Feeling Yourself Disintegrate

Despite the shortness of this song, it carries so much power. It came at just the perfect moment in my life--when depression seemed inescapable and I lost all hope at finding happiness in the future.

This song showed to me that regardless of the apparent bleakness of our existence, love and closeness to other people will help us get through, because with other people we realize that we are all in this together. Sure, we may experience a lot of hell in our lives and this may make us seem that our lives are useless--that we should simply die already--but we must realize that our lives are valuable and the love we experience within it is the best thing a man could have.

We must love everything in the world--the trees, the stars, everyone we meet--the entire experience!--because if we forget to love then we have lost the whole meaning of our lives to banality and repetition, or, worse, death.

While we constantly are "feeling [ourselves] disintegrate," this disintegration should not feel like an hopeless demotivator but rather a catalyst for our success. Because we recognize that we are, indeed, disintegrating, it encourages us to make the most of our short, yet beautiful, existence.

I just got the CD a few days ago, and suddenly I got this out of the last part of the CD:

The Gash leads from the inspirational battle hymn to the realization that someone you love is dying...that's why there's so few songs for such a long song. It's so perfectly described in the lyrics what that feels like that they don't need to elaborate (the angelic feel of the mood and melody don't hurt, either).

I don't know how Wayne Coyne's dad died, but if it was long death, possibly a painful one, these lyrics are just the wearing down of the psyche as you see someone you know and love degrade in front of you. As they degrade, so do you, in tiny little doses. But prolonged death can sometimes inspire death anxieties that laid dormant before, which in turn inspires hope, hence the beauty of the song.

After this is Sleeping on the Roof, which isn't listed because, it has no lyrics. This song is about the actual death, and in the booklet the song is subtitled with "(excerpt from "Should We Keep The Severed Head Awake??)," so I assume it's about death. This is the death. Since it's been such a long journey, it's a peaceful song instead of chaotic or abrupt. It's just simple, yet extravagantly produced; the song is aboutwhat happens when the slow, possibly painful journey towards death reaches death.

Then they spring Race for the Prize on you to cheer you back up, and also to inspire hope if the funeral dirge didn't (it did in me, but just thinking about it made me cry. My cat died on the roof, and likening the song to an actual death really cleaned out my system).

Then there's Waitin' For a Superman, to keep people holding on while they find a new Superman to lift their sun up into the sky.

Jesus Christ, if this album doesn't evoke emotion in you, you're fucking dead.

incredible song. I think Wayne wrote it about his dad dying. It kind of parallels with Waiting For A Superman. It's really a positive reflective song.

I think it flows well from The Gash, but its kind of hard to explain shortly, because it was a complicated trip, but in the shortest version possible, in The Gash, a man faded into his own imagination, and then discovered that that's all life was, this cycle of his own mind, and he was the only real human, if he indeed was real. So, Feeling Yourself Disintegrate fits perfectly. His denial is weakening (how can I live without love, when I'm the only person; how does my life exist without death?), but then he just succumbs into his mind (feeling himself disintegrate).

This song..... my..God... how... how can somebody not LOVE the Flaming Lips?

Can't get this song out of my head. It is so beautful. I played it for my mother and she actually started to cry. Not many lyrics but they are so damn profound! Love is the most valuable thing we have, and death is the only sure thing. The ending lines "somthing is ending within us" and "Feeling yourself disinegrate" are so sad and powerful. This song is truly amazing

The repeated "Feeling yourself disinegrate" is one of the best moments on this record. To me the song is simply saying that life is short, and love as much as you can cuz it's all temporary.

to me, feeling yourself disintegrate is about all the love you can have for life. nor just love for people, but for everything. clouds, air, wind, stars, animals, food, laughter , or whatever floats your boat

this is just a ridiculously good song, I can't believe that no one has posted anything about it. I actually am pretty sure that the lyrics are: Love in our life is just too valuable Oh, to feel for even a second without it But life without death is just impossible Oh, to realize something is ending within us Feeling yourself disintegrate

So yeah I think it's pretty much just about being dumped after a long time and how it feels to lose that part of you.

those lyrics need correcting, i must agree with you...flaming lips are awesome...if they wold only come to Calgary SOON! god damn...