Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Eligible, not too stupid
Intelligable and cute as Cupid
Knowledgable but not always right
Salvageable and free for the night
Well, my heart's running 'round like a chicken with its head cut off
All around the barnyard, falling in and out of love
Poor thing's blind as a bat, getting up, falling down, getting up
Who'd fall in love with a chicken with its head cut off?
Woah, nelly!
My wife doesn't understand me
Many dozens hope to land me
I'm for free love and I'm in free fall
This could be love or nothing at all
But my heart's running 'round like a chicken with its head cut off
All around the barnyard, falling in and out of love
The poor thing's blind as a bat, getting up, falling down, getting up
Who'd fall in love with a chicken with its head cut off?
We don't have to be stars exploding in the night, or electric eels under the covers
We don't have to be anything quite so unreal, let's just be lovers
Well, my heart's running 'round like a chicken with its head cut off
All around the barnyard, falling in and out of love
The poor thing's blind as a bat, getting up, falling down, getting up
Who'd fall in love with a chicken with its head cut off?
It ain't pretty
Intelligable and cute as Cupid
Knowledgable but not always right
Salvageable and free for the night
Well, my heart's running 'round like a chicken with its head cut off
All around the barnyard, falling in and out of love
Poor thing's blind as a bat, getting up, falling down, getting up
Who'd fall in love with a chicken with its head cut off?
Woah, nelly!
My wife doesn't understand me
Many dozens hope to land me
I'm for free love and I'm in free fall
This could be love or nothing at all
But my heart's running 'round like a chicken with its head cut off
All around the barnyard, falling in and out of love
The poor thing's blind as a bat, getting up, falling down, getting up
Who'd fall in love with a chicken with its head cut off?
We don't have to be stars exploding in the night, or electric eels under the covers
We don't have to be anything quite so unreal, let's just be lovers
Well, my heart's running 'round like a chicken with its head cut off
All around the barnyard, falling in and out of love
The poor thing's blind as a bat, getting up, falling down, getting up
Who'd fall in love with a chicken with its head cut off?
It ain't pretty
Lyrics submitted by Anne Arbour
A Chicken with It's Head Cut Off Lyrics as written by Stephin Raymond Merritt
Lyrics © ROUGH TRADE PUBLISHING, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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,
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I agree with charito, a little.