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No Danger Lyrics
I've been hanging round for days, still confused about the way you came.
Take the portraits from the wall, take them down and burn them all, I know what I've become.
By the marks upon their arms, there was nothing that they lacked in charm.
But now I've got to choose, who from you is gonna lose and who is going through.
By the stories that were told, I decided to reject the bold, embrace the cowardly and the weak, we had laughs that lasted weeks, they're inside and I sing here.
Now I would swear this life is you.
You've been around since we were twenty two but now you've got the rush, when you're cold and when you're touched, I know things don't mean much.
'Cause we don't know we're strong enough and chances come too soon.
But people, people, we're not in love and now we're singing out of tune.
Just go out and get it straight.
There are questions here that just can't wait.
Leave romantics to their spite, leave the footballs to their pints, alternatives we'll find.
But there's nothing we can find while our lives are plush and kind of fine.
So we'll all call it a day, people follow in our wake, a nothing's hall of fame.
'Cause we don't know we're strong enough and chances come too soon.
But people, people, we're not in love and now we're singing out of tune.
Come on babies, find a vein.
Roll your sleeves up, find your arms insane.
Walking out in little lines, down the corridors of life and on to what you'll find.
Out the door and down the street, over fences glens and ditches deep.
And who from us is gonna choose, who will win and who will lose ? I know it won't be me.
'Cause we don't know we're strong enough and chances come too soon.
But people, people, we're not in love and now we're singing out of tune.
Take the portraits from the wall, take them down and burn them all, I know what I've become.
By the marks upon their arms, there was nothing that they lacked in charm.
But now I've got to choose, who from you is gonna lose and who is going through.
Now I would swear this life is you.
You've been around since we were twenty two but now you've got the rush, when you're cold and when you're touched, I know things don't mean much.
But people, people, we're not in love and now we're singing out of tune.
There are questions here that just can't wait.
Leave romantics to their spite, leave the footballs to their pints, alternatives we'll find.
But there's nothing we can find while our lives are plush and kind of fine.
So we'll all call it a day, people follow in our wake, a nothing's hall of fame.
But people, people, we're not in love and now we're singing out of tune.
Roll your sleeves up, find your arms insane.
Walking out in little lines, down the corridors of life and on to what you'll find.
Out the door and down the street, over fences glens and ditches deep.
And who from us is gonna choose, who will win and who will lose ? I know it won't be me.
But people, people, we're not in love and now we're singing out of tune.
Song Info
Submitted by
let It Fall On Jun 06, 2002
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This is, in my own opinion and wild music taste, the greatest song I have ever heard. My dad started listening to The Delgados after a friend turned him on to them in 2001. I was only 9 when I first heard it, but I knew good music when I heard it. Ever since, I have listened to this song nonstop.
The lyrics still remain a mystery to me. It could be about overcoming the stupid things we do as teenagers and young adults, but it could also be about how helping someone weak and downtrodden gets misinterpreted as love (i.e. gossip). Whatever it is, these lyrics, as well as this song, is absolutely beautiful. Shame they broke up.
Here you go:
Initially inspired by the plight of children populating pediatric wards at the time Alun was in and out of hospital with his new born son Eric, No Danger was in no way the drug anthem that many commentators guessed it was at the time. The line "Come on babies find a vein" tended to throw most radio people a googly and despite our best assertions to the contrary, many people found a childrens' choir singing gaily about perceived heroin abuse a tad distasteful.
The song may have specific references to ill children but generally deals with how the lives of youngsters are shaped, moulded and pre-ordained by the actions of the adults that surround them. With this in mind, we had always hoped to draft in a choir of kids to singalong in the chorus but had basically ran out of time during the album sessions to have the 'definitive' version included on the The Great Eastern. As it turned out, by the time the single came along we had more time to pull the project together and we approached a friend of Alun's who got her nine year old son and some of his friends to come down to the studio and lend their vocal support...
The session started off rather chaotically as we hummed and hawed around these kids trying to get them in the mood for the recording and to lose whatever youthful brio they had brought into the studio with them. It wasn't until the ever-resourceful Camille mason (our resident flautist and full time school teacher) came on the scene that the kids were whipped into shape and delivered the exuberant performance you can hear on this track.
Our only regret with this version was that when we edited it for the radio, the outro was rather brutally cut and faded out way too quickly.
Amazing.
i can't believe that i'm the second person to comment on this song. that's almost as amazing as this song. another of my favorite delgados song is "coming in from the cold"
This song is so great, ive known it for years and i cant believe im the third person to comment on it. This is such a good song
What a masterpiece..... This song has been in my life for what must be getting on for 15 years soon which is incredible. It is stunning.
It's a difficult song to interpret. I think a number of Alun's songs refer quite specifically to things that happened to him, and songs like that can be particularly tricky.
There are several parts that seem to refer to heroin use - 'the marks upon their arms', 'find a vein...' These link to themes of addiction in other parts of the album. It's hard to know how just how literally to take this.
There seems to be the choice of a self-destructive and hedonistic lifestyle, "embrac[ing] the cowardly and the weak". This coincides with an ambiguous relationship with an old friend ("now you've got the rush/we're not in love"). There's the idea of (emotional/relationship or life?) opportunities coming when you're not properly prepared for them ("we don't know we're strong enough and chances come too soon").
There's a search for alternatives to conventional ways of living - the romantics, the footballs - and the rejection of a comfortable life in order to carry out this search. A rejection which throws the singer down among addicts, criminals and other damaged people.
In the end, like other Delgados songs, the story is hard to make out, but the emotion is clear - coming through pain, difficulty and fragility, to a tentative hope.
Incidentally, the single version is brutally chopped down, but I do love the children's choir.