The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Seether is neither loose nor tight
Seether is neither black nor white
I try to keep her on a short leash
I try to calm her down
I try to ram her into the ground, yeah
Can't fight the seether
Can't fight the seether
Can't fight the seether
I can't see her till I'm foaming at the mouth
Seether is neither big nor small
Seether is the center of it all
I try to rock her in my cradle
I try to knock her out
I try to cram her back in my mouth, yeah
Can't fight the seether (seether)
Can't fight the seether (seether)
Can't fight the seether
I can't see her till I'm foaming at the mouth
Keep her down, boiling water
Keep her down, what a lovely daughter
Oh she is not born like other girls
But I know how to conceive her
Oh she may not look like other girls
But she's a snarl tooth seether, seether
Can't fight the seether
Can't fight the seether
Can't fight the seether
I can't see her till I'm foaming at the mouth
Can't fight the seether (seether)
Can't fight the seether (seether)
Can't fight the seether
I can't see her till I'm foaming at the mouth
Yeah
Seether is neither black nor white
I try to keep her on a short leash
I try to calm her down
I try to ram her into the ground, yeah
Can't fight the seether
Can't fight the seether
Can't fight the seether
I can't see her till I'm foaming at the mouth
Seether is neither big nor small
Seether is the center of it all
I try to rock her in my cradle
I try to knock her out
I try to cram her back in my mouth, yeah
Can't fight the seether (seether)
Can't fight the seether (seether)
Can't fight the seether
I can't see her till I'm foaming at the mouth
Keep her down, boiling water
Keep her down, what a lovely daughter
Oh she is not born like other girls
But I know how to conceive her
Oh she may not look like other girls
But she's a snarl tooth seether, seether
Can't fight the seether
Can't fight the seether
Can't fight the seether
I can't see her till I'm foaming at the mouth
Can't fight the seether (seether)
Can't fight the seether (seether)
Can't fight the seether
I can't see her till I'm foaming at the mouth
Yeah
Lyrics submitted by spliphstar
Seether Lyrics as written by Nina Gordon
Lyrics © Hipgnosis Songs Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
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“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
You guys are so funny.... In a radio interview in Australia, 1994 on Triple J, Louise explained the song was about her vile and uncontrollable temper. She would scream the most vicious abuse at her family and friends when she had one of these massive tantrums, saying things she would feel terrible about later. She, her family and her closest friends saw her as a completely different person when she was in this state, so she tended to think of her temper in the third person, someone she called The Seether. Louise explained that she could feel this temper coming on, but there was nothing she could do nothing about it, gentle or harsh: 'Keep her on a short leash', 'rock her in my cradle', 'knock her out', 'cram her back in my mouth'. The Seether of course 'is not born like other girls' because she comes from within and Loiuse 'knows how to conceive her' because The Seether is part of her. As an extension, The Seether could also live in other girls of all ages, sizes and races, something she could identify with and talk about, because if a guy sang about the same thing he would be considered sexist. During the interview both girls were laughing about all the whacky meanings people had attributed to the song. Read the lyrics though with this in mind and they all make sense.
Thank you! And Nina's nod to "Seether" in "Volcano Girls" ("Well, here's another clue if you please: The seether's Louise!") certainly agrees with this. Though, Nina wrote the song, not Louise...
Well, that's a lie by either Walternate, or Louise, because Louise didn't write the song, Nina did. And Nina said in a recent interview with Spin that she wrote it after her friend got pregnant and failed at trying to give her self an abortion, and couldn't afford to have it done professionally. So, there you go.
@walternate Song was written by Nina, but both Louise and Nina credit it to what you described (and it has nothing at all to do with abortion). Here's from an interview from Radio.com (June 17, 2014) for the 20-year commemorative anniversary of the song single release:<br /> <br /> Nina Gordon: "No, it’s not true! I haven’t heard that one. I thought you were going to say something way scarier. [laughs] Many songs, when I was writing early on, were inspired by William Blake. But “Seether” I don’t think was. It’s possible that the idea of the “seether,” a character, a made-up person…I did love how in Blake’s work, he would just come up with these mythical character names, like Dr. Seuss or even Prince. So it is possible that the character or even creature could’ve been inspired by the Blake-ian tendency to do that.<br /> <br /> I had a really strong desire to hurt somebody. I had this vision of taking a person’s face and scraping it on the sidewalk. And it was very disturbing, this vision. And I saw the person’s face looking back at me after I had done that, looking back at me like “How could you do this to me?” with outrage. And I was really terrified of that instinct in me to want to hurt someone like that physically. So I thought, oh my god, I’m seething with this anger, this violence, and this desire to do something really awful to somebody. So I thought about seething, and I thought I’m gonna write about the “seether,” this internal rage in me."<br /> <br /> Louise Post: "That’s all in there too! Nina didn’t set out to write a feminist song or song with feminist content, but that is what was inherent in the song. I guess to go a little deeper with it, she and I grew up the ways we grew up. We had some relationships with people in our families…where we had a lot of anger and rage that was boiling under the surface that we really had to get out artistically and creatively. And I think “Seether” represented that coming of age for us, coming out of the closet creatively and beginning to express ourselves as young women."<br /> <br /> Personally, I always felt this song perfectly described when a woman (speaking about myself mostly, but could be other women too) is menstrual and uncontrollably angry and feels little self-control over her own emotional outbursts. That was how I always interpreted Seether.
@walternate You know that songs can be about more than one thing, . . right? And that songs frequently have subliminal content? Right?