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What Are You? Lyrics
What are you?
what are you becoming?
what have you become?
Once you sang your own song
now you're dancing to the same drum
what have you become?
And what is that you're wearing?
money's ugly confidence
You sacrificed the poem of your imagination
for these pounds and pence
Me I take the cynic's role
throw scorn on your empty mind
I've seen this monotonous world
make dull what used to shine
you lost interest
you lost your spine
oh that spine fine fine
yeah
When there' nothing left
on this plate you're handed
you find yourself
running the gauntlet
of all of these double standards
it's very thin ice over which you're skating
and after this black winter the thaw
So what are you
tell me tell me what are you
and what have you become
what are you becoming?
what have you become?
now you're dancing to the same drum
what have you become?
money's ugly confidence
for these pounds and pence
throw scorn on your empty mind
I've seen this monotonous world
make dull what used to shine
you lost interest
you lost your spine
oh that spine fine fine
When there' nothing left
on this plate you're handed
you find yourself
running the gauntlet
of all of these double standards
it's very thin ice over which you're skating
and after this black winter the thaw
tell me tell me what are you
and what have you become
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I find this to be a very underrated but very powerful song bursting with the anger and resentment that David can articulate spot-on with.
The anger of being sucked in by someone you finally feel relates to you and then discovering it's all just dead air and they're actually just as ignorant, shallow and blind in the persuit of money as the rest of this 'monotonous world'. Except they don't realise and still believe they are different, changing themselves to various 'people' they want to be seen as (double standards).
Resentment at being so cautious when it comes to choosing someone to be with and yet still still getting it wrong AGAIN. This is exactly why you adopt the cynic's role when it comes to relationships and people in general.
David wrote this song to himself. I think the rest is pretty self-explanatory when viewed in the light of that.