He reuses the verse melody from the previous album's "Dirty Little Religion", the topics of the verses are all over the place, and he packs too many words into one line (goes to show...) and too few in another (it's pretty hard to find), and rhymes "Henley Regatta" with "Persona non grata", but gets away with it all as only he could.
This mellow, sweet, short-haired boy, woman offers pull up a seat
Take in one symphony now, we've just begun to battle
Wrap your heel in bones of steel, turn the leg, a twist of color
Autumn waited hold it to you in the colored come another
Seven chinese brothers swallowing the ocean
Seven thousand years to sleep away the pain
She will return, she will return
This mellow, sweet, short-haired boy, woman offers pull up a seat
Take in one symphony now, we've just begun to battle
Wrap your heel in bones of steel, turn the leg, a twist of color
Autumn waded seven seas swimming colored come another
Seven chinese brothers swallowing the ocean
Seven thousand years to sleep away the pain
She will return, she will return
This mellow, sweet, short-haired boy, woman offers pull up a chair
Take in one symphony now, I guess we lost that battle
Wrap your heel in bones of steel, turn the leg, a twist of color
Autumn waded seven seas swimming colored come another
Seven chinese brothers swallowing the ocean
Seven thousand years the Communi did reign
She will return, she will return
Take in one symphony now, we've just begun to battle
Wrap your heel in bones of steel, turn the leg, a twist of color
Autumn waited hold it to you in the colored come another
Seven chinese brothers swallowing the ocean
Seven thousand years to sleep away the pain
She will return, she will return
This mellow, sweet, short-haired boy, woman offers pull up a seat
Take in one symphony now, we've just begun to battle
Wrap your heel in bones of steel, turn the leg, a twist of color
Autumn waded seven seas swimming colored come another
Seven chinese brothers swallowing the ocean
Seven thousand years to sleep away the pain
She will return, she will return
This mellow, sweet, short-haired boy, woman offers pull up a chair
Take in one symphony now, I guess we lost that battle
Wrap your heel in bones of steel, turn the leg, a twist of color
Autumn waded seven seas swimming colored come another
Seven chinese brothers swallowing the ocean
Seven thousand years the Communi did reign
She will return, she will return
Lyrics submitted by xpankfrisst
Seven Chinese Brothers Lyrics as written by Peter Buck Bill Berry
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The way this song speaks to me🥺🥺when I sing it I feel like I relate
The Night We Met
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This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
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”
Michael had this to say about the song in the April 08 issue of Spin magazine:
"There are songs I wrote in the past that were gender-specific. 7 Chinese Bros. was about me breaking up a couple – and then dating both of them, a man and a woman, which is a terrible thing to do, but I was young and stupid.”
In addition I read this interesting take on the song, below, from a site called Pop Songs 07-08:
"In Bishop’s story (The Five Chinese Brothers)- which is based upon a Chinese folk tale – one of the brothers is able to hold the entire ocean in his mouth, and does so for a boy who wants to gather fish. The boy turns out to be greedy, and does not return to shore when he is beckoned. The brother is unable to breathe and is forced to let the ocean out, which in turn drowns the boy. The brother is later sentenced to death by the townsfolk.
It doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to see why Stipe would relate his sordid scenario to this tale – it’s pretty clear now that he’s the selfish little boy in this story."