I am angry, I am ill and I'm as ugly as sin
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it

This is a song from under the floorboards
This is a song from where the wall is cracked
My force of habit, I am an insect
I have to confess I'm proud as hell of that fact

I know the highest and the best
I accord them all due respect
But the brightest jewel inside of me
Glows with pleasure at my own stupidity

This is a song from under the floorboards
This is a song from where the wall is cracked
My force of habit, I am an insect
I have to confess I'm proud as hell of that fact

Used to make phantoms I could later chase
Images of all that could be desired
Then I got tired of counting all of these blessings
And then I just got tired

This is a song from under the floorboards
This is a song from where the wall is cracked
My force of habit, I am an insect
I have to confess I'm proud as hell of that fact

This is a song from under the floorboards
This is a song from where the wall is cracked
My force of habit, I am an insect
I have to confess I'm proud as hell of that fact


Lyrics submitted by milkbone

A Song from Under the Floorboards Lyrics as written by Howard Devoto Barry Adamson

Lyrics © DOMINO PUBLISHING COMPANY, BMG Rights Management

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A Song From Under The Floorboards song meanings
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    General Comment

    ""I am an insect" does not refer to Kafka - anyone who's read 'The Metamorphosis' will recall that the main character was displeased to be an insect."

    The song lyrics do NOT indicate a man who is "pleased" to be an insect. And the reference to Kafka is then quite obvious.

    Like the narrator of Dostoevsky's "Notes from Underground", the singer is also filled with self-loathing. As is indicated throughout when he refers to himself.

    "My force of habit, I am an insect I have to confess I'm proud as hell of that fact"

    is therefore meant to be ambiguous, containing the words "confess" and "hell".

    Where Howard Devoto's song goes beyond both Dostoevsky and Kafka - the real beauty and creative genius of the song lyrics - is the real affirmation of truly transcendent qualities of "beauty"; "the highest and the best".

    And most obviously the MUSIC of the song is full of lyrical beauty. As well as Magazine's signature discordance.

    It is only that the singer is always dismayed at his failure to be worthy of these transcendent aspects of the world.

    rivelleon June 11, 2015   Link

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