All you want to do is something good
So get ready to be ridiculed and misunderstood
'Cause don't you know that you're a fucking freak in this world
In which everybody's willing to choose swine over pearls

And maybe everything is all for nothing
Still you'd better keep it to yourself
'Cause God knows it's not safe with anybody else

You can take your own advice and try again
But a thousand compromises don't add up to a win
And they'd be happy if you'd only cover your tracks
But the trail of crumbs you've left won't help you find your way back

So maybe everything is all for nothing
Still you'd better keep it to yourself
'Cause God knows it's not safe with anybody else
God knows it's not safe with anybody else

You can play along, but you'll just end up wrong somehow, won't you

But you're the idiot who keeps believing in luck
And you just can't get it through your head that no one else gives a fuck

So maybe everything is all for nothing
Still you'd better keep it to yourself
'Cause God knows it's not safe with anybody else
God knows it's not safe with anybody else

Ah-ah, ah-ah
Ah-ah, ah-ah
Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh
(God knows it's not safe with anybody else)
Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh
It's not safe with anybody else
Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh
(God knows it's not safe with anybody else)
Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh

Play that guitar
But you're the idiot who keeps believing in luck

The speaker is out of the picture
I'm talking to the microphone
The microphone thinks that I'm talking
But I'm not talking at all
I'm singing to you


Lyrics submitted by peopleterrifyme, edited by ShootTheM14, antmoose

It's Not Safe Lyrics as written by Aimee Mann

Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

It's Not song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

23 Comments

sort form View by:
  • +2
    General Comment

    It's about depression - how your life can seem so perfect, so wonderful, but it isn't. Not to you, not when you're struggling against that disease and your whole life is a "tiny dot". You don't know where the depression came from, and people think that it should be so easy to get out of it ("and all I have to do is to press the pedal") but it isn't. It's not. You get into a relationship, thinking love will make it better... but it doesn't.

    dragonflyeyeson June 17, 2006   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    Correction to the last verse:

    So, baby, kiss me like a drug, like a respirator And let me fall into the dream of the astronaut Where I get lost in space that goes on forever And you make all the rest just an afterthought And I believe it's you who could make it better Though it's not No, it's not No, it's not

    Eamonon December 07, 2007   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    this song is so incredibly perfect..."so baby kiss me like a drug, like a respirator..." is my favorite line from this song, and it is also one of the main themes of her album, addictive relationships (whether it be sex addiction or simply giving the other person magical qualitites like only they can make you better). Aimee Mann is an amazing woman.

    HannahOrange7on March 28, 2003   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    it's perfect. reminds me of realities of life.

    fav lines,

    so baby kiss me like a drug, like a respirator and let me fall into the dream of the astronaut for I'll get lost in space that goes on forever

    Paragon October 18, 2006   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    I heard this song on some random ep of dawson's creek and loved it stright away. bought the cd so many years ago (i think i was like 16 at the time). it still stands as one of my favs. i sung it to my baby neice the other day, not the lyrics just the melody and she totally stopped fussing and calmed down. it was weird. aimee has an awesome effect on those of us lucky enough to let her in.

    indierock01on November 21, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    this song is just so perfect. it reminds me of "save me" and why i love aimee mann.

    mrpeachumon August 29, 2002   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    heheh, honestly you guys, I take great pleasure in seeing very few posts on here. its like we have aimee mann at songmeanigns all to ourselves. maybe thats selfish but i like it. god i love the album lost in space. its kind of scary but also sooo beautiful. I absolutely love the line where she describes just refusing to put her foot on the pedal for no apparent reason. thats just awsome, its so weird and erratic and fucked up. i love it.

    rainydayboyon March 11, 2003   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Ah, I adore this song, as well as all of Lost in Space--it's the only thing I've been listening to lately. "So baby kiss me like a drug, like a respirator" is my favorite line too...just so beautiful. Aimee Mann always seems to make me...tingly.

    TakeTheNoiseInMyHeadon April 22, 2003   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    My fave song off the Lost In Space album(with Invisible Ink).I think she's trying to break away or get rid of her rubbish life but she's not able to do that.She's scared of changing,of trying to do anything new because people will not accept that.Well,at least this is what the song means to me.

    Joekubrickon July 05, 2003   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    this tune, along with others on this album, has helped me get over some of my darker days in autumn 2002. listen to the chorus again, no one writes about alienation better than aimee. i'm sure we all have wanted to take a turn at a certain stoplight of our lives, yet when the light changes for the 22th time, we're still stuck in the middle. procrastination is addictive too, so fuck procrastination.

    fieroavianon May 20, 2004   Link

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

Album art
Standing On The Edge Of Summer
Thursday
In regards to the meaning of this song: Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.” That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Album art
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him. There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Album art
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines: "Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet" So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other: "I had all and then most of you" Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart "Some and now none of you" Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship. This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Album art
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Album art
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.