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People Ain't No Good Lyrics
People just ain't no good
A thing that's well understood
You can see it everywhere you look
People just ain't no good
We were married under cherry trees
Under blossom we made our vows
All the blossoms come sailing down
Through the streets and through the playgrounds
The sun would stream on the sheets
Awoken by the morning bird
We'd buy the Sunday newspapers
Never read a single word
People, they ain't no good
People, they ain't no good
People, they ain't no good
Seasons came, seasons went
The winter stripped the blossoms bare
A different tree now lines the streets
Shaking its fists in the air
The winter slammed us like a fist
The windows rattling in the gales
To which she drew the curtains
Made out of her wedding veils
People, they ain't no good
People, they ain't no good
People, they ain't no good at all
To our love, send a dozen white lilies
To our love, send a coffin of wood
To our love, let all the pink-eyed pigeons coo
That people, they just ain't no good
To our love, send back all the letters
To our love, a valentine of blood
To our love, let all the jilted lovers cry
That people, they just ain't no good
It ain't that in their hearts they're bad
They can comfort you, some even try
They nurse you when you're ill of health
They bury you when you go and die
It ain't that in their hearts they're bad
They'd stick by you if they could
But that's just bullshit
People just ain't no good
People, they ain't no good
People, they ain't no good
People, they ain't no good
People, they ain't no good at all
A thing that's well understood
You can see it everywhere you look
People just ain't no good
Under blossom we made our vows
All the blossoms come sailing down
Through the streets and through the playgrounds
Awoken by the morning bird
We'd buy the Sunday newspapers
Never read a single word
People, they ain't no good
People, they ain't no good
The winter stripped the blossoms bare
A different tree now lines the streets
Shaking its fists in the air
The windows rattling in the gales
To which she drew the curtains
Made out of her wedding veils
People, they ain't no good
People, they ain't no good at all
To our love, send a coffin of wood
To our love, let all the pink-eyed pigeons coo
That people, they just ain't no good
To our love, a valentine of blood
To our love, let all the jilted lovers cry
That people, they just ain't no good
They can comfort you, some even try
They nurse you when you're ill of health
They bury you when you go and die
They'd stick by you if they could
But that's just bullshit
People just ain't no good
People, they ain't no good
People, they ain't no good
Song Info
Submitted by
jillian04 On May 31, 2004
More Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
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The Mercy Seat
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These lyrics are from the CD Booklet, so... It sounds like someone who's had enough of the world and being pissed over by people. Certainly been there.
"To our love send a coffin" sounds like a relationship has gone bad and he's not doing so well. Poor bloke.
an elegy to dead love, simple as that. She's dead to him now and he's mourning not her, but the death of what had held them together.
The following comments are biased as I am a big Nick Cave fan. I really like this meloncolic song as it reminds me it is about the complexities of human relationships and how they can and do change. Being a person who likes to help people out and give "people the benefit of the doubt" can leave me exposed to people abusing my trust. I have thought of some people as friends and it turns out that they are just "using you". This song is about the human condition. I have to be careful not to do the above to others - I do not think I'm the type, but, I am human too.
You're correct. To me it's a spouse that scorned him after some help was offered.
You're correct. To me it's a spouse that scorned him after some help was offered.
Seriously? Awesome. I'm going to see it next week, I can't wait.
Hehe...great movie and great song.
the lyrics are just great. and true too. "people just ain't no good"... even better along with a depressive mood.
These lyrics are amazingly profound. The tune is repetitive, but I think of it as a chant or a lament to make up for that.... :D
at the start, I think you'll find it is "People just ain't no good/A THING that's well understood".
or at least, it's fairly clearly that in the version that I've been listening to.
I think this is quite touching. I guess it's more about not being able to connect with people than people being bad as such.
"It ain't that in their hearts they're bad..."
A song with meaning... makes so much sense to me!
I have always been under the impression that the song isn't so much about people being horrible in the emotional sense, but it's Cave telling a story about how you can love someone, completely devote yourself to them and in the end they die and you're left without them.
So really, people ain't no good, because even if you love someone they can still die.
I think prodigal has a good point there: nowhere in the song does it sound like his love actually betrayed him. In fact, these lines:
I think prodigal has a good point there: nowhere in the song does it sound like his love actually betrayed him. In fact, these lines:
The winter slammed us like a fist The windows rattling in the gales To which she drew the curtains Made out of her wedding veils
The winter slammed us like a fist The windows rattling in the gales To which she drew the curtains Made out of her wedding veils
Make it sound like that when hard times hit, she helped get them threw it through the strength of her commitment.
Make it sound like that when hard times hit, she helped get them threw it through the strength of her commitment.
And the song also has a strong sense of passing time ("Seasons passing") and it sounds like the song's protagonist actually refers to his love's death (although he makes...
And the song also has a strong sense of passing time ("Seasons passing") and it sounds like the song's protagonist actually refers to his love's death (although he makes it sound impersonal or hypothetical):
They can comfort you, some even try They nurse you when you're ill of health They bury you when you go and die
I think this song is so sad because it's about the inevitability of love leading to real pain, not because betrayal is inevitable - but just because everything must come to an end eventually. God that's depressing. Time for bed.
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