I couldn't find quiet
I went out in the rain
I was just soaking my head to unrattle my brain
Somebody said you disappeared in a crowd
I didn't understand then
I don't understand now

Am I the one you think about
When you're sitting in your fainting chair, drinking pink rabbits?
Am I the one you think about
When you're sitting in your fainting chair, drinking pink rabbits?

And everybody was gone
You were staring down the street 'cause you were trying not to crack up

It wasn't like a rain it was more like a sea
I didn't ask for this pain, it just came over me
Well, I love a storm, but I don't love lightning
All the waters coming up so fast, it's frightening

Am I the one you think about
When you're sitting in your fainting chair, drinking pink rabbits?
Am I the one you think about
When you're sitting in your fainting chair, drinking pink rabbits?

And everybody was gone
I was staring down the street 'cause I was trying not to crack

I was solid gold
I was in the fight
I was coming back from what seemed like a ruin
I couldn't see you coming so far
I just turn around and there you are

I'm so surprised you want to dance with me now
I was just getting used to living life without you around
I'm so surprised you want to dance with me now
You always said I held you way too high off the ground

You didn't see me, I was falling apart
I was a white girl in a crowd of white girls in the park
You didn't see me, I was falling apart
I was a television version of a person with a broken heart
You didn't see me, I was falling apart
I was a white girl in a crowd of white girls in a park
You didn't see me, I was falling apart
I was a television version of a person with a broken heart

And everybody was gone
You were staring down the street 'cause you were trying not to crack up
And Bona Drag was still on
Now I only think about Los Angeles when the sound kicks out
Now I only think about Los Angeles when the sound kicks out

You said it would be painless
A needle in a doll
You said it would be painless
It wasn't that at all
You said it would be painless
A needle in a doll
You said it would be painless
It wasn't that at all (when the sound kicks out)
Said it would be painless
A needle in a doll (when the sound kicks out)
Said it would be painless
It wasn't that at all


Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings, edited by Nitro1515, Naninger, jahjahjeh, leonelliot, flamebroiledchicken, robalan, SheWakes, meho, Rasser, Ajensis, sandrineelise, letsgetitright, Supersheep, zarsejm, miiihaaas, scit789, Janice89, Trickcyclist, ancym, bolachamaria, omgkittens, abesalot, Koen87, ruindpzzle, alex_cilley, tudor96stani, murilofsb, tryptych, theadvocate

Pink Rabbits Lyrics as written by Matthew Berninger Aaron Dessner

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management

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Pink Rabbits song meanings
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  • +11
    General Comment

    I think the action of the song might not actually take place in LA. The fact that he "only thinks about LA" when the sound kicks out seems to indicate that he isn't there anymore, but used to be.

    Also, the song that immediately precedes this one on the album, "Humiliation," indicates that he lost a job "fishing LA women out of pools" and contemplates the "little life" he'll be leaving, suggesting that he's leaving California. The song immediately after "Pink Rabbits," "Hard to Find," then starts by saying that the "glowing lights" are "really not that far away, I could be there in a day," indicating that the narrator might be in New York for at least the last two songs on the album. (I believe Matt Berninger does keep homes in both LA and New York.)

    This would also make more sense for "Pink Rabbits" as, though it does rain in LA, it's far more likely for rain to be "coming down so fast its frightening" in New York.

    With that said, I think this song is part of a larger story being told on the album about a narrator who drives his partner away while in Los Angeles looking for "trouble." (See: "Jenny I am in trouble" on "This is the Last Time" and then "I'm in the city you hated" while his partner is "back in the South" on "Slipped".) "Pink Rabbits" is the reunion song. He's thinking about her when he turns around and "there she is." He's pretty self-deprecating about how he felt in her absence and then makes reference to a voodoo doll to explain how he was still able to "feel pain over a distance." She said their separation would be relatively painless.

    It wasn't that at all.

    scott lockeon June 13, 2013   Link
  • +10
    My Interpretation

    My interpretation: In short I think it's about a breakup, one that was ended by the girl, leaving him with feelings of confusion and huge amounts of pain. After some time, when he is fighting to get his life back together, she'd suddenly let him know that she wanted to be a part of his life again.

    "I couldn't find quiet I went out in the rain I was just soaking my head to unrattle my brain Somebody said you disappeared in a crowd I didn't understand then I don't understand now"

    There's a lot of confusion in his head about why the girl broke up with him and he needed to clear his head. In the end he still doesn't know why things happened the way they did. Speaking to someone else about it is not helping, all there is, is "why?".

    "Am I the one you think about When you're sitting in your fainting chair drinking pink rabbits?"

    He is wondering if she is thinking about him at moments where she doesn't have anything else on her mind. Are you even thinking a little bit about me while I’m thinking so much about you?

    "It wasn't like a rain it was more like a sea I didn't ask for this pain it just came over me I love a storm, but I don't love lightning All the waters coming up so fast, it's frightening"

    His pain and sadness cannot be described as painful raindrops falling upon him, no, it’s much worse than that and he's drowning in it. Even though he is not afraid of some trouble in his life and assumes some struggle to be perfectly normal (the storm), the sudden and enormous amount of pain he now is suffering from, is way too much.

