Dead From the Waist Down

There is no harm in casual sex between consenting adults. It's natural, like hay.

(We stole the songs from birds in trees) Our past sexual experiences influence our current sexual experiences.

an interesting translation of the lyrics, I never really thought about it like that before.

yes i thought it was about war and the post-war world where we're all only concerned with our own welfare "flatter greed" and "too far gone to even care" etc

I really wish I knew what this song meant, that first translation dusn't really click and the second one is prob a lot closer, but not spot on, I have no idea!

Cerys Matthews (the singer/writer) has said in several interviews that this song is about male impotence but I've never really been able to work out what the lyrics mean!

I'd never thought of male impotence... but that'd make sense

Hmmm... IMHO this song is about sexual, and also emotional, abstinence. About people who, perhaps after a broken relationship or a bad experience, refrain themselves from the good and bad things love can bring, and choose to live in a state of blissful apathy.

"There's no contracts binding, No bad scene beyond repair, But when you're dead from the waist down, You're too far gone to even care.

We stole the songs from birds in trees, Bought us time on easy street, Now our paths, they never meet, We chose to court and flatter greed, ego disposability, I caught a glimpse and it's not me"

I think those lines prove it... Btw, don't mix politics into the bag, I'm not saying i'm seeing pro-life issues in this song!. In my oppinion, she's singing about the 'bah-I-don't-give-a-damn-about-sex-n-stuff' kind of abstinence rather than about the 'god-says-I-must-remain-pure-until-marriage' one, if you know what I mean...

The chorus is so moving....

To me this song is about selling your soul, and how focusing on success and material things at the extent of your emotional life ends up killing that part of you.

At the time catatonia had achieved a modicum of success but the band were, as always, fighting. I read this song as a metaphor for the band’s impotence at this time. They should be making money and making songs but they weren’t able to. They were all living in different places, fighting and the songs they used to write so easily just weren’t coming. This was Cerys’s way of getting the band into peace talks. The reference to California was a trip they took there and it was a bit of a disaster in terms of relationships.

The songs we stole from birds in trees was a reference to their past ability to write songs and the easy life they had with a record deal and success. The paths that never meet is a reference to the bands separation and their individual greed and egos. But that’s not who Cherys was. Make hay not war means make the best of our fortunes and let’s stop fighting and do what we love.