O Children Lyrics
My dear, my darling one
The cleaners are coming, one by one
You don't even want to let them start
They measure the room, they know the score
They're mopping up the butcher's floor
Of your broken little heart
It started out as a bit of fun
Here, take these before we run away
The keys to the gulag
Lift up your voice, lift up your voice
Children
Rejoice, rejoice
They're gathering round with all my friends
We're older now, the light is dim
And you are only just beginning
It's short, it's simple, it's crystal clear
It's round about, it's somewhere here
Lost amongst our winnings
Lift up your voice, lift up your voice
Children
Rejoice, rejoice
They're hip to it, man, they're in the groove
They've hosed you down, you're good as new
And they're lining up to inspect you
He's found the answer that we lost
We're all weeping now, weeping because
There ain't nothing we can do to protect you
Lift up your voice, lift up your voice
Children
Rejoice, rejoice
The train that goes to the Kingdom
We're happy, Ma, we're having fun
And the train ain't even left the station
I once was blind but now I see
Have you left a seat for me
Is that such a stretch of the imagination
I was held in chains but now I'm free
I'm hanging in there, don't you see
In this process of elimination
The train that goes to the Kingdom
We're happy, Ma, we're having fun
It's beyond my wildest expectation
The train that goes to the Kingdom
We're happy, Ma, we're having fun
And the train ain't even left the station
Once I was blind but now I see






There's just no f*cking hope, it doesn't matter how much you hold onto your infancy, you will lose what draws a line from your innocence once you reach the adulthood. And it may be a single moment when you suddenly realize you just don't care anymore about what just a second ago could make you so happy as a child... or it may be years later when you catch yourself lying to a kid exactly the way you hated so much being lied at.
Life with all its expectations, cruelty, greed and all sh*t will come forth eventually and truly eat your heart out from your body while it still beats in hot blood. There's no other way around... it will happen at some point. Just like you as a grown up adult will start vomitting all those crappy lies onto another children, making them swallow empty promises of others being able to heal their pain, empty and false hopes of answers to their fears, luring them into a world of an illusory freedom...
... one can easily see how much everything out there wants you to grow up as fast as you can, all that marketing for children, high-tech games and toys for creating little consumers from the earliest age, or those freaky genius kids looking so adult on tv or cinema, 6, 7 years old people acting and speaking as adults, 10 years old girls in the streets wearing clothes, sometimes even sensual ones, as mini-adults who can't barely wait to be older and make hard mistakes for real, actually already feeling older for real... 11, 12 year old kids already knowing everything about sexuality....
... money, needs, drugs, tribal identification, all that crap that adults keep telling them like where you to belong to. As if they really could tell! As if anyone could really tell such thing to another being. As if an age difference could make you able to do so! Like f*cked up parents brainswashing kids with all kind of religion craps, trying to explaing complex philopshical concepts of God... or the complete opposite, parents simplifying everything down to right and wrong, good and evil...
It would be just great not having all that sort of basterds coming into our infancy door as soon as you do something wrong, scoring and cleaning your mess just to give you a sense of responsibility disguised in a forgiveness cloak to be planted in your heart just to steal you naivety.
Then you get close to death... when you finally get tired beyond even being or simply feeling older... that's when you see how much you wronged other that are today what you were so long ago... that's when you finally open your eyes and want so hard to get yourself back there... and it crushes you, it makes your heart weigh so heavily, your chest shrinks so hard that you just need to shout out to the children not let it all repeat itself again... begging them to rejoice, to lift their voices, begging them to make themselves be heard for their real voices... imploring them to simply have fun... admitting to yourself and whispering to them that no adult can really protect a kid from the world... it is a lie that only reflects this sick desire adults have to wax and mold their kids into what is clearly an individual vision of the world that only apply to the self...
and children are no f*cking third parts of other selves... nor a parent choice for they to correct their own mistakes... children are what they are... or at least they should be let be so...
damned times these now when children are less children... and go killing and shooting and growing up before even being able to really miss being... children themselves...
i fucking love this..
i fucking love this..
Hey I really enjoyed reading this and it brought on some revalations for me. Do you mind if I post this to Tumblr. I of course with keep your name and all your information for I don't want yo take any credit. I just want to share this.
Hey I really enjoyed reading this and it brought on some revalations for me. Do you mind if I post this to Tumblr. I of course with keep your name and all your information for I don't want yo take any credit. I just want to share this.
@rahula No! Some would argue there are no right or wrong interpretations, just interpretations...However, it seems to me that you are just fitting the lyrics into your worldview... and making far too much of it. I note you do not even mention or refer to specific lines. So, as an overall interpretation, re the innocence of childhood disappearing into a moral vacuum, who could disagree. But... you must refer to the specifics of the lyrics...and you haven’t! Very briefly, I would say it’s about totalitarianism and the loss of individual moral responsibility, using the reference points of communism (gulags) and fascism (the...
@rahula No! Some would argue there are no right or wrong interpretations, just interpretations...However, it seems to me that you are just fitting the lyrics into your worldview... and making far too much of it. I note you do not even mention or refer to specific lines. So, as an overall interpretation, re the innocence of childhood disappearing into a moral vacuum, who could disagree. But... you must refer to the specifics of the lyrics...and you haven’t! Very briefly, I would say it’s about totalitarianism and the loss of individual moral responsibility, using the reference points of communism (gulags) and fascism (the final solution gas chambers), with children and new generations bring our only hope to get it right next time.

