In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Circle around the park
Joining hands in silence
Watch the evil black the sky
The storm has ripped the shelter
Of illusion from our brow
This power is no mystery to us now.
Leave your spirit genocide
The cancer you won't remove
We cast our funeral rose inside
And bury the need to prove
Our mutilation is to gain from the system
Ooh, turn your head away
From the screen, oh people
It will tell you nothing more
Don't suck the milk of flaccid bill k.
Public's empty promise
To the people that the public can ignore
This way of life is so devised
To snuff out the mind that moves
Moving with grace the men despise
And women have learned to lose
Throw off your shame or be
A slave to the system
I see you take another drag
One more lost soul to raise your flag
The sky is a landfill
I see you take another drag
Let's see you take another drag
You like to dance to the rolling
Head of the adulteress
You sing in praise of suicide
We know you're useless
Like cops at the scene of the crime
With your steroids and your feedbag
And your stable and your trainer
I got a mail bomb for you mister strong arm.
Throw out the stones from all the cemetery homes
For the violence of a nation gone by
Or the politics of weakness
And the garbage dump of souls
That will now black the sky
Their yellow haze and crowds of eyes
Will plug up the mind that moves
Moving with grace the men despise
And women have learned to lose
We'll share our bodies
In disdain for the system
Oh, I see you take another drag
One nation bends to kiss the hag
The sky is a landfill
I see you take another drag
I see you take another drag
I have no fear of this machine
Joining hands in silence
Watch the evil black the sky
The storm has ripped the shelter
Of illusion from our brow
This power is no mystery to us now.
Leave your spirit genocide
The cancer you won't remove
We cast our funeral rose inside
And bury the need to prove
Our mutilation is to gain from the system
Ooh, turn your head away
From the screen, oh people
It will tell you nothing more
Don't suck the milk of flaccid bill k.
Public's empty promise
To the people that the public can ignore
This way of life is so devised
To snuff out the mind that moves
Moving with grace the men despise
And women have learned to lose
Throw off your shame or be
A slave to the system
I see you take another drag
One more lost soul to raise your flag
The sky is a landfill
I see you take another drag
Let's see you take another drag
You like to dance to the rolling
Head of the adulteress
You sing in praise of suicide
We know you're useless
Like cops at the scene of the crime
With your steroids and your feedbag
And your stable and your trainer
I got a mail bomb for you mister strong arm.
Throw out the stones from all the cemetery homes
For the violence of a nation gone by
Or the politics of weakness
And the garbage dump of souls
That will now black the sky
Their yellow haze and crowds of eyes
Will plug up the mind that moves
Moving with grace the men despise
And women have learned to lose
We'll share our bodies
In disdain for the system
Oh, I see you take another drag
One nation bends to kiss the hag
The sky is a landfill
I see you take another drag
I see you take another drag
I have no fear of this machine
Lyrics submitted by pixyscope, edited by recidivist, LoveAndPeace, eleusius
The Sky Is a Landfill Lyrics as written by Jeff Buckley Michael Tighe
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Downtown Music Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Wasted human lives … This is social commentary Jeff Buckley style and it's great because most would gasp at a comment like "The sky IS a landfill" but that’s the peculiar hook of the song that reels you in out of curiosity.
This is the essential three lines of verse if any...
"This way of life is so devised To snuff out the mind that moves Moving with grace the men despise"
Theirs Jeff's signature "GRACE" again by the way, but he is getting at how much of a waste it is that our current system does not encourage evolution in a holistic spiritual metaphysical whateveryouwannacallit sense and if the final product of being a human being is the spirit that graduates from this messed up vehicle when we die and floats upwards into the clouds, then the sky is definitely a landfill of toxic waste because we are not given much of a chance to grow in this devised system. Not such a crazy idea, since even crazier electric transformations happen in a cell under a microscope. Jeff believed music was freedom and when he refers to "the men" that despise grace I'm assuming he means the men in the suits of a somewhat corporate and systematically functional nature by social standards who are probably a lot of the same men in the music industry that were pressing REALLY hard for that second album when he fled to Memphis. I like to think Jeff was sucked under by the Wolf River and forces beyond his control especially since he used to make fun of over-glorified suicide victims in music that were looking for a way out but who knows? It certainly wouldn't be the first time the music machine has pushed someone off the edge of the stage.
I think the “take another drag” business can be a miff with consumerism or Jeff’s mixed attitude towards pot smoking. Jeff smoked but didn’t enjoy the general sense of apathy or numbness that conventionally comes along with that state, and there was nothing apathetic about Jeff. This song has such a strong drive behind it that shows how inexhaustible his effort was sonically and lyrically; it’s to the floor. I assume this song could have been better if it had that final gloss, but the raw edge of its unfinished state is pretty special on its own.
@draven66 Very interesting comment. I think you pretty much pointed out what this song is about or at least Jeff's views attached to it. And I agree that this is already pretty special on its own... Actually, I even find it hard to imagine how he could have perfected it with that "final gloss".<br /> Chears !