"Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying" as written by and Martin/murdoch/colburn/cooke/geddes/jackson/campbe....
Ooh! Get me away from here I'm dying
Play me a song to set me free
Nobody writes them like they used to
So it may as well be me
Here on my own now after hours
Here on my own now on a bus
Think of it this way
You could either be successful or be us
With our winning smiles, and us
With our catchy tunes, and us
Now we're photogenic
You know, we don't stand a chance
Oh, I'll settle down with some old story
About a boy who's just like me
Thought there was love in everything and everyone
You're so naive!
After a while they always get it
They always reach a sorry end
Still it was worth it as I turned the pages solemnly, and then
With a winning smile, the boy
With naivety succeeds
At the final moment, I cried
I always cry at endings
Oh, that wasn't what I meant to say at all
From where I'm sitting, rain
Washing against the lonely tenement
Has set my mind to wander
Into the windows of my lovers
They never know unless I write
"This is no declaration, I just thought I'd let you know goodbye"
Said the hero in the story
"It is mightier than swords
I could kill you sure
But I could only make you cry with these words"
Oh, get me away, I'm dying...
Play me a song to set me free
Nobody writes them like they used to
So it may as well be me
Here on my own now after hours
Here on my own now on a bus
Think of it this way
You could either be successful or be us
With our winning smiles, and us
With our catchy tunes, and us
Now we're photogenic
You know, we don't stand a chance
Oh, I'll settle down with some old story
About a boy who's just like me
Thought there was love in everything and everyone
You're so naive!
After a while they always get it
They always reach a sorry end
Still it was worth it as I turned the pages solemnly, and then
With a winning smile, the boy
With naivety succeeds
At the final moment, I cried
I always cry at endings
Oh, that wasn't what I meant to say at all
From where I'm sitting, rain
Washing against the lonely tenement
Has set my mind to wander
Into the windows of my lovers
They never know unless I write
"This is no declaration, I just thought I'd let you know goodbye"
Said the hero in the story
"It is mightier than swords
I could kill you sure
But I could only make you cry with these words"
Oh, get me away, I'm dying...
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Then, while on the bus, he is settling into a story that is run-of-the-mill that starts out with a normal guy just like anyone else who believes there's good and love in everything and finds out that not everything is great about life and the narrator anticipated it coming but kept reading anyway (as we all do in our lives- not everything is happiness in life like we like to believe when we're kids, there is tragedy somewhere in life) The narrator always cries at endings maybe the fear of dying or how people always cry at funerals (endings of our lives).
Then he picks himself up from his own internal revelation as if to say, "Oh I didn't mean to be a killjoy there, sorry." Doesn't wanna bring the listener down (irony!) so he apologizes for that. He's looking out the window on a rainy gloomy day (just like his mindset) thinking about past lovers and how they never know he's thinking about them unless he writes them a dear john (goodbye/break up) letter and just like in a story, he says "I could kill you with a sword but instead he'll hurt you with words and make you cry (hurt your feelings/break your heart)"
This song is basically all of B&S's songs in a nutshell: They're stories or moments that are a revelation of life and what it really is. Most of their songs are upbeat but gloomy because they reveal the real world truth. Sorry if that didn't make sense, I went deep there.
The narrator, just like anyone, needs a good song to lift their spirits just for a moment because the world isn't a sweet little fairytale like a children's book will make it out to be.
1. The songwriter sitting looking out his window, thinking about what to write
2. The songwriter imagining himself in a fairy-tale type story in a book he's reading, as the naive hero
3. The songwriter thinking about his actual mundane life and the band he's in
4. The songwriter speaking to his ex-lovers, who he abandons and doesn't always contact
At the end 1-4 are brought together perfectly by the last few lines.
I would go so far as to say that:
Oh, that wasn't what I meant to say at all
From where I'm sitting, rain
Washing against the lonely tenement
Has set my mind to wander
And the rest of that verse are the best lyrics I can think of outside a Bob Dylan song, and from me that's very high praise indeed.
He likes himself alright -- he says he has "winning smiles" and "catchy tunes" -- but at the same time, he realizes that those aren't the things that the world appreciates ("we don't stand a chance"). He relates to the boy in the story (who also has a "winning smile", just like him), but understands that the boy is too naive to succeed or get what he wants. The only context where "naivete succeeds" is in a fairy tale.
As for the end of the song... I don't think the singer commits suicide so much as he just comes to the conclusion he's not really made for this world. Suicide -- his "goodbye" -- would be the ultimate revenge, making the world "cry" for him, but the singer decides to make "no declaration" and just accepts that he doesn't necessarily fit in with the jaded, realistic world.
I know that analysis sounds really depressing, but I find this to be an upbeat happy song (the lyrics as well as the music). I certainly relate to the speaker, and I love the conclusion he comes to: we're here on this world, and in the grand scheme of things we may not fit in, but screw it, we're here anyway. The least and best we can do is love life while we're here.
That message has gotten me through many a sleepless night. :)
It's beautiful.
I think (pretty much like everyone else) that it's about the songwriter being really optimistic and naive and imaginative. He tries to write a song but gets really carried away by it.
Still it was worth it as I turned the pages solemnly, and then
With a winning smile, the boy
With naivety succeeds
At the final moment, I cried
I always cry at endings
I think the song he's writing absorbs him so much that he gets drawn into his own story. Then he suddenly realises what he's written, hence the:
Oh, that wasn't what I meant to say at all
From where I'm sitting, rain
Washing against the lonely tenement
Has set my mind to wander
He becomes aware of the naive story he's written, and he's jolted back to reality. I think the "get me away from here I'm dying" is talking about reality/imagination, so it's not a physical escape, just a mental one.
I love "Thought there was love in everything and everyone, you're so naive"
Isn't it "They always reach a sorry ending, they always get it in the end"?
and "Falling" instead of "Washing"?
He knows he doesn't stand a chance, but he still tries, because if there's any genuine sentiment left in the world, the underdog will somehow succeed in the end.
Everyone roots for the underdog in the movies and books. Not so much in real life, sadly.
Nobody writes them like they used to
So it may as well be me
Ain't it obvious?
It's about music business and about dissapointment in doing what you like and not being payed for it and for people listening 'wrong' music and so on...
It's also about being aware of yout talents and being aware that noone else has to recognize them...
One of my favourite B&S songs...