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Some Fantastic Lyrics
One day I will build a fountain
Drink and never grow old
Then I'll market an elixir
That will eliminate the common cold
Find your sickness on my list
Pay up front and make a wish
One day I will work with animals
All the tests I'm gonna do
All my stuff's completely natural
And when we're done
We'll boil 'em down for glue
That we can use to re-adhere
Your lips to mine if you were here
There's a lot I will never do
Some fantastic, I know it's true
But not as much as my want to be with you
I can't stand to wait in line long
So I built a new machine
It just measures up the distance
And then eliminates the folks between
One day I'll construct a satellite
And I'll name it after you
'Cause you were the greatest friend of all
Except for when you split my lip in two
To see the look upon your face
As I launch you into space...
There's a lot I will never do
Some fantastic, I know it's true
But not as much as my want to be with you
Bye bye, self respect
I haven't had much of it since you left
I missed out on the best of you
Someday I will find the secret
To your social chemistry
Then I'll print it on a t-shirt
And it'll make you want to be with me
And if I wear it past your work
You'll see other guys are jerks
Much like pheromones for flies
You will not avoid my eyes
There's a lot I will never do
Some fantastic, I know it's true
Not as much as my want to be with you
Bye bye, self respect
I haven't had much of it since you left
I missed out on the best of you
Bye bye, self respect
I haven't had much of it since you left
I missed out on the best of you
Bye bye bye
Drink and never grow old
Then I'll market an elixir
That will eliminate the common cold
Find your sickness on my list
Pay up front and make a wish
All the tests I'm gonna do
All my stuff's completely natural
And when we're done
We'll boil 'em down for glue
That we can use to re-adhere
Your lips to mine if you were here
Some fantastic, I know it's true
But not as much as my want to be with you
So I built a new machine
It just measures up the distance
And then eliminates the folks between
And I'll name it after you
'Cause you were the greatest friend of all
Except for when you split my lip in two
To see the look upon your face
As I launch you into space...
Some fantastic, I know it's true
But not as much as my want to be with you
I haven't had much of it since you left
I missed out on the best of you
To your social chemistry
Then I'll print it on a t-shirt
And it'll make you want to be with me
And if I wear it past your work
You'll see other guys are jerks
Much like pheromones for flies
You will not avoid my eyes
Some fantastic, I know it's true
Not as much as my want to be with you
I haven't had much of it since you left
I missed out on the best of you
I haven't had much of it since you left
I missed out on the best of you
Song Info
Submitted by
ojms On Apr 01, 2001
More Barenaked Ladies
One Week
Pinch Me
What A Good Boy
If I Had A $1000000
Tonight Is The Night I Fell Asleep At The Wheel
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Some Fantastic is about a scientist who fell for a lab assistant and wants her back. Ed wrote this when he played it in the played in the bathroom sessions on YouTube. The meaning is basically simple when that forum is realized. There's alot he will never do. What what he wants is to be with her. Love this song. Its even better live.
It's a simple song really. All the verses are are things that are impossible for him to do, or at least very unlikely. Just as he will not get with her. He screwed up somewhere.
The protagonist is a scientist, and he's kind of a mad scientist: a man of pure intellect and zero common sense, his lab assistant is the one person in the world he's ever had real love for, and he's incapable of expressing it in any terms other than rigid scientific ones that make him seem bizarre.
REadhere in the second verse suggests that they did, in fact, have a romantic relationship, but it failed at some point, likely due to his total inability to express his feelings (and understand hers) like a more normal person.
Now that she's gone, he finally realizes that his self-image is forever ruined without her, but his response is to dream up a series of ridiculously elaborate and anti-social ideas to get her to love him again.
It's really rather sad, because he knows that he loves her, and knows that her absence makes him feel shitty and empty, but he simply can't understand why or what to do about it, because love is not a quantifiable mathematical concept. So instead he cooks up all these crazy ideas.
Reminded me of a scene from a TV show where the Mad Scientist's wife is about to leave him, and shouts at him that she needs "real human affection", to which he replies "Human affection...hmmm...perhaps it can be synthesized, maybe in pill form?"
I've read in several places, including the BNL.com message board, that it's a lost love song about a semi-mad scientist and his lab assistant. They were apparently together for a period, then she punched him in the lip and left. Now he's concocting various schemes to get her back.
broken relationship
i think this song is about this one guy pleading his ex to come back. he promises to build all sorts of things to try to win her back
Why does the title have the parenthetical, "(Ivory and Ivory)"?
I think because its like a harmonic kind of song
This is a very lazy guy, and he knows it. He claims it is more likely that he will do all of these amazing things before this girl will ever go out with him (none of them are as FANTASTIC as his desire for her). The definition of fantastic that I'm referring to is "Based on or existing only in fantasy; unreal"
The "Ivory and Ivory" parenthetical is a play on Paul McCartney's and Stevie Wonder's "Ebony and Ivory", I assume.