Walk around the room with a glaze in your stare.
In your tuxedo suit.
I will give it a name.
Lower your defenses.

Lower your casket.
Open the door and open your grave.
Murder.
Now you're doing the waltz with your murderer.

Mediocrity is the killer.
You find yourself helpless.
Christ is not a fashion, fleeting away.
He laid emeralds in her eyes,

But I'd already tried a bracelt made of gold
And a scarlet thread around her wrist.
Everything was wrong
So we sang sentimental songs.

"Oh how seldom we belong
But how elegant our kiss."
We painted crooked lines
But danced in perfect time

To a love so much refined,
We know not what it is until
Like a dullen wine we pour into a grief
Know before but never quite like this.

All I know now is regret,
It follows like a silhouette
Along the cobbelstone behind us,
But has nothing to say except to innocently ask,

It's voice delicate as glass,
"Do you see me when we pass?"
But I continue on my way


Lyrics submitted by zliberatedz

Memphis Will Be Laid to Waste Lyrics as written by

Lyrics © Capitol CMG Publishing

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Memphis Will Be Laid To Rest song meanings
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  • +1
    General Comment

    You all are clearly reading too much into it.

    Lower your defense, lower your casket. Well, it says that mediocrity is the killer, so if you lower you defense and become mediocre (in life in general), you are soon to die. Doing the waltz with your murderer means that you enjoy being mediocre.

    The song takes a change of pace and continues on about a relationship. I believe that the first and second part of the song is completely irrelevant to each other, but it's just how I perceive the song.

    cegoodmanon April 29, 2012   Link

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