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Eating Styes From Elephants' Eyes Lyrics
They want trash
They want you batting a lash
I'll eat styes from elephants' eyes
They're in touch
With their inner crutch
They wont stab but they'll grab
And that's just like the other
We get nerves
And we drown it in booze
We take lives from elephants' eyes
They're in bed
With their cutting lead
It wont stop if you shop
With the lovers of bloodshed
I went to school, and saw slides
Of where I'm meant to be
Where I'm meant to be
We read time
Like a kid eating limes
We're in town when bees are let out
We get laughs
Through an osmotic patch
We're attached to the past
Cause our future's a bleak one
I went to school and saw slides
Of where I'm meant to be
I'm meant to be
They want you batting a lash
I'll eat styes from elephants' eyes
They're in touch
With their inner crutch
They wont stab but they'll grab
And that's just like the other
And we drown it in booze
We take lives from elephants' eyes
They're in bed
With their cutting lead
It wont stop if you shop
With the lovers of bloodshed
Of where I'm meant to be
Where I'm meant to be
Like a kid eating limes
We're in town when bees are let out
We get laughs
Through an osmotic patch
We're attached to the past
Cause our future's a bleak one
Of where I'm meant to be
I'm meant to be
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Maybe, hating the type of girls who try to get the best of you and you realize this and you know they are aware of their own problems so you drink alcohol and smoke weed to try to forget. You fall vicitim to lack of motivation and time passes quickly, kids cant really handle lime its too sour and they make a face. Sort of how you cant keep track of how fast time is going by when you are being consumed by "partying" too much. I think the whole slide line is about him missing his childhood, missing as in he failed to experience it.
and also, i think this song is about childhood and the way that school and society try to condition, us. 'They wont stab but they'll grab And that's just like the other' theyre stabbing us. 'i went to school and saw slides of where im meant to be' basically, school tells us what to do, and what are the right paths to take. 'We're attached to the past Cause our future's a bleak one' well thats obvious, the way things are shaping out, the future will suck. then it talks a fair bit about using drugs or alcohol to overcome all of the pressure associated with schooling 'drown it in booze' 'osmotic patch (most likely a transdermal opiate'
I've never actually heard this song, but I want to interpret it anyway since there's no clear interpretation, here.
They want trash / They want you batting a lash / I'll eat styes from elephants' eyes [teachers and elders teach kids to be a certain way as they grow in school, but The Shins's singer says he'll do as he pleases.] They're in touch With their inner crutch They wont stab but they'll grab [they're not allowed to hurt their students with weapons, but they'll manhandle kids, still] And that's just like the other [and it's not any better than hurting with weapons]
We get nerves And we drown it in booze We take lives from elephants' eyes [we do as we please...] They're in bed With their cutting lead It wont stop if you shop With the lovers of bloodshed [pain won't stop if you hang with the wrong people or do the wrong things.]
I went to school, and saw slides Of where I'm meant to be Where I'm meant to be [school shows kids videos, and the kids get the impression that that's how they're supposed to act, too]
We read time Like a kid eating limes [like someone said before, time passes by so fast, we ignore it at first, but then it comes by and we don't even realize it.] We're in town when bees are let out We get laughs Through an osmotic patch [??? i don't know] We're attached to the past Cause our future's a bleak one [no hope for the future...even with the brainwashing of school]
I went to school and saw slides Of where I'm meant to be I'm meant to be
I think this song is about societal norms imposed on us through education and the media, as well as the extreme control over society by major companies.
I think this song is about societal norms imposed on us through education and the media, as well as the extreme control over society by major companies.
They want trash They want you batting a lash (Society, rather those that control it, doesn't want us to invest too much of our time being critical of it/them.) I'll eat styes from elephants' eyes (I'll eat up bullshit) They're in touch With their inner crutch (They love money) They wont stab but they'll grab And that's just like the other (They are greedy and though they don't attack people, it can be just as harmful as if...
They want trash They want you batting a lash (Society, rather those that control it, doesn't want us to invest too much of our time being critical of it/them.) I'll eat styes from elephants' eyes (I'll eat up bullshit) They're in touch With their inner crutch (They love money) They wont stab but they'll grab And that's just like the other (They are greedy and though they don't attack people, it can be just as harmful as if they were, specifically to the poor and those that require the resources they are hording.)
We get nerves And we drown it in booze (Simply, we avoid our problems. This doesn't necessarily have to be directly about alcohol and nerves, it can also apply to buying things to make ourselves feel better and other activities which only comfort but don't actually fix the problems at hand.) We take lies from elephants' eyes (We'll believe anything that is told to us by 'important people') They're in bed With a car eating lead (These important 'controllers of society' are very closely related to the 'machines' which are secretly poisoning the rest of humanity. Much like how a car produces exhaust which doesn't seem to do too much initially, but as we all know is slowly poisoning our air.) It wont stop if you shop With the lovers of bloodshed (This basically goes back to the "They don't stab but they grab..." line, in which these people are actually harming humanity; yet we still spend money on products which creates them profit. Though even if we don't agree with their actions, we still don't stop fueling their rampage against humanity.)
I went to school, and saw slides Of where I'm meant to be Where I'm meant to be (Simply schools don't try to help people become smarter, but rather are there to impose lawful and passive behaviour while setting people up for jobs.)
We read time Like a kid eating limes (We don't actually like being at work or school all day long and instead of doing things we enjoy we find ourselves always looking at the time to see when we will be 'free'.) We're in town when bees are let out We get laughs Through an osmotic patch (We are essentially constantly trying to be entertained to the point that we don't really care about anything else) We're attached to the past Cause our future's a bleak one (This could mean a lot of things. We are afraid of dying. We are told that the world is becoming worse and we need to preserve the current order of things; with these powerful people at the top. Being a child was much simpler, which is a common theme in James Mercer's work. Or, and objective sort of view on the rest of the song that the world is getting worse for these reasons, and nothing is really changing the direction we are going in)
Where's this from?
this song is awesome. but some of the lyrics here are wrong. for instance it is 'we get nerves' not 'we get news.' and its not 'orgasmic plant', its 'osmotic patch', fentanyl styles. so im gonna resubmit
The title sounds like a reference from Catch-22.