These comments are all really apt, but in the context of the album and its self-proclaimed adaptation of Orpheus & Eurydice, this song marks the moment after Orpheus has lost Eurydice to Hades forever, after which he pretty much wanders aimlessly into nothing until he's devoured by beasts. It's a bittersweet tragedy in which he laments his situation, but rejoices in its easy solution: death, where he can be reunited with his lost love for all eternity.
Really beautiful stuff. Makes a great story even better.
Interesting. He does mention the Kingdom, which would be out of place in a Greek myth, so perhaps he's 'Christianizing' the Greek myth. Can you elaborate a bit on how some of the lines of the songs match the elements of the myth?
Interesting. He does mention the Kingdom, which would be out of place in a Greek myth, so perhaps he's 'Christianizing' the Greek myth. Can you elaborate a bit on how some of the lines of the songs match the elements of the myth?
Yeah, in another song Orpheus goes down to Hell (instead of the Greek place - which I believe might be the Underworld?). But then, he also "hit a G-minor 7" and woke God up: "God was a major-player in Heaven." So, aside from writing kickass lines all over the place, he pretty much hakes up the whole Orpheus & Eurydice story wherever he likes.
Yeah, in another song Orpheus goes down to Hell (instead of the Greek place - which I believe might be the Underworld?). But then, he also "hit a G-minor 7" and woke God up: "God was a major-player in Heaven." So, aside from writing kickass lines all over the place, he pretty much hakes up the whole Orpheus & Eurydice story wherever he likes.

I see it like this -
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The protagonist's generation of adults have f##ked up the world and built human systems which make it a generally horrible place (the "gulag", which in history is the ultimate example of the horrors people inflict on one another). They have done this to their short term profit but long term detriment.
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The protagonist feels he is about to die - by his own hand, perhaps, or at least unwillingly ("pass me that lovely little gun", "the light is dim" etc). At the same time, he and his peers have had the shocking realisation that they have lived worthless lives and made the world a worse place by forgetting their original values ("poor old Jim's white as a ghost/he's found the answer that we lost")
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He is speaking to his child, trying in his way to apologise and warn the child about the world that the adults have created.
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He knows deep down that the message won't get through to the child ("there ain't nothing we can do to protect you"), and that the same type of people he once was (the "cleaners") will come to the child, and convince it that the ways of the world are good and correct, and that as an adult the child will subsequently participate in building and maintaining the very same system, the "gulag" - so "here take these before we run away/the keys to the gulag", i.e. the world, such as it is, is yours now.
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The "cleaners" will make is all seem like it is the right way for things to be by hiding the blood - "the cleaners have done their job on you/they've hosed you down, you're good as new" - i.e., when the child makes the same choices that the protagonist did, it will be because society is structured in a way that hides the true costs of those choices until it is too late. Consumerism, supporting corrupt governments, "righteous" wars, etc etc. To me the "cleaners" are governments, corporations, the media, and other manipulative people/groups who profit from the current system.
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I find the gospel part at the end to be intentionally ironic - after selfishly wrecking the world and abandoning his child to its fate, he now has the temerity to ask God (or whoever) for salvation (getting him to "the Kingdom"). I think this part highlights that this is said slightly mockingly: "we're happy Ma, we're having fun, the train ain't even left the station", i.e., his generation have forgiven themselves and found 'salvation' and now they're back to having fun even though the "train" isn't necessarily going anywhere. But there is also a real fear in there - "have you left a seat for me? is that such a stretch of the imagination?", i.e., after all I've done, is it even possible that I could be redeemed?
I think this song ties together with another great line from this album: "I went to bed last night and my moral code got jammed/I woke up this morning with a frappacino in my hand". There's a theme of obsession with success clouding our vision of what is really important
Absolutely unbelievable song.
caitsith01 Thank you so much for your interpetation. I love this song so much along witn most of Nick Cave's songs and couldn't figure this one out. That makes so much sense to me.
caitsith01 Thank you so much for your interpetation. I love this song so much along witn most of Nick Cave's songs and couldn't figure this one out. That makes so much sense to me.

