Do you remember anyone here?
No you don't remember anything at all
I'm sleeping, I'm flat on my back
Never woke up, had no regrets
There's a party in my mind
And I hope it never stops
There's a party up there all the time
And they'll party till they drop
Other people can go home
Everybody else can split
I'll be here all the time
No, I can never quit
Take a walk through the land of shadows
Take a walk through the peaceful meadows
Don't look so disappointed
It isn't what you hoped for, is it?
There's a party in my mind
And I hope it never stops
I'm stuck here in this seat
I might not stand up
Other people can go home
Other people they will split
I'll be here all the time
No, I can never quit
Everything is very quiet
Everyone has gone to sleep
I'm wide awake on memories
These memories can't wait
These memories can't wait
These memories can't wait
These memories can't wait
These memories can't wait
These memories can't wait
These memories can't wait
No you don't remember anything at all
I'm sleeping, I'm flat on my back
Never woke up, had no regrets
There's a party in my mind
And I hope it never stops
There's a party up there all the time
And they'll party till they drop
Other people can go home
Everybody else can split
I'll be here all the time
No, I can never quit
Take a walk through the land of shadows
Take a walk through the peaceful meadows
Don't look so disappointed
It isn't what you hoped for, is it?
There's a party in my mind
And I hope it never stops
I'm stuck here in this seat
I might not stand up
Other people can go home
Other people they will split
I'll be here all the time
No, I can never quit
Everything is very quiet
Everyone has gone to sleep
I'm wide awake on memories
These memories can't wait
These memories can't wait
These memories can't wait
These memories can't wait
These memories can't wait
These memories can't wait
These memories can't wait
Lyrics submitted by Chris_Gough
"Memories Can't Wait" as written by Jerry Harrison David Byrne
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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We die alone, yet not really alone. and we live that way too. There's a party in our heads, which we can never leave, never truly witness or experience the end of. "Other people can go home...everyone else will split", as perhaps will we, too - into all the bits and pieces bouncing around together that we called ourselves. But like so many of the phenomena of consciousness, that probably looks very different on the inside than on the out. There are many uncertainties involved in the final Unknown, and some of the possibilities may be fearful, and not just the melodramatic ones. Fear of disappointment with the emptiness and aloneness that we may hope doesn't await us at or near the closing parenthesis might be enough to make many millions of people unconsciously wish for fire and brimstone as more interesting alternatives.
In the end, though, although we may lose the memories that make up our selves as we know them, whether there is a "true" end or not, we as we know ourselves may not be there to witness it, which is practically the same thing as eternity, the same eternity available to the living, as well, in every moment, for those who look for it tenaciously.
"Is isn't what you hoped for, is it?" I've often had this thought, at less-than-stellar shows where the discomfort of being in a crowded club for seemingly endless hours is not sufficiently compensated by the desired peak experience of an exciting performance. but in general--despite the everyday (even vapid) language of this line--it's a sentiment which feels a bit overwrought to be simply a comment on a lackluster party. something more existential lurks under the surface.
only just now clicked on something which allowed me to look ahead a bit, and of course my eyes were immediately drawn to the reference to Sartre's Nausea. now my use of the word "existential" is going to seem not only pretentious but also derivative. well, I can be philosophical about it. (I keep digging the hole deeper and deeper...)
if David had intended the song to reverberate with these sorts of life-and-death themes, then it has an oddly solipsistic quality. I'm reminded of the title track from the Colossal Youth LP by Young Marble Giants, when Alison sings "the world is your head." this may be related to my having discovered both bands during my college years; given the musical selections you can imagine how ancient I must be, by now.
OTOH, I also think it could just be about a bad acid trip.
As for the meaning, I'm not so sure, although I can see something about being isolated from the others... Yeah self-consciousness is a good shot.
There's a party in my mind...
And it never stops
There's a party up there all the time...
They'll party till they drop
Other people can go home...
Other people they can split
I'll be here all the time...
I can never quit"
I am so sorry. Sounds like Hell.
No you don't remember anything at all
I'm sleeping, I'm flat on my back
Never woke up, had no regrets
Death / Morpheus vs. waking/resurrection.The soul wiped clean of memory -- and yet the singer is also tormented my intensities of memory. This is a powerful dialectic tension within the song. The song is tragic and disturbing at its core.
Elysian Fields: Classical Greek notions of death-as-sleep, Hades & Sheol:
Take a walk through the land of shadows
Take a walk through the peaceful meadows
Don't look so disappointed
It isn't what you hoped for, is it?
The pastoral promises of Psalm 23
(He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me...) have vanished and there is a profound disturbance within the singer's soul.
There is a menace here - the peaceful Elysian grave can implode into a vision of hell and its torments. Maybe you have been lied to about the afterlife.
In the end, the singer is in an existential crisis of intensified nostalgia, worsened by insomnia, perhaps augmented by psychotropic substances (?)
But, in my private opinion:
How come you are all wrong? :-)
This song is about the insatiable lust for life.
"There is a party in my mind" - I am alive and vital.
"And I HOPE it never stops" - I consider it a good thing. I like it. I hope it stays this way.
"Other people can go home" - I don`t care if you feel the same. I know I`m right.
"I`m wide awake on memories" - My experiences are important to me. I`m eager to live my life fully.
"These memories can`t wait" - It`s about the future that starts now. Life with its experiences and adventures awaits us.
The author is eager to earn new experiences, to be later referred to as memories.
If you don`t live your life, you don`t get many memories.
And the music at the end of this song is rather uplifting.
It cheers you up.
The song is about the beauty of being alive.
Leszek
Frontman is literally laying on a gurney, in an institutional medical setting, reliving the party over and over again. His employers are concerned with retrieving useful information from the party in his mind (a clever play on words- a political party is intended also).
Frontman is an "alter": an artificial personality embedded within the subject's unconsciousness. Frontman is able to observe things and create intelligence for his handlers while David Byrne is the "active" consciousness. Later, what Frontman saw is extracted through drug assisted hypnosis. With the sole exception of I Zimbra, every song on Remain in Light describes aspects of Frontman's relationship and activities with British and American intelligence.
"Don't look so disappointed
It isn't what you hoped for, is it?"