You Can't Keep A Bad Man Down

My interpretation: Basically, the air of apathy around thousands of years of intolerance and violence in various religions "deafens all around" because the majority stifles the knowledge-seeking minority. This lie is clogging the cogs of our spiritual (and at times scientific) development and growth. Instead of just accepting all of this, we should learn to stop and look, and form opinions of our own. "The rest will come naturally" when we piss our last (i.e. dying), move on, and find out for ourselves.

I think "that drop in all the ocean" is the small fragment of actual truth amidst this ocean of lies. Ironically, it's the "prayer for all" despite the fact that it's counter-religious because it's the sign of truth (or God) that has been prayed for for thousands of years. This may be a person born with the knowledge, or just an idea. "The world brings him down and shuffles him around" is the world dimishing the Truth by a combination of disregarding it, covering it up, and confusing it. If this enlightenment comes in the form of the afforementioned prophet, the world bringing him down and shuffling him around causes him to lose faith in himself, and lose interest in the world around him.

The "pretty things" we've traded and wasted are things we've pointlessly given up for religion; sex, money, posessions, time. It was foolish to give them up, but our world is more than that. Some eyes stick to their own self-prescribed, fictitious prize at the end of the road, and some look around for answers. People who are perceivers and not judgers (according to the Meyers-Briggs personality types) tend to look around a lot and spend more time forming theories and seeing what's around them than they do casting judgement and making a decision and sticking to it.

Goddamn. Mike Vennart is so frustratingly underrated as a songwriter. Especially when it comes to religious messages. Like the song "Amputee", it seems like he's implying we're all missing something invisible that was severed from us, like a sense of divine connection or our third eye. Oceansize is a fantastic band and I wish they would just get back together already.

i cant imagine no one commented on this song, this is one of the best songs on the album and even one of the greatest oceansize.

I love how it carries u away from everything u just drown in this melody and lyrics, bueatiful, one word to describe it.

of all the oceansize songs the repetative ones (meredith, unravel, rinsed) are my least favourite, however this one has a sorta swing to it and really moves. It's yet another blatent stab at religion, no explination nessecary

damn fine song!! I think it's about someone who has been taken advantage of...

These lyrics are 100% correct but before I knew what he was saying I always used to sing "I'm sick and I'm still wandering around, aimlessly". It always made me think of a junkie being dope-sick and not being able to find his next fix because the pigs have cleared all of the dealers off of the streets. The first part of the song was always from the cops point of view for me, the second half being from the junkies POV (no, I'm not on drugs). When he's talking of "missing the war", maybe he's sobering up because he hasn't been able to score for a while. Also, "That drop in all the ocean" sounds like Vennart is hinting at this equation: Drop = contents of a syringe / Ocean = bloodstream. The "prayer for all the world" of course being a junkies way of escaping a world that he wishes were better. I'm probably wrong about all of this, though....

By the way, all of the songs on this album place drugs and religion synonymously with each other. Just two ways that that we Ornament (or decorate, kill / waste time) our lives and keep ourselves "asleep" and in "position". The whole album is a challenge for us to break tradition and wake the hell up. We can do something with our lives besides doing drugs and watching television (both of which are the equivalent of believing in a God that never answers us) and wasting time in general.......if we choose to. Those who read this may say "I don't do either of those things" but the truth is, we all waste our lives in some form or fashion. Even people like Einstein (just as an example), who many would say did something great, spent countless hours in front of his equations and theories. This album, from what I gather, is telling us that loving someone else (Music for Nurses) is never a waste of time.

damn pmassey "loving someone else is never a waste of time" beautifully said man. And your explenations are really thorough...the lyrics of Oceansize are mostly very diffucult but that's maybe because I'm from Belgian and don't understand every word in the lyrics but you really give it a good explenation!!

Thanks, bro! I try. All of these interpretations are great and subjective to individual experience. Oceansize definitely has an intelligent fan base (with great taste in music too!) We're all gonna' have a great time picking Frames apart. See you then!