| Foals – What Went Down Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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The Video has Yannis with a wedding ring on as though he is committed and betrothed to ‘something’ though he is not married in real life, why is that? And there is a woman swimming countercurrent from predators. Yannis has stated in interviews he wished to go all in with permanent ambition toward manifesting his inner creativity in a continual state and relationships never work out for him. This is not primarily a song about relationships but about his relationship to Lady Spirit of the Creative Power in him he is betrothed to, so to speak. It is what went down and what swims countercurrent back up and once one is bitten by her there is no returning back to every day life and common relationship stuff. At least twenty things show this to be the case regarding the meaning to these lyrics - which can be easily missed unless clarified. For Foals are a group with more to offer than immediately meets the eye as he also has said. One must not forget Yannis also spent a year majoring in literature at Oxford so he is very wide spanning in his breadth of deep wisdom and perception (of course not because of his schooling, but this shows something about such). In the same interview previously mentioned he says it (the creative drive of the group) is like going counter current to the world intentionally and in a directed, conscious way (NME October 21st 2017). There are not 20 meanings to this song or just one, maybe 3 or a dozen at most for it is a high initiatic parable well composed. But primarily there is one meaning as mentioned above. It is one singing praise to the inner world symbolized by the alchemists as “the lady” of the rose with no name (see Elliott Smith’s song Coming Up Roses or White Lady, and The Doors song the River about breathing “underwater till the end”). She represents the easily missed higher world of higher influences going largely countercurrent here among us, as mentioned, counter largely to the every day world - almost like a flowing revenge upon it’s lower chaotic (clever, brutal and menial) laws which try to drown her at every pace. She is the ethereal gossamer amidst it, easily missed like inspiration flowing past you. This is part of the meaning behind the fictional book Yannis in another interview said he was inspired to base this song off, a very interesting gnostic work indeed. Here are the true and very subtle lyrics... Listen to this in 10 different live versions and closely in the Album version and you will see I am not one word off (compared to all other online versions that are everywhere off), yet a few places feel spaciously interpretive in his enunciation. Lyrics I buried my heart in the hole in the ground With the lights and the roses and the cowards down town They threw me a party there was no one around They try to call my girl but she could not be found! (Out) I buried my guilt in a pit in the cell/south/sow With the rust and the vultures and the trash down town So don’t step to me kid you’ll never be fell/found/faé Cause while you were sleeping I took over your town/tao/tow When I see a man I see a liar When I see a man I see a lion You’re the apple of my eye, of my I, of my ire You’re the apple of my eye, my watcher/I want you I fell for a girl with a pogue/port/part white/wine stain I knew her initials but never her name I tried and I tried and I was never the same/sane So no longer for love and I’m forever changed/chained When I see a man I see a liar When I see a man I see a lion You’re the apple of my eye, of my I, of my ire You’re the apple of my eye, of my I: watch you I give up my money, give up my name, take this away I give it away, give this a Way I give it When I see a man I see a liar When I see a man I see a lion ... When I see a man I see a lion When I see a man I see a liar You’re the apple of my eye, of my eye, of my All, You’re the apple of my I, of my “I want you” give up my money, give up my name, take it away I give it away, I’ll give it away, I’ll GIVE it I’m a sycophantic animal, I’m a sick owl phan/sycophantic mole/fool a sycophantic fool, I’m a mole Break up the chain, I’ll break up the chain I’ll break it Give it away, don’t give it away, don’t give it When I see The Man I see the liar When I see The Man I see the Light You’re the apple of my eye, of my I, of my ire You’re the apple of my eye, my watcher give up my body, give up my name, take this away I give it away, I give it away, I’ll GIVE it I’ll SEE YOU AGAIN, I’ll SEE YOU AGAIN, I’LL SEE YOU give it away, I’ll give it away, I GIVE it When I feel low, when I feel All: I Feel It/ The Spirit Why It? When I seize the Man I see the Liar When I cease The Man I see the liars You’re the apple of my eye, of my I, of my ire You’re the apple of my eye, my watcher! (He always does the two finger sign, the ostensible peace sign, after saying Watcher at the end live - which signifies perhaps the second higher conscious body in us that directs and runs our lower soul/psyche: these are the two). Now these Lyrics Interpreted Lyrics: I buried my heart in the hole in the ground With the lights and the roses and the cowards down town They threw me a party there was no one around They try to call my girl but she could not be found! (Out) [people are asleep gnostically and so esoterically and most truly inwardly dead “no one around” for they call for lady spirit but do not find her – and she is not a literal woman so she “cannot be found”] I buried my guilt in a pit in the cell/south/sow [Yannis grew up with a Greek Orthodox Father and has said in interviews he is very interested not in self pity but organic shame which is entirely different. Such is as the Greek Gnostic Gurdjieff teaches whom Michael Stipe is so familiar with. So it is not unlikely he doesn’t finish saying “south” here every time he sings this line of “what went down” but leaves it sow as in the pigs the prodigal son finally woke up to find himself amidst and repented] With the rust and the vultures and the trash down town So don’t step to me kid you’ll never be fell/found/faé [here he realizes the kahone’s it takes to stay awake and yet not succumb to inner or outer violence as any moment one would be inclined to upon awaking] Cause while you were sleeping I took over your town/tao/tow When I see a man I see a liar When I see a man I see a lion [listen closely live and on album, first he ends it liar and the second line he ends it lion but in the a capella part later as a blind he reverses the order. Gurdjieff said the main way to define a human is he is the creature which “lies” and yet all have a buried spirit in embryo that is a lion bold, strong and holy] You’re the apple of my eye, of my I, of my ire You’re the apple of my eye, my watcher/I want you I fell for a girl with a pogue/port/part white stain I knew her initials but never her name [This is the world of higher influence that touches through] I tried and I tried and I was never the same/sane So no longer for love and I’m forever changed/chained When I see a man I see a liar When I see a man I see a lion You’re the apple of my eye, of my I, of my ire You’re the apple of my eye, of my I: watch you I give up my money, give up my name, take this away I give it away, give this a Way I give it When I see a man I see a liar When I see a man I see a lion … When I see a man I see a lion When I see a man I see a liar You’re the apple of my eye, of my eye, of my All, You’re the apple of my I, of my “I want you” give up my money, give up my name, take it away I give it away, I’ll give it away, I’ll GIVE it I’m a sycophantic animal, I’m a sick owl phan/sycophantic mole/fool a sycophantic fool, I’m a mole Break up the chain, I’ll break up the chain I’ll break it [sycophantic implies syncopated or pattern repeating mechanically and animalistically – this he says he will break the chain of this in him] Give it away, don’t give it away, don’t give it When I see The Man I see the liar When I see The Man I see the Light You’re the apple of my eye, of my I, of my ire You’re the apple of my eye, my watcher [Higher Consciousness is the Watcher in us when we awake] give up my body, give up my name, take this away I give it away, I give it away, I’ll GIVE it I’ll SEE YOU AGAIN, I’ll SEE YOU AGAIN, I’LL SEE YOU give it away, I’ll give it away, I GIVE it [he speaks of holy barbaric revenge – a great thing and it is not lower pedantic, evil, calculating unforgiveness and petty violence (see the lit book that inspired this song he mentions to distinguish the two). I know he knows the highest path is beyond all violence but still..] When I feel low, when I feel All: I Feel It/The Spirit Why It (or riot?) he says here live often When I seize the Man I see the Liar When I cease The Man I see the liars You’re the apple of my eye, of my I, of my ire You’re the apple of my eye, my Watcher! |
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