You take your clothes off
Right after school
The tea is on
The flame is blue

And you hope it won't take
All afternoon
The TV's waiting
To talk to you

It's your naked body
On white velor
But there's no feeling
Just weight on you

But you get nauseous now
As he speaks to you
Such proper language
For acts so cruel

He says, we all follow the rules
We can't very well go
And break them now can we?
For you, for you, for you

Your older sisters
I had them too
But you're my favorite
You know it's true

You look like your mother
In that thin disguise
Your parting mouth
Your shining eyes

And the way that you hate me
And the length of your hair
It's the reason I make you
It's the bond that we share

'cause you were all trying to endure it
You could easily go and make your own life somewhere
Couldn't you? Couldn't you? Couldn't you?
Couldn't you? Couldn't you? Couldn't you? Couldn't you?"

With the sun beams bright
You keep your eyes shut
Your alarm clock lies
Get to school on time

But you're a bag of warm fluid
You're the corpse in the class
You walk so near to your locker
You lay so low in the grass

Did you get that coat from the principal?
Did you get that bruise on the bus?
You should wash your hair more
You should look more like us

But I saw you walking once
Under powder blue skies
You looked cold still
Your collar was high

And I tried to talk to you
But you walked right by
I don't know which I said then
"Hello" or "Goodbye"

And yet we're all trying to be pure
But it isn't a very easy thing, now is it?
To do, to do, to do, to do, to do, to do
Isn't it? Isn't it? Isn't it? Isn't it?
Isn't it? Isn't it? Isn't it? Isn't it?



Lyrics submitted by PLANES, edited by brooch184, Woot100, Mellow_Harsher

Amy in the White Coat Lyrics as written by Conor Oberst Oberst

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Amy in the White Coat song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

172 Comments

sort form View by:
  • 0
    General Comment

    I actually always though he said "did you get that cut from the principal?", and it made me think it was some time ago when teachers were allowed to beat kids to dicipline them. The scars and bruises from her fathers abuse are assumed to come from the teachers or from other kids. But now I realize he says 'coat'. Anyways...

    I have a very clear picture of this family in my head. To me the mother has died, and the father couldn't deal with losing her so the daughters were forced to take her place, both doing the chores like making tea and stuff, but mostly to have sex with him. And I always feel it like he's just saying she's his favourite, when he in fact says that to all of his daughters to make each one feel special though they all have to go through the same thing. I don't know. This fills me with actual pain, from my feet to my head. This song brings me back, makes me feel I haven't grown anything since then and am still just as vulnerable and weak. Conor's voice is amazing always, but here... it's almost too hard to listen to. Yet so beautiful.

    Felison December 23, 2006   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!