to yourself.
Keep an eye on the clock, an eye on your health.
I wish they'd let me just keep to myself
I do fine on my own.

So I keep an open mind; it's a close-minded world,
Always telling me to keep off the grass.


Lyrics submitted by UnpopularPoet

Keep off the Grass Lyrics as written by

Lyrics © HIPGNOSIS SONGS GROUP

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Keep Off the Grass song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment

    Corrections: its not "an order" its just "orders" "They say to keep up with the times, keep up with the jones, keep up with the rest of your class, So I keep an open mind in this closed minded world that keeps on tellin' me to keep of this grass" You left out "They say," in the first line; there is no I in the 2nd verse and you left out off in the phrase keep off the grass in the 2nd verse. I can't decipher if it's "I'd do fine on my own" or "I do" doesn't change the meaning much either way although the tone of the song suggests people are ordering him around so he would be saying he would do fine without them. Anyway. Great song, excellent use of the double entendre "grass" since Todd is a self-avowed pot smoker. Great hippe themes about autonomy and social constrcutions and raises questions about how "free" we really are in America. Todd can pack a lot into 2:13 seconds. Can't believe I'm the first one posting on this song.

    grt4737on January 15, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Todd has a great story about this song you can hear on Tales from Moondawg's Tavern. It goes like this:

    This is a song I’ve been singing since I was 18. I was living in Texas at the time. Normally, I’d listen to Jerry Jeff, and I’d listen to all these people, but nobody had ever really played me any Bob Dylan. I got this Bob Dylan tape and I started listening to it, and it took me a minute to get it, and then I started laughing. I said, “This is the fuckin’ coolest thing I’ve ever heard.” So, then I got it in my head that I wanted to have a song like “Johnny’s in the basement, mixing up the medicine…” And so I made up this song, and I started playing it around, and everybody liked it, and they seemed to enjoy it, and they’d sing along to it. And then I was at this after-show party with all these musician types. And then I’d play ‘em my song, and one of them goes “That’s just like a Bob Dylan song.” And I’m like, “Yeah! You like it, too?” And he says, “You can’t just you can’t drive around, taking other people’s songs and turn ‘em into your own songs and copy everybody and just do that. You can’t do that.” And I thought, “Okay…” And I put the song away for a few, like eight years I put the song away and never played it again. And then I got this record contract and I toured around with a billion other bands for a few years, and I found out you know, yeah, you CAN just copy other people.

    UnpopularPoeton July 21, 2011   Link

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