The Gash

Wait, I just got the song, right after posting the above. I don't know what it may mean to you all, but to me, it reflects the effect that Attention Deficit Disorder has been wreaking on my life. I'm giving up hope, but there are other people out there, unmedicated like me, who keep on fighting, even though they know they're "gashed". All my reasons for doing anything in life, like my education, I don't want to have anymore, and yet the battle of everyday life keeps going, despite the fact that I'm "broken"

Nice, ZeroOne. I too think the song is pretty inspirational/motivational, encouraging people to get out and "fight" without making excuses. Everyone is broken in some way, and we're all fighting together, gashes be damned. That's what I'm pulling from it, anyway.

i think "the gash" represents our own personal problem du jour.... say addiction (any form).. or depression.. or relationship problems.. i think ultimately what this song is saying is. you are not alone. everyone has their own gash and using the gash as an excuse to give up on your battle to live (sanity=Truth) well.. thats just damn stupid. get out of the self pity and keep going gash and all.. i fucking love everything everyone has said. and i love this song

The full title of the song is The Gash (Battle Hymn for the Wounded Mathematician.) Do you think it might have anything to do with the schizophrenic mathematician John Nash made famous in the film A Beautiful Mind?

this is my very favorite flaming lips song (right now) bar none. so many meanings to so many of the lips songs. wayne can say something that seems so simple but deliver it in a way that opens your mind to so many other possiblities. so each song can truly be yours, it's a high form of sharing and not being so stereotypically narcissistic. i agree with all of your interpretations. for me it reminds me of therapy and touches on so many wonderful things. opening old (or fresh) emotional wounds and battling them. eyes being wide open to all that is your self, all of your gashes, and realizing that you, just like the rest of us, are indeed broken and that is fine and dandy as long as you are searching for answers and even the truth. having a soul represented as an army or a passionate movement and no matter what, there will forever be at least one volunteer to keep fighting. in that way it also touches on suicide. perhaps looking at someone who is on the brink and saying hey, we're all in this boat, it's not just you, c'mon mang don't throw in the towel, get out there and fight. (the first verses being directed at "you" and the latter part of the song referring to we. god i love this song. Will the fight for sanity be the fight of our lives? Now that we've lost all the reasons that we thought that we had. yes, i believe so.

When Waynne comes out solo with the "Will the fight for our sanity" verse, it always makes me think of a general rising up and ordering his troops onward.

I love this song. The mix of all the voices and the warring music is just too awesome. Can't comprehend the lyrics though.

Yeah, The Gash is absolutely incredible.

All those voices telling you that your gash sucks, but so does every gash. But you just keep going, and battle on. You can't give up, and you certainly can't admit that you've lost all the will to battle on.

the gash is about the car wreck the drummer was in and was too hurt to play. for a while

WHOA there Keifire...Drozd was never in any car-wreck. Drozd got the spiderbite (and his heroin use almost led to amputation, etc.). Ivins was in the car-wreck. but I don't think you can generalize like that either. this is a pretty broad song, about all sorts of crazy crap. some of the above comments are very good.