Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
A Tuesday night in Winter, holed up in the city of ravens,
The owls in the hills hoo-hooing and eyeing off the field mice down in the cold grey centre,
Addle Brains lining up with the dead for the soup spoon,
Addle Brains and the legions of the passed for the bread bag,
Ladle the soup, pass the rolls,
Addle Brains and the many not here and loose souls.
One might fly off to the blank heavens and the lead high halls,
O the hungry sky aches for blokes without folks and bulges with the bearers of palls.
Addle Brains would drink for four days and no eats,
And sleep in the glens of botanical parks, and on the humped bus shelter seats,
Where it's cold, where it's cold.
One morning I woke up in a room in the nation's heart,
And couldn't think for the life of me what I was doing, or where to start,
Or what rehearsal was required, I was so sad and tired.
What does a bird want with money?
Was he made this way?
Do you have to earn the right to find all of this funny?
Nothing's funny today.
Addle Brains mixes his powders with his fateful blues,
And the wide-eyed bubs of the Parliament couldn't give a hoot, or even two.
All it takes, it takes, is a kind look and a word, a word,
Some pretty eyes and skin, from your fine family you were given to win,
And spill it over into the basin of common sin,
Just a drop, a drop of the stuff that makes us kin
- Addle Brains perching way out on a limb.
The owls in the hills hoo-hooing and eyeing off the field mice down in the cold grey centre,
Addle Brains lining up with the dead for the soup spoon,
Addle Brains and the legions of the passed for the bread bag,
Ladle the soup, pass the rolls,
Addle Brains and the many not here and loose souls.
One might fly off to the blank heavens and the lead high halls,
O the hungry sky aches for blokes without folks and bulges with the bearers of palls.
Addle Brains would drink for four days and no eats,
And sleep in the glens of botanical parks, and on the humped bus shelter seats,
Where it's cold, where it's cold.
One morning I woke up in a room in the nation's heart,
And couldn't think for the life of me what I was doing, or where to start,
Or what rehearsal was required, I was so sad and tired.
What does a bird want with money?
Was he made this way?
Do you have to earn the right to find all of this funny?
Nothing's funny today.
Addle Brains mixes his powders with his fateful blues,
And the wide-eyed bubs of the Parliament couldn't give a hoot, or even two.
All it takes, it takes, is a kind look and a word, a word,
Some pretty eyes and skin, from your fine family you were given to win,
And spill it over into the basin of common sin,
Just a drop, a drop of the stuff that makes us kin
- Addle Brains perching way out on a limb.
Lyrics submitted by leonperkin
Addle Brains Lyrics as written by Richards
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think the last stanza reveals what Addle Brains' all about, a theme that carries on from Song in the Key of Chance, and well, to some degree nearly every song on Augie's 'Strange Bird' album.
"But to reason with a dry mouth and a half-open eye some people weren't born to dance, While others are halted mid-step to the beat of a song in the key of chance."
Often Glen refers in some way to class, the disadvantaged, and also the tenuousness of these distinctions. That is, the agonising 'chance' of these distinctions that divide and define us.
"All it takes, it takes, is a kind look and a word, a word, Some pretty eyes and skin, from your fine family you were given to win, and spill it over into the basin of common sin, just a drop, a drop of the stuff that makes us kin
Those separated by blood are often worlds apart. "O the hungry sky aches for blokes without folks and bulges with the beares of palls." It's a beautiful, kinda tragic song, particularly considering it has a really whimsical sound.
If Little Wonder, Sunstroke House and The Keepa describe lives lived in regret, Addle Brains and Song in the Key of Chance are those not even given the chance.