Go on and wring my neck
Like when a rag gets wet
A little discipline
For my pet genius

My head is like a lettuce
Go on and dig your thumbs in
I cannot stop giving
I'm thirty-something

Sense of security
Like pockets jingling
Midlife crisis
Suck ingenuity

Down through the family tree
You're perfect, yes, it's true
But without me you're only you
Your menstruating heart
It ain't bleedin' enough for two

It's a midlife crisis
It's a midlife crisis
What an inheritance
The salt and the Kleenex

Morbid self attention
Bending my pinky back
A little discipline
A donor by habit

A little discipline
Rent an opinion
Sense of security
Holding blunt instrument

Midlife crisis
I'm a perfectionist
And perfect is a skinned knee
You're perfect, yes, it's true
But without me you're only you

Your menstruating heart
It ain't bleeding enough for two

(Yeah)

It's a midlife crisis
It's a midlife crisis

You're perfect, yes, it's true (go on and wring my neck)
(Like when a rag gets wet) but without me you're only you (go on and wring my neck)
Your menstruating heart (go on and wring my neck)
(Like when a rag gets wet) it ain't bleedin' enough for two

You're perfect, yes, it's true (go on and wring my neck)
(Like when a rag gets wet) but without me you're only you (go on and wring my neck) (you're only you)
Your menstruating heart (go on and wring my neck)
(Like when a rag gets wet) it ain't bleedin' enough for two

You're perfect, yes, it's true (go on and wring my neck)
(Like when a rag gets wet) but without me you're only you (go on and wring my neck) (you're only you)
Your menstruating heart (go on and wring my neck)
(Like when a rag gets wet) it ain't bleedin' enough for two

You're perfect, yes, it's true (go on and wring my neck)
(Like when a rag gets wet) but without me you're only you (go on and wring my neck)

Your menstruating heart (go on and wring my neck)
(Like when a rag gets wet) it ain't bleedin' enough for two


Lyrics submitted by jt

Midlife Crisis Lyrics as written by Roddy Christopher Bottum Michael Andrew Bordin

Lyrics © BIG THRILLING MUSIC

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Midlife Crisis song meanings
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58 Comments

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  • +6
    General Comment

    Mike Patton is notorious for bullshitting reporters. I don't believe the Madonna thing at all.

    Midlife Crisis is about a child's father who lusts for his youth and abandons the family and then that child grows up and has a Midlife crisis himself. The whole time he's going through it, he remembers the pain of being selfishly abandoned by his own father and is both sickened by the pain he's causing as well as with the sudden sympathy and renewed anger towards his father who left so many years ago for the same reasons.

    The song is riddled with double-meanings.

    A lot of times, men going through a Midlife crisis feel as though they've wasted their youth and potential and have regrets. They suddenly feel "weighed down" by the burdens of family and want to be young again.

    "Suck ingenuity down through the family tree"

    Refers to that sense of having wasted potential to pass it on to the kids. It also refers to the "passing on" of the crisis itself from father to son.

    "Your menstruating heart doesn't bleed enough for two"

    Another dual meaning:

    1. it refers the anger he felt as a child at his father expressing sorrow but leaving anyway...like saying "I'm sorry I have to do this, kid" and walking out the door.
    2. it refers to his own understanding of the emotional hemorrhaging he is causing his family and realizing that he's going to abandon them anyway.

    Now read the rest of the lyrics and you'll understand.

    navkaton April 06, 2008   Link
  • +4
    General Comment

    Here's a quote from Mike Patton: "The song is based on a lot of observation and a lot of speculation. But in sort of a pointed way its kind of about Madonna...I think it was a particular time where I was being bombarded with her image on TV and in magazines and her whole schtick kind of speaks to me in that way...like she's going through some sort of problem. It seems she's getting a bit desperate."

    Aneurysm1985on July 11, 2002   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    This is on GTA:San Andreas. Awesome.

    Nick Tonicon November 01, 2004   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    Yeah, this is on San Andreas, on Radio X.

    Mmmm. Radio stations.

    Dushon December 09, 2005   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    The child abuse theory seems to fit better than some of the others. It was on San Andreas because the song came out in the early 90's-late 80's and that's supposedly the years San Andreas was based off.

    Bradley4Presidenton December 21, 2005   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    I don't get a masturbation vibe out of this song at all.

    Jesus. Alice in Chains don't write every song about drugs, and Faith No More don't write every song about masturbation!

    What an interesting band concept that would be, though...

    The Honest Liaron January 04, 2010   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Yes its quite simple, that one reference clearly supports your theory, despite being contrary to the meaning given by the writer of the lyrics himself. Quite simple indeed.

    bongoon January 05, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    this song is awesome and for some reason they put it in san andreas?!?!

    stryker311on June 28, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    I dunno about the Madonna thing (but the quote can be found at fnm.com/faq/ (hit CTRL+F and type in 'Madonna')), but this part seems to support that:

    "You're perfect yes, it's true But without me you're only you"

    Seems to say 'without your fame and your fans, you're just a schmuck like the rest of us'

    fo0tson August 19, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Beautifully and subtlely written poem basically describing being used by someone you love. Signing up for their problems (inheriting, or being sucked into a family tree) by being with that person in a relationship, giving his/her life up for that person and getting nothing in return.

    Two dynamics are represented in the song, first the narrator is used up, then the narrator gives up. Second, the person the song is about only thinks of themselves so they never understand why or how the other person feels empty from all the giving.

    So number one has to figure out to stay or to go

    "You're perfect, yes its true" (yeah you have everything you want) but without me you are only you (what do you really have in the end) Your menstruating heart It ain't bleedin' enough for two (you only have enough love for yourself)

    so, hense, it's a midlife crisis, by the time you found out you are with a person who sucks the life out of you, you've pretty much had all the life sucked out already, so now what do you do?

    naderkidon November 02, 2006   Link

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