Hold on to Your Genre Lyrics
Hold on to your hair-do, it's the only thing to hold onto.
Get up on the vapor, 'cause the solid's tough to hold onto.
You tell a little lie and then you
try to get us in your bedroom.
You see our little lives and then you
try to drag you to your death tomb.
I've been checking the seams of your red velvet blazer.
Now I'm haunted by dreams of the things I've found hid there:
All the rabbits you've vanished,
All the cards that you've killed,
All the dawns that you've banished
with too many pills.
the pity, the pleasure,
the privilege, the pressure,
the arteries we sever.
The stillness it chills us
it's chills that we crave.
The stillness will fill us when we fill in our graves.
like nothing half this much.
I'd gladly trade my state
for nullity and such.
For once to stop this buzzing
and the lights inside my head.
Can I please have truly nothing,
once before I'm dead?
You tell a little lie and then you
try to get us in your bedroom.
You see our little lives and then you
try to drag us to your death tomb.
I've been checking the seams of your red velvet blazer.
And I'm seeing the lines of your will and your wish list:
And you wish you were nothing,
and you wish you were cold,
and you wish day's meant something
so you'd stop getting old.
and you would feast with great delight.
A walnut coffin lined in silk,
and the daughters blood was mother's milk.
But now with fangs red as dusk,
a wet mouth in a drid up husk,
you try to mkae me one of "us."
Are you sick of being cool?
Are you alive beneath your makeup?
Or just an un-dead ghoul?
Is this a song about meditation?
to me it seems tim's talking about artists or people in general being faithful to their passion for music or life in general. People liking something or acting a certain way for popularity or reasons that arent geniune. Take all the ' the ' bands who've come on board lately, twisting their style to suit what's cool at the time.. the last 4 lines of this song are killers.
Are you sick of being pretty? Are you sick of being cool? Are you alive beneath your makeup? Or just an un-dead ghoul?
creams his panties
I think the vampie imagery is more damning than those last four lines. It seems to me Tim Harrington is probably directing this as much to the artists and fans within the very genre in which his band has been placed as to commercially successful rock groups. To me, though, this song seems really critical of the "too cool to dance" hipsters Tim Harrington likes to antagonize at their live shows. Or so I've heard.
The beginning of this song reminds me of Joy Division.
i definitely agree with leonperkin's and artformsnow's takes, but i like to apply the lyrics in another way. :)
i may be misconstruing this to my current situation, but it seems to me like this is the epitomy of the anti-establishment/stereotype song.
"hold on to your genre, your genre's got a hold on you"
the line "there's a promise in the backroom/see it written in the bathroom" seems to be mocking the sexuality of teenagers today - or more just, its increasing pressure.
we do magic tricks (rabbits, cards) to perform for others, instead of just being ourselves.
the bit "together, forever/the pity, the pleasure" are the strongest lyrics to me in the song.
he's looking at all this and he wants to have none of it. he doesn't want to be "established", doesn't want to be apart of the sexuality, the magic tricks.. he just wants to be himself.
still kind of hazy on the vampire imagery.. uh.. hahaha!
I'm sure that each person brings their own experiences to this song, but I cant get Peter Murphy out of my head when I listen to it. Its just so gothic and vampire like. Love the line about the wet mouth. It brings to me the image of a ghostly white face with blood in the mouth.
Personally, i take this song to be about the whole conforming to the interests of everyone else.
'Hold on to your hair-do, it's the only thing to hold onto.' I think this is about how certain styles are associated with various genres of music. And by taking on this style you let the music define you hence the 'it's the only thing to hold onto'
I think the last 4 lines express the artists feelings towards those who are taken in by the mindless conformity. 'un-dead ghoul' meaning said people are brainless, the same as the people they aspire to look/act like with no individuality. 'you try to make me one of 'us' ' ^
Maybe i've misinterpreted the song but thats what i thought it meant.
I also agree with 'montana judas' about the start sounding like Joy Division.
This jam came out before the whole vampire, Twilight craze. Did Les Savy Fav help start the type of fad that they criticize? Probably not, but I like to visualize goths and hipsters alike dancing like crazy to this song, because, while it seems kind of emo, it really transcends genres in subject matter. Maybe they gave it a goth rock sound because goths tend to stick to their genre more than anyone. Anyway, do the mood and vocals in this remind anyone else of Billy Idol?