i personally think its talking about world war two because gulags are camps and in the end its talking about hopping on the train to the kingdom so its like when they took the jews to be killed by transportation of the trains and the kingdom is obviously heaven. at one part, it explains the nazis coming and breaking into the house and taking them out and another part explains how they would line them up in the street. but that is just my guess.
i found this song from harry potter and i think its just so soulful and beautiful.
@hplvr1256 nah bro, I don't think it's about ww2, the gulags are used as a metaphor, then the rest of your theory is mind gymnastics. Besides, why would he say "It started off as a little fun". That would make a lot of more sense given Cave's history
@hplvr1256 nah bro, I don't think it's about ww2, the gulags are used as a metaphor, then the rest of your theory is mind gymnastics. Besides, why would he say "It started off as a little fun". That would make a lot of more sense given Cave's history
@hplvr1256 nah bro, I don't think it's about ww2, the gulags are used as a metaphor, then the rest of your theory is mind gymnastics. Besides, why would he say "It started off as a little fun". That would make a lot of more sense given Cave's history
@hplvr1256 nah bro, I don't think it's about ww2, the gulags are used as a metaphor, then the rest of your theory is mind gymnastics. Besides, why would he say "It started off as a little fun". That would make a lot of more sense given Cave's history

Quite Marxist. In other words, the adults love the next generation, but end up screwing it up unintentionally the way they were screwed up. Just hand over your "gun", your rebelious spirit, and let us teach you the secrets we all think we really know but we don't. But in the end, even though we have brainwashed you into believing our ways are right, we can all still ride that same train home to a place where we will all be happy.

I agree with the opinion that "the cleaners" are a personification of Time, but I think we can actually combine a few of the ideas already brought forth. The narrator is speaking to his child in regret for how he has led him/her astray from Christ, and how he and his friends have become exceedingly arrogant and materialistic through their lives to the point where they have lost sight of the true spiritual treasure they had known. A sudden realization of this fact as they approach death sends the narrator into an apologetic tailspin as he is separated from his child as he is carted toward heaven after his repentance.
And I have to say, the fact that a train was used as a metaphor for the transportation into the afterlife fit VERY WELL into the Harry Potter story, and I'm glad they used it in the film; Harry is told by Dumbledore that all he would need to do to move on is board a train, which would take him into the next life. It's actually much more significant to me now than when I actually saw the film.

There is a lot of interpretations discussing the holocaust, however the word 'Gulag' is particularly and precisely chosen, therefore we can presume this is not about the holocaust directly. The use of the term Gulag would be confusing and out of place if it was. I think the word Gulag is a very bold and deliberate use of metaphor to shock a response from the listener and highlight the severity of the narrators message. This is further emphasised by the lyrics 'They're mopping up the butchers floor' which is a harrowing piece of imagery when you stop and think about it.
To me, the message of the lyric symbolises a fundamental and fatal flaw in human nature - one that is especially apparent on a societal scale. The lines "The cleaners are coming – one by one," "Forgive us now for what we've done," evoke a sense of collective guilt and point to a history of moral failure. As others have observed, the song critiques issues related to consumerism and corruption, creating a cycle where no lessons are ever fully learned, and these same flaws are passed down to future generations, in an endless and almost systematic loop.
As a side note, I never really believed that the narrator is the one who should be apologising the most for this situation, and I have always found this incredibly ironic. Isn't this is often the case in corrupt or broken societies, where people are made to apologise on behalf of those in power - who may or may not feel any genuine remorse? This irony does however raise an important moral question: who, really is most responsible for humanity's shortcomings?

