Both as a standalone and as part of the DSOTS album, you can take this lyric as read. As a matter of public record, Jourgensen's drug intake was legendary even in the 1980s. By the late 90s, in his own words, he was grappling with massive addiction issues and had lost almost everything: friends, spouse, money and had nearly died more than once. "Dark Side of the Spoon" is a both funny & sad title for an album made by a musical genius who was losing the plot; and this song is a message to his fans & friends saying he knows it. It's painful to listen to so I'm glad the "Keith Richards of industrial metals" wised up and cleaned up. Well done sir.
Got out of town on a boat for the southern islands
On a reach before a following sea
We were making for the trades on the outside
On the downhill run to Papeete
On this headed off wing lie the Marquesas
We got eighty feet of waterline nicely making way
In a noisy bar in Avalon I tried to call you
But on the midnight watch I realized why twice you ran away
Think about (think about) how many times I have fallen
Spirits are using me, larger voices calling
What Heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten
I have been around the world
Looking for that woman, girl
Who knows love can endure
And you know it will
You know it will
When you seen the southern cross for the first time
You understand just why you came this way
'Cause the truth you've be running from is so small
But it's as big as the promise, the promise of a coming day
And I'm heading all the way, my dreams are dying
And my love is an anchor tied to you, tied with a silver chain
I have my ship and all her flags are a-flying
She is all I have left and music is her name
Think about (think about) how many times I have fallen
Spirits are using me, larger voices calling
What Heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten
I have been around (I have been around)the world
Looking, looking, looking for that woman, girl
Who knows love can endure
And you know it will
You know it will
So we cheated and we tried and we tested
And we never failed to fail, it was the easiest thing to do
You will survive being bested
Somebody strong comes along, makes me forget, forget about loving you
And the southern cross
Woo, yeah
(Thank you)
(Not only are we, uh, happy to see y'all)
(Thirty-five thousand, two hundred, twenty-five of you out there tonight)
(We appreciate this)
(We also are broadcasting this tonight live on Radio Margaritaville)
(As we do all of our shows, free of charge, tonight)
(And we'll continue to do so all summer)
(So it's not only going out to Wisconsin and the great Midwest)
(We're going around the world tonight, Parrot Head)
(I wish I had a pencil dent)
On a reach before a following sea
We were making for the trades on the outside
On the downhill run to Papeete
On this headed off wing lie the Marquesas
We got eighty feet of waterline nicely making way
In a noisy bar in Avalon I tried to call you
But on the midnight watch I realized why twice you ran away
Think about (think about) how many times I have fallen
Spirits are using me, larger voices calling
What Heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten
I have been around the world
Looking for that woman, girl
Who knows love can endure
And you know it will
You know it will
When you seen the southern cross for the first time
You understand just why you came this way
'Cause the truth you've be running from is so small
But it's as big as the promise, the promise of a coming day
And I'm heading all the way, my dreams are dying
And my love is an anchor tied to you, tied with a silver chain
I have my ship and all her flags are a-flying
She is all I have left and music is her name
Think about (think about) how many times I have fallen
Spirits are using me, larger voices calling
What Heaven brought you and me cannot be forgotten
I have been around (I have been around)the world
Looking, looking, looking for that woman, girl
Who knows love can endure
And you know it will
You know it will
So we cheated and we tried and we tested
And we never failed to fail, it was the easiest thing to do
You will survive being bested
Somebody strong comes along, makes me forget, forget about loving you
And the southern cross
Woo, yeah
(Thank you)
(Not only are we, uh, happy to see y'all)
(Thirty-five thousand, two hundred, twenty-five of you out there tonight)
(We appreciate this)
(We also are broadcasting this tonight live on Radio Margaritaville)
(As we do all of our shows, free of charge, tonight)
(And we'll continue to do so all summer)
(So it's not only going out to Wisconsin and the great Midwest)
(We're going around the world tonight, Parrot Head)
(I wish I had a pencil dent)
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Step
Ministry
Ministry
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
No one's commented on this song? It's one of my favorites! This and Far Side of the World. Makes me want to travel.