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.
I married my wife on the day of the eclipse
Our friends awarded her courage with gifts
Now as the nights grow longer and the season shifts
I look to my sorrowful wife
Who is quietly tending her flowers
Who is quietly tending her
The water is high on the beckoning river
I made her a promise I could not deliver
And the cry of the birds sends a terrible shiver
Through me and my sorrowful wife
Who is shifting the furniture around
Who is shifting the furniture around
Now we sit beneath the knotted Yew
And the bluebells bob up around our shoes
The task of remembering the telltale clues
Goes to my sorrowful wife
Who is counting the days on her fingers
Who is counting the days on her
Come on and help me baby
Come on now
Come on and help me baby
I was blind
The grass here grows long and high
Twists right up to the sky
White clouds roll on by
Come on now and help me babe
I was blind
I was a fool babe
I was blind
A loose wind last night blew down
Black trees bent to the ground
Their blossoms made such a sound
That I could not even hear myself think babe
I was blind
I was a fool babe
I was a blind fool, babe
I was a fool babe
I was blind babe
I was a fool babe
I was a blind fool, babe
I was a fool
Blind babe
Blind babe
Blind babe
Our friends awarded her courage with gifts
Now as the nights grow longer and the season shifts
I look to my sorrowful wife
Who is quietly tending her flowers
Who is quietly tending her
The water is high on the beckoning river
I made her a promise I could not deliver
And the cry of the birds sends a terrible shiver
Through me and my sorrowful wife
Who is shifting the furniture around
Who is shifting the furniture around
Now we sit beneath the knotted Yew
And the bluebells bob up around our shoes
The task of remembering the telltale clues
Goes to my sorrowful wife
Who is counting the days on her fingers
Who is counting the days on her
Come on and help me baby
Come on now
Come on and help me baby
I was blind
The grass here grows long and high
Twists right up to the sky
White clouds roll on by
Come on now and help me babe
I was blind
I was a fool babe
I was blind
A loose wind last night blew down
Black trees bent to the ground
Their blossoms made such a sound
That I could not even hear myself think babe
I was blind
I was a fool babe
I was a blind fool, babe
I was a fool babe
I was blind babe
I was a fool babe
I was a blind fool, babe
I was a fool
Blind babe
Blind babe
Blind babe
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Techno Ted
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Techno Ted may be a person who caused Chris incredible emotional pain & trepidation as well as moments of peace & happiness but now is removed and awaiting his fate. Darling may be a different person who is also free of him and can live her life free of Ted's tyranny. "In between all the laughing, and daydreams ... lies: a desert of truth" Lies are like a desert or the omission of Truth: Where there were Lies then Truth was absent. The song, "Techno Ted", may be a cathartic celebration of the downfall of this person.
Fast Car
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"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Mountain Song
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
When We Were Young
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This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
I always interpreted this song as being about Nick (or the speaker, if you prefer) struggling to conquer his drug addiction after getting married. I know that when Nick Cave met his wife, Susie Bick, he was just getting off his heroin addiction.
The song suggests that he promised her that he would stay off drugs, but some time after their wedding he broke that promise and he's now begging for her forgiveness. The line, "our friends awarded her courage with gifts," always seemed so sad to me -- it's like their friends were telling her that she was brave to marry him and stay with him considering his addiction and, maybe, other problems that he could bring to the relationship. Perhaps others warned her against the marriage, but she went ahead with it anyway because they were in love.
I think the most telling lines are these:
"The task of remembering the telltale clues Goes to my lovely, my sorrowful wife Who is counting the days on her fingers"
The "counting the days" line could refer to pregnancy, as others have noted, but I think it's also likely that she's counting the days that he's been clean...kind of like how recovering alcoholics keep track of their days of sobriety in an AA program. The "telltale clues" are probably signs that he's been using again. Or, perhaps even if he isn't using, she still has the burden of keeping her eye out for the signs.
The whole "come on and help me, babe" at the end, which sounds so different from the rest of the song, pretty clearly communicates that he deeply regrets breaking his promise and he wants her to help him so that he never does it again. Such sad, humble, vulnerable lyrics. One of Cave's best.
I don't think the relationship was doomed, I think he didn't try hard enough and he's sorry for it. Avery honest and powerful song
"I made her a promise I could not deliver" Well there's the key to the song right there. He said he would or wouldn't so something but he didn't or did and she's suffering for it. He feels for her pain but at the same time he wants her to help him avoid temptation. These line: "A loose wind last night blew down Black trees bent to the ground Their blossoms made such a sound That I could not hear myself think babe" Are simply amazing. Especially the way he delivers them.
This song is really good. Love how it goes from calm to aggressive and the lyrics are great too. "I married my wife on the day of the eclipse Our friends awarded her courage with gifts"
at first I thought the spokeman is a person who has a wickness for sunlight beacause of the eclipse and the nights growing longer and the emphassis on darkness cold closure and clautrophobic feeling. I do agree that the eclipse symbolises a relationship that is ment to be doommed, though I think the spokemam is somehow badly messed or conflicted and his wife sufferres for it, all he can do is to feel pittyness for her sorrow, this problem he possess was an issue already at the day they were married, since their friends rewarded her courage with gifts... I am questioning it... help me here
As far as I know, he wrote this about his wife. They were married on the same day as an eclipse and he's said that she arranges furniture. This comes into Babe I'm On Fire as well, his wife arranging furniture (he plays her in the video).
I don't know what he meant by the song though so I can't add anything to the meaning. I could be wrong about the stuff above because I can't recall where I heard him say that.
"Counting the days on her fingers" - I've always thought that this means she's pregnant.
she married a man who she thought to be perfect, he made all these promises, gave her such a great veiw onto her future, but then as she married him, and as they lived together, she relaises he is not what he seems
Another thought I just had -- the line "the water is high on the beckoning river" could suggest that, at his lowest point, he's had thoughts of suicide. As in, the river seems to be beckoning him to drown himself in its waters. Even more chilling.
Great song and i totally agree with emotionwentch!