Re: the controversial Harry Potter scene. It is startling how so many people won't believe what his scene emphasises. I can understand young fans not seeing it, or being able, but adults? Snape is Harry's father, no question. The parts of the film that run from Hermione setting up camp and then running into the Snatchers in the first instance, when she is terrified and says, "...he could smell my perfume..." and the moment Ron returns to the camp with the Sword of Gryffindor is a reflection of what happened between Snape, Lily, and James. Important details are then repeated in the second Snatchers encounter, and the torture of Hermione by Bellatrix, and the memory vision Harry sees of Snape saying to Dumbledor, "...she still believes the child is his!" This is because to put it all together would have been too traumatic to recount, let alone what it'd do to the reputation of the films and the fanbase. The difference is that, this time, history did not repeat. The "mistakes" Lily, Severus and James made weren't a generational curse for Harry, Ron, and Hermione. There is no reason for Hermione to be so distraught that "he could smell her perfume" unless... Which makes Snape possibly the most tragic hero of the entire story, and Lily the most complex and untold. Dumbledor wasn't as flawed or as human, and only had to agree to die, like a mythic messiah. Snape had to meet his flaws, realise they couldn't be changed, tear himself apart and the ones he loved, and keep it all to himself to the moment he died.

I'll try and make it a bit clearer what I think it's about, cause I might be wrong, but it seems to fit.
Nick's putting himself in the position of someone older, nearing death. He and the others have done things in this world ("Gulags"), which although left them richer ("Lost amongst our winnings") are morally a bit wrong and left the world a bit rubbish. The gun reference could be an allusion to regret, which the song seems to be full of...
I think part of it is the realisation that even if they wanted to make everything right they couldn't. People will be people, and people replace other people and become in the same position and it doesn't matter how much they try to convince the young that they need to look at everything, they never will.
The other feeling I get from the lyrics is the realisation that Death is quite near and it's something to fear whatever age you are, so maybe people should live their lives to the fullest.

This is among the most sophisticated songs ever written; it is true literature.
The verses alternate between a young person with a broken heart and old folks who are passing away. What links them together is Time, in this song represented by "the cleaners".
Time heals all wounds, including the young person's broken heart. But there's a paradox because the passage of time is also leading us inexorably toward death.
The cleaners will clean our broken little hearts but they will also, eventually, clean every last trace of us off the Earth.
What is the solution to this paradox (the "answer to all our fears")?
For a Christian like Nick Cave, the solution is to embrace Christ, so that Time ceases to be a set of cleaners wiping us from history, and becomes a train carrying us in the direction of the Kingdom which we will reach at death.
We lost this answer in our pursuit of winnings (earthly possessions); the desire for earthly possessions is a trap ("a gulag") which keeps us from discovering the way out.
Jim rediscovered the answer (the Kingdom) at death, and then the narrator has a conversion experience (much like Nick Cave). He "once was blind" but now can see, he was "held in chains" (in the gulag) but now is free.
As soon as he has this conversion experience, his experience of time changes from dread (fear of getting old) to anticipation (of meeting God at death). Instantaneously he is free of the gulag and celebrates, even before the train of his new life starts moving. Merely being pointed in the right direction (being born again) is a basis for happiness.
You might expect that having been freed of his chains and having gotten on the train, the narrator would now "lift up his voice" and "rejoice". But here is where the song, to me, becomes literature. If you'll note, the rejoicing comes before he gets on the train. That is, I think, because the song is actually the means by which he will be saved. Lifting up his voice to God in song (accepting Christ) is the act that converts his heart to God, puts him on the train and keeps him heading toward the Kingdom. You might even say that rejoicing (ie exclaiming Christ as one's saviour) is the train itself.
The lesson of the song is that instead of singing our woes (our broken little hearts, poor old Jim, the light is dim) we should change our tune so to speak and lift up our voices in song to God.
It is a song, therefore, about song.
@seanbrady I don't know about it being a song about song. But I like the other things you have to say. I've listened to three songs by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and had no idea he was a Christian. He writes from a viewpoint directly opposite that in "Into My Arms," for instance. But I think that's an important thing to keep in mind when interpreting his work, certainly.
@seanbrady I don't know about it being a song about song. But I like the other things you have to say. I've listened to three songs by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and had no idea he was a Christian. He writes from a viewpoint directly opposite that in "Into My Arms," for instance. But I think that's an important thing to keep in mind when interpreting his work, certainly.