    “I was solid gold I was in the fight I was coming back from what seemed like a ruin I couldn't see you coming so far I just turn around and there you are”

    After a while he is fighting to get his life back together. He was building something up again that was once shattered. Just when he reached the point that he was accepting that things where the way they were and not thinking that she might come back anymore, she suddenly was there.

    “I'm so surprised you want to dance with me now I was just getting used to living life without you around I'm so surprised you want to dance with me now You always said I held you way too high off the ground”

    He was getting over her and now she wanted to be back in his life. Even though there were troubles in the past that made it difficult to have a relationship with him. (“way too high of the ground” can be a metaphor for putting someone on a pedestal. So he was always idolizing her and being too nice. It can also be read together with the metaphor of dancing, which is a (possible) relationship. You cannot dance correctly if you lift someone up too high. So in that case there were troubles in their past relationship that she held him accountable for.)

    “You didn't see me I was falling apart I was a white girl in a crowd of white girls in the park”

    After the relationship ended she did not see how much pain he had to endure. He felt that he meant nothing to her at that time, he was just another person in a crowd of persons; indistinguishable from the rest.

    “I was a television version of a person with a broken heart”

    In my opinion the most beautiful sentence in the song. Television portrayals of someone with a certain emotion are mostly simple but also very pure. When someone in a movie or television drama feels heartbroken (or any other form of ‘heavy’ emotion) that’s everything he or she feels. That is, someone who loses all hope and purpose in life and becomes irreparably depressed. Unlike most cases in real life where these feelings can still predominate, but where there’s also a time and place for a little smile, a normal conversation, mindlessly doing the dishes every now and then. So… he is simply trying to say how profound the pain was that he felt after she broke his heart.

    “You said it will be painless The needle in the doll You said it will be painless It wasn't that at all”

    Someone said some reassuring things to him after the breakup. (This can be his ex-girlfriend but I think it’s someone else close to him.) “You can still be friends” “You’ll get over it” and things like that. Still it feels like he is at the other end of a voodoo doll and all the memories and thoughts about her are the needles that are hurting him. Even though she’s away, she is what’s causing him so much pain.

    Supersheepon July 26, 2013   Link
  • +8
    General Comment

    I love the ambiguities in this.

    "You were standing in the street 'cause you were tryin' not to crack up" can be read two ways - you were trying not to break down and fall apart, or you were trying not to laugh - and they're both so valid. In this situation - meeting an old lover by chance when you never got the closure you needed with them, as I read it - you'd be in pain and laughing.

    And "so surprised you'd want to dance with me now..." Do you think she asked him to dance? I can never decide if that's what he's expecting, or if she asked for a last dance in the rain.

    But yes, simple meaning - he walked out of the party to clear his head in the rain, and there she was, doing the same thing. He was just getting over a rough patch in his life/ a depression/"coming back from what seemed like a ruin," when it happened, and he's surprised that she'd be there and want some closure. He looks back at how they ended and says the mistakes they made were a lot more painful than they ever expected, but he's moving on now/only things about it when the sun kicks out....

    scton June 09, 2013   Link
  • +5
    General Comment

    At the moment my main comment about this is that it might be the best song they've ever written.

    Sounds like it's about two people having some sort of denouement in a street in LA in the rain.

    caitsith01on May 15, 2013   Link
  • +5
    General Comment

    Anyone think this song could be related to "This is The Last Time"?

    The lines that made me think about it are "You always said I held you way too high off the ground" and "Oh, when I lift you up/You feel like a hundred times yourself".

    bybymcon May 31, 2013   Link
  • +4
    Lyric Correction

    "Boner drag was still on"

    Should be "Bona Drag was still on" (Bona Drag is a Morrissey album)

    soybobombon May 11, 2013   Link
  • +4
    General Comment

    "I was solid gold I was in the fight I was coming back from what seemed like a ruin I couldn't see you coming so far I just turn around and there you are

    I'm so surprised you want to dance with me now I was just getting used to living life without you around"

    goddamn

    gizmo26on May 31, 2013   Link
  • +2
    My Opinion

    The "I was solid gold.." part of this song is really something special.

    defjukieon May 17, 2013   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    "I was solid gold, I was in the fight, I was coming back from what seemed like a ruin".

    What a line. I'm in love with the comparison between his uphill struggle to fend off the dark cloud of this relationship he sings about and that of an almost defeated boxer (to me at least). The brilliant moment when he almost makes the miraculous comeback in the ring, but as the song goes on, you find he never achieved it and ends defeated.

    decade03on July 30, 2013   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation

    Oh my - what a song. When I listen to it, I feel like it a song about a girl leaving a boy. The girl left him because he held her on too much of a pedestal, "You always said I held you way too high off the ground". The boy is heartbroken, "I was a television version of a person with a broken heart". She'd told him when she left that it was for the best, and the pain would be short and sharp and "painless". And then she came back, and he is conflicted. He was moving on.

    My early contender for best song on the album.

    tednolon June 05, 2013   Link

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