Workin' on Leavin' the Livin'

This is one of the first MM tunes I heard way back when, and I fell in love with them immediately. This is interesting because I was watching David Lynch's film "Eraserhead" today and there is this woman that sings a song that consists only of the words "in heaven everything is fine." Over and over and over. I thought "whoa," this is the kinda flick Issac would appear to dig, it's gotta be where he got those lyrics. And then I was reading the above post about the Pixies song "Lady In The Radiator," and the woman in "Eraserhead" who sings "in heaven everything is fine" actually lives in a radiator. So that has to solidify it.

It's about waiting to die.

I find this song in lyrics and sound to be very stellar and love to listen to it at night while driving or looking at the stars.

I think that it is about a person who used to "love everything" in his life more than anything else but for some reason has just broke down. Now he is just workin' on leavin' the living by getting himself wasted and killing himself by probably drunk driving. The dream he is driving is to leave his life which is so much like hell, that even if isaac is athiest, there doesn't need to be an afterlife, just ending it all can be heaven for some people. He is using the word as an emotional place, not physical like religion, its art people, open your minds.

"In Heaven, everything is fine." This is a line from Eraserhead, one the deformed girl sings to him in his dreams.

I don't think he necessarily meant dying, heaven, or an afterlife. Eraserhead was about trying to find happiness in different ways, not about killing yourself. I think this song depicts that emotion, too. Trying to morph yourself or take different paths in order to feel that bit of bliss.

Or I could take the easy way out and say it's about drugs.

"Working on drinking, I'm working on driving"

I don't think its the promise of never seeing an afterlife if you kill yourself that keeps Isaac from doing it. That's a very religious view. I think it's more that he doesn't have the ability to do it, and he can't let down those who really care for him. So instead, he hopes for accidental death to carry him on to the next part of this crazy existence. Like it has been said, this song is a cover, he chose to cover this song because I really do think he feels very real towards it. He has gone through deep depression, lots of drugs (searching and running from something, and eventually it just makes you feel so alone when you use drugs for those reasons) and this is just a very typical use of religious view to portray how he feels. Its just real, and I think a lot of us have been there, and wished for the same. There is a lot more out there after this little experience we call life is over. Its funny how the more you really understand the reality around you, and maybe deal with psychedelics, you gain a peace towards the idea of dying, and you are convinced that this is just a leg of the journey. I think Isaac believes it just as much as I do.

There's also this little thing called paying homage... which is possibly what he's doing.

He's said before that he loves the pixies, so it wouldn't suprise me if that was the case.

I had listened to the song before seeing Eraserhead, but when I saw the movie, and listened to the song directly after, it made a lot of sense. The movie deals with similar themes, and I sure hope that he is paying homage to thoe movie, rather than the Pixies song. In either case, it is a great song, and the movie Eraserhead is amazing. It is indeed disturbing, and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to those searching for concrete answers. It is akin to a dream, and I love the dreamlike visuals in the film. This song is also fairly dreamlike.

Hmmm...I think if you guys knew Isaac's songwriting a bit better this song would make more sense. Isaac is a known atheist, to me, this song is satirical. Usually, he isn't so blunt and that's an obvious give-a-way to sarcasm. It's saying, "I can't wait to die and go to heaven!" meaning, "YOu're stupid for thinking that heaven is waiting for you."

My opinion.

Just had to mention that I was listening to my Elliott Smith + Modest Mouse + Ugly Casanova playlist on shuffle, and Workin' on Leavin' the Livin' fading into Cat Faces sounds eargasmic.

My opinion....

Isaac is singing about how he wants to die so he can figure out what is next.

Isaac is an Atheist, but constantly he still sings about heaven, which i think is him saying he believes in an afterlife, maybe not a god, but an afterlife.

The only thing that is keeping him from "leavin the livin" is the promise that if he commits suicide he won't go to "heaven" so he drinks and drives, and tries to die accidentally so he can die and go to his idea of "heaven"