Binky The Doormat

As a longtime fan of the band and its music, I feel qualified to say that nothing about them is obvious, ESPECIALLY lyrically; that's the point, or so we're told. However, along comes this terrifying and terrifyingly good song in the mid-90's, and, for the first time ever, the song seemed...obvious. Not that I'm right. What motivated me to contribute this is that the above comments, though insightful, don't really mention that the song concerns itself with raping someone, or at least seemingly doing so. To me, the giveaway is the line "Shut the door, open wide; Seconal, Astroglide". Not to sound remedial, but just in case, Astroglide is a "personal lubricant" that's been out for a long time (Stipe must have liked the bizarre, 50's, space-race era name) and Seconal is a barbiturate sedative from roughly the same era. To me, its mention conjures up images of Marylin Monroe lying dead with a bottle of them scattered about. I think that's what the writer was going for - an older, out West/Hollywood way of knocking someone out. If anyone cares, I believe that the original drug were red capsules, which is the origin of the term "reds" for barb's. The drug was famous, infamous, for its side effects probably more than its effects - all barbs are VERY dangerous in O/D, esp with alcohol. In fact, that's why drugs like Valium were invented - as a depressant that was non-lethal in typical O/D fashion. It was responsible for the above actor's death, and I'm sure a few more too. I'm not an expert in these matters. So, make what you will of the rest of the lyrics (I'm sure you don't want to hear my opinion, but I think I've got it figured out) but the above line is a graphic, unpleasant description of keeping someone in bathroom, knocking them out, possibly killing them (see above) and then using the AstroGlide on them. It's an ugly line, but effective in its way. I'm still in shock that so socially concious a band with a record of such that's spotless would let such an evil scenario be released under their name. Then again, they're always pushing the line, moving fwd ea. album, so I'm not really that shocked, either. Sorry this took so long. I need a Seconal...

The narrator is in a relationship where he/she truly loves his/her partner, but the sex is abusive and unloving; he/she persists in the relationship, but is traumatized. The abusive sex possibly includes bondage, forced oral sex, forced group sex, and drugging. A doormat is a metaphor for a person who is mistreated – walked on by someone else.

I left the gender ambiguous because it has a male singer and explicitly says "she's a girl and she's loving me," but some lines seem to indicate that the victim is female and/or the abuser is male.

Despite the abuse, the victim loves his/her partner, which keeps him/her in the relationship, but the pledge of love seems to be part of an internal dialogue. "Can't you see I love your hide?" This is not spoken – he/she hopes that the love is seen. It's not. And the narration which starts by likening the situation to a horror movie ends by bidding the partner to "go away."

great song! about the absurdity of dirty sex

I like the part about "sour milk mouth."

Taken from a film, there's a clown in it called Binky and always complains people walk all ove rhim so he calls himself 'Binky the doormat' it's all about all the things you never wanted to know about sex and forgot to ask.

The movie is Shakes The Clown. Once referred to as "The Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies."

I always get a mental image of a party at a place with a pool, and the narrator is about to have sex with someone, just like everybody else who's at the party. The sex they're having is dirty and cold, but the narrator gives himself away even though he probably has a relationship ("distance is my tendency" - his lover isn't close to where the party is), and he might be cheating. "Bathroom friends" could be a reference to drugs, which makes his mind numb, and he cheats without considering the aftermaths, but he knows that this isn't good ("fuck with me and traumatize"). "Have you lost your place? I wore my doormat face" probably refers to the fact that he has woken up, hangover, and realise that he's screwed it up.

Either the narrator is the doormat, someone who's just been pushed over, or the girl he had sex with was a doormat, someone he just used with the same coldness that's included in all the sex that where going on. Afterwards he laid out his welcome doormat, as if he wants to say that he's sorry.

So you could say that it's about the dirty and bad sides of sexual relationships with no love.

it's about wanting to be used with no care for the associated shame of being a skanky walked-and-fucked all over doormat. he/she accepts this fate without consequence and just enjoys the fuck

"sour milk mouth" - oral sex?

It never occurred to me that this song was about sex, just call me stupid or naive, but I do think it is about not wanting to hang with a beautiful person, a beauty who's only shine is their hide, their hard shell that is impenetrable to any kind of feeling or knowing, can only 'fuck with and traumatize' but can not be nice or find their inner beauty, probably ever.