its amazing how far music can come.. 24 years after it released and its one of the most heartfelt songs ive heard
I will
Lay me down
In a bunker
Underground
I won't let this happen
To my children
Meet the real-world coming
Out of your shell
With white elephants
Sitting ducks
I will
Rise up
Little baby's eyes
Eyes, eyes, eyes
Little baby's eyes
Eyes, eyes, eyes
Little baby's eyes
Eyes
Eyes
Lay me down
In a bunker
Underground
I won't let this happen
To my children
Meet the real-world coming
Out of your shell
With white elephants
Sitting ducks
I will
Rise up
Little baby's eyes
Eyes, eyes, eyes
Little baby's eyes
Eyes, eyes, eyes
Little baby's eyes
Eyes
Eyes
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Siberian Kiss
Glassjaw
Glassjaw
Show Me a Little Shame
Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals
He certainly did earn that reputation.
The Spy
Doors, The
Doors, The
Like a lot of the other comments are saying, I think this mainly about voyeurism. If the song was about his girlfriend, then why would he use the word spy. If you are a spy it means you shouldn't be caught, that is kind of the whole point, and if you are a voyeur, the whole point of the pleasure you get from it, is the fact that the other people don't know you are watching them. See a bit of a connection there?
Grand Theft Auto
Insane Ian
Insane Ian
The way this song speaks to me🥺🥺when I sing it I feel like I relate
Fortnight
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
The song 'Fortnight' by Taylor Swift and Post Malone tells a story about strong feelings, complicated relationships, and secret wishes. It talks about love, betrayal, and wanting someone who doesn't feel the same. The word 'fortnight' shows short-lived happiness and guilty pleasures, leading to sadness. It shows how messy relationships can be and the results of hiding emotions. “I was supposed to be sent away / But they forgot to come and get me,” she kickstarts the song in the first verse with lines suggesting an admission to a hospital for people with mental illnesses. She goes in the verse admitting her lover is the reason why she is like this. In the chorus, she sings about their time in love and reflects on how he has now settled with someone else. “I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary / And I love you, it’s ruining my life,” on the second verse she details her struggles to forget about him and the negative effects of her failure. “Thought of callin’ ya, but you won’t pick up / ‘Nother fortnight lost in America,” Post Malone sings in the outro.
The abortion interpretation is an interesting idea, although I'm not sure about that...
I think it is inspired, at least in part, by the Amiriyah shelter bombing, which, although happened about a year before I was born so I can only go on history archives, was the 'accidental' bombing of a refugee bunker in the gulf war by American pilots. The US claimed to have received intelligence that the bunker was a military base. Hundreds of civilians were killed.
The lyrics are really quite painful; this depressed Thom Yorke a lot at the time, apparently, and although published 12 years after the event, encapsulates the horror of it, IMO.
The first part is the Idea of protecting your family during war time;
"I will lay me down in a bunker underground. I won't let this happen to my children."
"Meet the real world coming out of your shell" may well be a criticism of the US military; ie, these are people with ordinary lives that you have killed; shell referring to the bomb/missile here.
"White Elephants" Could be how Yorke thinks the Americans are seen by the Iraqi civillians, or another name for the bombs/missiles.
"Sitting ducks" Is the most powerful line for me. It has less of a stress than the previous line, which portrays the hopelessness of it. It makes me think of how all those people went to the shelter for safety and ended being bombed anyway, in contrast to the protection of the first line.
"I will rise up" Could be how Yorke felt at the time, or the next logical step after such a tragedy, but then is stalled, the voice falls back and is lower here, it could be Yorke or the parent of the bombed remembering a horrific image of a dead child.