Church on White Lyrics
When you're hot you're hot
And when enough is enough
Do the fakers drop out?
Promise me
You will always be
Too awake to be famous
Too wired to be safe
But all you really wanted
Was everything
Plus everything
And the truth
I only poured you
Half a line
It's a marathon
Take me off the list
I don't want to be missed
Carrion
Its what we all become
From small minds and tall trees
Away from the action
But all you ever wanted
Was everything
And everything
Plus the truth
I only poured you
Half alive
Half alive
http://www.magnetmagazine.com/2001/04/01/stephen-malkmus-being-stephen-malkmus/
Aside from a bit of strained small talk, my first half hour or so in the company of one of indie rock’s most acclaimed wordsmiths is spent in silence, watching him clean out his trunk. A soggy copy of an old income-tax form. A Thin Lizzy album. A rumpled suit bag and battered dress shoes, probably last worn to the funeral of his friend Robert Bingham (author of a collection of short stories called Pure Slaughter Value and heir to a publishing fortune). Bingham died from a heroin overdose in the fall of 1999. “I don’t think he was really that into it,” Malkmus will tell me later. “I think he just tried it with this girl … ” The rest of the thought trails off to protect the privacy of the dead.
There’s a song on Malkmus’ self-titled solo album called “Church On White.” It’s prime Malkmus. He sounds sad-eyed and shattered, and the guitars clang languidly, loping along in figure-eights of resignation and regret. It ends with a tolling passage that closes the lid on the final chorus before flaming out in a wailing-wall guitar solo. If every Pavement song was about thinking, this song is about feeling. “Church On White” is about Bingham. He used to live at the intersection of Church and White streets in New York City.
I always thought the lyrics were "I only poured you half a life" this had so much more meaning to me but I dunno. What do other people get from this song? I love it so much.
@peroxide_filth I heard "Half a lie" which made sense to me considering "All you ever really wanted...was the truth". Made me think the speaker was misleading a girl who's now hurting and the speaker is feeling regretful. But that's a shot in the dark, a lot of the other lines don't seem to relate to that idea
@peroxide_filth I heard "Half a lie" which made sense to me considering "All you ever really wanted...was the truth". Made me think the speaker was misleading a girl who's now hurting and the speaker is feeling regretful. But that's a shot in the dark, a lot of the other lines don't seem to relate to that idea
I've always LOVED this song.
Seems like the first verse is all about success (when you're hot you're hot), and undergound/cult cred. (promise me you'll always be too awake to be famous, too wired to be safe) -- I know that there are a lot of bands that fit these lyrics -- I used to love them, but, for whatever reason, they "jumped the shark", and lost whatever it was that made them great in the first place.
The "carry on / carrion" lines are wonderful. Perhaps any modicum of success is a grind (marathon) of some sort, but in the end, who cares? (carrion -- it's what we all become).
GO JYX.
This is my favourite song on this CD. I also think it's clever how Malkmus used "carry on" and "carrion". A carrion is an important source of sustenance for large omnivores and carnivores and you can draw alot of meaning from that following "it's what we all become."
This is a great track; the guitar work is really impressive.
I read in some magazine when this album came out that this song was written by a friend of Malkmus' about another friend who had died, so that's probably the literal meaning. It works with the lyrics, which are definitely "half a life", not half a line or half alive.