It's only when your poison spins into the life you hoped to live
That suddenly you wake up in a shaking panic, now
You set me up like a lamb to slaughter
Garbo as a farmer's daughter
Unbelievable, the gospel according to who?
I lay right down

All your sad and lost apostles
Hum my name and flare their nostrils
Choking on the bones you toss to them
Well, I'm not one to sit and spin
'Cause living well's the best revenge
Baby, I am calling you on that

Don't turn your talking points on me
History will set me free
The future's ours and you don't even rate a footnote now
So who's chasing you? Where did you go?
You disappeared mid-sentence
In a judgment crisis I see my anecdote for it
You weakened shell

All your sad and lost apostles
Hum my name and flare their nostrils
Choking on the bones you toss to them
Well I'm not one to sit and spin
'Cause living well's the best revenge
Baby, I am calling you on that

You savor your dying breath
Well, I forgive but I don't forget
You work it out, let's hear that argument again
Camera three, go now!

All your sad and lost apostles
Hum my name and flare their nostrils
Choking on the bones you toss to them
Well I'm not one to sit and spin
'Cause living well's the best revenge
Baby, I am calling you on that

Baby, I am calling you on that
Baby, I am calling you on


Lyrics submitted by monkeysuncle

Living Well Is The Best Revenge Lyrics as written by Mike Mills Peter Buck

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Living Well Is The Best Revenge song meanings
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  • +1
    General Comment

    Hey Woland ... stop beating around the "Bush." :) That is EXACTLY what this song and many of the others on this wonderful socially-critical album are trying to make.

    Unlike most of the his past political commentary, which oft-times was wrapped in complete metaphor, this time Michael is wielding a very blunt hammer, derisively disregarding Bush and the rest of the red state, red meat crowd who blindly lapped up the bones that were being thrown to them without much of a thought. Stipe constantly mocks all of those on this album, including the line: " all your sad and lost apostles hum my name and flare their nostrils" which I think is his own personal vindication for the way Stipe the political activist as well as others, like the Dixie Chicks, were treated back in the hey-day of the Iraqi war, when they were contemptuously dismissed by those with "flaring nostrils" who could never think for themsleves.

    peacefrogxon April 07, 2008   Link

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