This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
I keep staring at the sky
I've been waiting for some time
So out of touch
So out of mind
I can feel you there, I won't lie
We're all just kids
We're all good liars
Good liars
Please try to understand
There is no great plan
We have no idea
What lies beyond our reach
Try to understand
There is no great plan
We will cross the line
With an open mind
Show me what it is
Hush my desires
Set me on fire
Please try to understand
There is no great plan
We have cast our lies
To the open skies
Try to understand
We've another plan
We have crossed the line
With an open mind
We have crossed that line
You're new to me
And I believe
You have to be
The one we need
Soon you will see it with all
Our reasons for trying to justify
We hold the fate of the world
The dearly departed
They won't make a sound
They won't make a sound
You are the same as us all
Blood running in our veins
Few have the heart of a brave,
Now will you run or stay?
We hide away our vicious things
Don't let them out
Even the ones that we don't see
Who are always there
You are the salt of all
You are the salt of the same blood running in our veins
Few have the heart of the brave
Now, will you run or stay?
We hide away our vicious things
Don't let them out
Even the ones that we don't see
Who are always there
You're new to me
And I believe
You have to be
The one we need
Take me with you on your sky machine
(Please try to understand, there is no great plan)
I'm dying to know
(We have cast our lies to the open skies)
Way out far from what it is we see
(Try to understand, we've another plan
We have crossed the line with an open mind)
Soon you will see it with all
Our reasons for trying to justify
We hold the fate of the world
The dearly departed
They won't make a sound
They won't make a sound
I've been waiting for some time
So out of touch
So out of mind
I can feel you there, I won't lie
We're all just kids
We're all good liars
Good liars
Please try to understand
There is no great plan
We have no idea
What lies beyond our reach
Try to understand
There is no great plan
We will cross the line
With an open mind
Show me what it is
Hush my desires
Set me on fire
Please try to understand
There is no great plan
We have cast our lies
To the open skies
Try to understand
We've another plan
We have crossed the line
With an open mind
We have crossed that line
You're new to me
And I believe
You have to be
The one we need
Soon you will see it with all
Our reasons for trying to justify
We hold the fate of the world
The dearly departed
They won't make a sound
They won't make a sound
You are the same as us all
Blood running in our veins
Few have the heart of a brave,
Now will you run or stay?
We hide away our vicious things
Don't let them out
Even the ones that we don't see
Who are always there
You are the salt of all
You are the salt of the same blood running in our veins
Few have the heart of the brave
Now, will you run or stay?
We hide away our vicious things
Don't let them out
Even the ones that we don't see
Who are always there
You're new to me
And I believe
You have to be
The one we need
Take me with you on your sky machine
(Please try to understand, there is no great plan)
I'm dying to know
(We have cast our lies to the open skies)
Way out far from what it is we see
(Try to understand, we've another plan
We have crossed the line with an open mind)
Soon you will see it with all
Our reasons for trying to justify
We hold the fate of the world
The dearly departed
They won't make a sound
They won't make a sound
Lyrics submitted by orphaeus99
Sky Machine Lyrics as written by Ian Kenny Andrew Goddard
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This song is one of the best from the album, I feel, by a band which has given me hope regarding the current music scene. It's so good to see progressive bands like Karnivool, Tesseract, Periphery coming out with good music.
First of all, I think this song is a call for help to the power above, in the first part:
"I keep staring at the sky I've been waiting for some time So out of touch So out of mind I can feel you there, I won't lie We're all just kids We're all good liars Good liars..."
Ian is referring to humankind as ignorant lying kids, and he acknowledges and pleads for the power above to guide them which resonates in the lines to follow:
"Please try to understand There is no great plan We have no idea What lies beyond our reach Try to understand There is no great plan We will cross the line With an open mind"
There is no great plan that we have for us, but we will cross the line and accept the truth when you tell us, with an open mind. It's pretty literal.
"Show me what it is Hush my desires Set me on fire"
Tell me what the truth is, silent my desires and let me know what is real. The purpose. 'Set me on fire' basically refers to testing him.
There is a very beautiful epiphany from this point onwards I believe, as he realises that the almighty is one of us, we are his incarnations here on this earth..he has finally crossed that line by knowing this truth..
"Please try to understand There is no great plan We have cast our lies To the open skies Try to understand We've another plan We have crossed the line With an open mind
We have crossed that line (x2)"
"You're new to me And I believe You have to be The one we need"
This is all still new to him. But he is fairly certain that it is what we need.
"Soon you will see it with all Our reasons for trying to justify We hold the fate of the world The dearly departed They won't make a sound They won't make a sound"
"You are the same as us all Blood running in our veins Few have the heart of a brave, Now will you run or stay? We hide away our vicious things Don't let them out Even the ones that we don't see Who are always there"
Soon we will all realise, with our power of reason, that we are the ones who will decide the fate for the generations to come.
Now after knowing this, do you have the courage to stay and accept your truth, or will you be one of the many who would thrive at the brink of ignorance?
"You are the salt of all"
You are the purest of all.
In the end, he begs to be taken away from everything, to know the real truth of existence of us.
"Take me with you on your sky machine (Please try to understand, there is no great plan) I'm dying to know (We have cast our lies to the open skies) Way out far from what it is we see (Try to understand, we've another plan We have crossed the line with an open mind)"
This is my first interpretation. Comments are welcome. :)
A lot of the songs on this album seem to deal with an apocalypse, but all from a nihilistic point of view. Sorry to say this, but I think your analysis here is exactly backwards. To me, this song is about the absence of afterlife. It is about the tension generated by the inevitability of dying and being oblivious to what happens next. Kenny has previously written lyrics with a very clear anti-theistic point of view (Set Fire to the Hive, All I Know, and This Cauldal Lure being the most obvious), so it would be hypocritical and out of place for this song to be about waiting for guidance from higher beings. He also says that he writes lyrics to inspire, like a 'call to arms'. Take 'WE ARE' for example, which seems to be about humanity's ability to destroy everything that allows us to prosper ie. environment etc. He fears who we are because we are our own unbringing. If there were to be a higher power and an afterlife, then what motivation would we have to care for THIS life if we were guaranteed an eternity of perfection as soon as we died?
Totally agree with gcj725 here, it seems pretty clear to me that you have it the opposite way around.<br /> <br /> "I keep staring at the sky<br /> I've been waiting for some time<br /> So out of touch<br /> So out of mind"<br /> <br />
What you say makes sense. But guess what I said is my interpretation. :)
So when you said 'Comments are welcome', you were lying?
I agree with you paintedgray, This song is amazing and i think humanity needs something to push us onto the right path.
That is some detailed interpretation. I adore Asymmetry, though at first it really seemed sort of safisticated to me, but then, I kept on listening to this work again and again. Anyways, Sky Machine, I think, is not only one of the best songs from the band but one of the best pieces of modern music - all those rythmical and melodical switches in it make me wanna, I don't know, burst in tears of elation maybe )))<br /> <br /> Well, on your interpretation. I think it really may be accurate enough and get the point of the song pretty much close to what it could be about. I also tend to think that Sky Machine could do something about the themes of devinity, higher powers and such.
On the oooother hand, other people's thought that the song could be, let's say, slightly atheistic. I've just run through the text again and, yeah, some lines definitely show that anti-theist approach. But, hey, a good song can not have only one meaning, right ;)<br /> <br /> And, regrding my previous reply - sorry for my misspelling; besides sophisticated is not the correct for to describe my first impression of the album. I think that "complex" will do the job greatly )