Per the FAQ on Keane's website, Keane's drummer Richard Hughes, stated the following:
"We've been asked whether "Somewhere Only We Know" is about a specific place, and Tim has been saying that, for him, or us as individuals, it might be about a geographical space, or a feeling; it can mean something individual to each person, and they can interpret it to a memory of theirs... It's perhaps more of a theme rather than a specific message... Feelings that may be universal, without necessarily being totally specific to us, or a place, or a time..."
With the nostalgic sentiment and the overall tone of the song, I think Keane is attempting to express a Portuguese term known as 'saudade', which does not have a direct English translation but roughly means "that which we remember because it is gone."
I lived to grow up in the seventies
the harmlessness of cartoons that I watched on T.V.
Now it's gotten violent, mentality close to none
This is what happens when a child buys a gun
WHAT WOULD DADDY SAY IF I BLEW MOM AWAY?
THE CURIOSITY GUNNED HER TO THE FLOOR
I GUESS THE T.V. LIED, THE HERO (RABBIT) NEVER DIES
NOW LOOK AT HER SHE'S NOT BREATHING ANYMORE
(how do you feel?)
I NEVER THOUGHT LIFE WAS REAL
Now i sit in a room with no cartoons
they put me away, been labeled insane
the harmlessness of cartoons that I watched on T.V.
Now it's gotten violent, mentality close to none
This is what happens when a child buys a gun
WHAT WOULD DADDY SAY IF I BLEW MOM AWAY?
THE CURIOSITY GUNNED HER TO THE FLOOR
I GUESS THE T.V. LIED, THE HERO (RABBIT) NEVER DIES
NOW LOOK AT HER SHE'S NOT BREATHING ANYMORE
(how do you feel?)
I NEVER THOUGHT LIFE WAS REAL
Now i sit in a room with no cartoons
they put me away, been labeled insane
Lyrics submitted by oofus
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