34 Meanings
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A
Southern State Lyrics
Well, the songs you sung spiraled
And hung round like echoes
Or ripples on a pond
So you circled the globe
Spent a year on the road
Without ever going home
More than a couple of days
Then you leave right away
Run to a girl you barely know
But you like how she sings
And you can't help but think
That there's something that she knows
And could teach you
Well you're sleeping in that southern state
Where the bars are filled
With people you can't hate
But try as you try
You still can't relate to them
You drink that whiskey down
As they ask you:
Are you who you say you are?
The fact that we can't tell
Makes us like you even more
So now you're trying again
Or just visiting friends
One had just had his heart broke
For the first time in his life
He realized there are times
When you can't make it alone
So now you are giving advice
As if you had the right
To use a word like love
It's a negotiable term
What gets said's not what is heard
So it's different then for everyone
But you've been hanging
Around that college town
With your new life
Your new lover you found
And you are keeping her up at night
Bringing her down
She'll watch you drink yourself to death
But won't ask you
Is this really what you want?
Or are you just sticking with it now
Because it's all you got?
And hung round like echoes
Or ripples on a pond
So you circled the globe
Spent a year on the road
Without ever going home
More than a couple of days
Then you leave right away
Run to a girl you barely know
But you like how she sings
And you can't help but think
That there's something that she knows
And could teach you
Where the bars are filled
With people you can't hate
But try as you try
You still can't relate to them
You drink that whiskey down
As they ask you:
Are you who you say you are?
The fact that we can't tell
Makes us like you even more
Or just visiting friends
One had just had his heart broke
For the first time in his life
He realized there are times
When you can't make it alone
So now you are giving advice
As if you had the right
To use a word like love
It's a negotiable term
What gets said's not what is heard
So it's different then for everyone
Around that college town
With your new life
Your new lover you found
And you are keeping her up at night
Bringing her down
She'll watch you drink yourself to death
But won't ask you
Is this really what you want?
Or are you just sticking with it now
Because it's all you got?
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
this song is great.
p.s.more power to conor and winona! woo!
i think it's about Maria Taylor...anyone knows for sure?
maybe it's introspective... seems like he does that in a few of his songs. plus the similarities to a messenger bird's song and the calendar hung itself, about being on tour and turning to girls he barely knows for love. plus i've heard him say before that the terms "you" and "i" are inter-changable in his songs
To be honest, I think this song is about Andy LeMaster of Now it's Overhead. It's all speculation, but the lyrics hint at a theme of self-deception and repression and not being who you are, not doing what you want. Andy LeMaster recently came out as gay - NIO's new album is about self-acceptance and, basically, about sexual self-discovery. And, he's from Georgia - a southern state. the lines that stood out for me on that theme would be the bit about "a girl you barely know" and....the conviction "that there is something that she knows" and the bars with people that "try as you try and you still can't relate to them." Other big ones: "Are you who you say you are?" and "Is this really what you want?" you know. all the typical lines. woo!
I'm thinking Maria based on the hints about it being about a girl. And Maria is from a southern state, and sings..
i think hes singing about himself.
wow... this song was beautiful. now its unbelievably tragic yet gorgeous. interchanging the yous and i's makes all the difference. thanks
I've been to 5 concerts over the last few months and he's never mentioned anything about anyone. He introduces it the same every single time. I like that he played a country western song for his mother when he was playing in IU Bloomington a couple months ago.
I don't have the slightest clue about the song right now. Or at least I'm not going to state what I think/feel right now. Listen to the trumpet, you'll die inside.
First time I heard this song was on the live release Motion Sickness.
On Motion Sickness, Bright Eyes I think uses 'bars are filled with people you can't hate'
Is this the same for the recorded version?
"bars are filled with people you can't hate" is the correct lyrics britt daniel and conor should date that would be hott with two "t's"