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Dinosaur Lyrics
Long ago and far away in a different age
When I was a dumb young guy
Fossilized photos of my life then
Illustrate what an easy prey I must have been
Standing in the sun, idiot savant
Something like a monument
I’m a dinosaur, somebody is digging my bones
Ignorance has alway been something I excel in
Followed by naivete and pride
Doesn’t take a scientist to see how
Any clever predator could have a piece of me
Standing in the sun, idiot savant
Something like a monument
I’m a dinosaur, somebody is digging my bones
When I look back on the past
It’s a wonder I’m not yet extinct
All the mistakes and bad judgements I made
Nearly pushed me to the brink
It doesn’t pay to be too nice
It’s the one thing I have learned
Still, I made my fossil bed
Now I toss and turn
I’m a dinosaur, somebody is digging my bones
When I was a dumb young guy
Fossilized photos of my life then
Illustrate what an easy prey I must have been
Standing in the sun, idiot savant
Something like a monument
I’m a dinosaur, somebody is digging my bones
Followed by naivete and pride
Doesn’t take a scientist to see how
Any clever predator could have a piece of me
Standing in the sun, idiot savant
Something like a monument
I’m a dinosaur, somebody is digging my bones
It’s a wonder I’m not yet extinct
All the mistakes and bad judgements I made
Nearly pushed me to the brink
It doesn’t pay to be too nice
It’s the one thing I have learned
Still, I made my fossil bed
Now I toss and turn
Song Info
Submitted by
metropolis On Dec 04, 2005
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I felt this song is rather obviously autobiographical. Its about King Crimson's status as an older 'dad rock' kind of band and mocking the whole situation (KC being the brilliantly inventive band that they are).
I believe it is talking about the relevance between the "ignorant and savage" dinosaurs and humans. "When I look back on the past It’s a wonder I’m not yet extinct." That could easily be compared to a human life, we allways have regrets and situations that allmost get us killed. The song is also called dinosaur but he clearly says "young guy" which I associate with humans.
Most explanations here seem to touch on the notion of "dinosaur rock" (rock music, I suppose, from an earlier generation) as the notion underlying this song. This doesn't seem necessary to me. It works perfectly well as a comedic song sung from the point of view of an actual dinosaur (as opposed to a metaphorical one).
It is about a guy who is an idiot savant (he's really good at something), but he is really careless about making decisions, and he's really ignorant and doesn't know that what he's doing hurts everyone else. He only learned one thing from all of his mistakes, that it doesn't pay to be too nice.
"I have made my fossil bed Now I toss and turn" Those lyrics mean that he has finally learned and is not careless, but all his old mistakes still haunt him.
well that worked fairly well. I was just making crap up so someone would tell me what it truly meant and because it bothered me that such a solid song did not have a single comment about it and I wanted to know what it truly meant. Your ideas seem right on if you ask me. Thank you.
@kangaroobixcube Playing the old trick, ain´t ya? LOL. Well, seriously, couldn´t meant more than what u get identified with. It´s always the same, u know the group, you know the song, you know the fellas that made it up and u recognize that they meant bussiness. Simple and clear...as long as u see you´re another dinosaur too and accept it...and starting over again for somebody else, as u got it already. Salud.
@kangaroobixcube Playing the old trick, ain´t ya? LOL. Well, seriously, couldn´t meant more than what u get identified with. It´s always the same, u know the group, you know the song, you know the fellas that made it up and u recognize that they meant bussiness. Simple and clear...as long as u see you´re another dinosaur too and accept it...and starting over again for somebody else, as u got it already. Salud.
He's kind of looking back regretfully at when he was young, bright, but foolish - "idiot savant".
hes talking about humans and dinosaurs and humans, and how both have made stupid mistakes. Maybe also saying that humans may have their reign ended just like dinosaurs (depending how you see that)
Yeah, I don't know how much this song is about anybody regretting their past, in fact I don't think that's even close. It's much more King Crimson saying, "Hey, we're old, but we're still rocking better than this new youth stuff."
Great song. Saw them perform it live in Chicago this August and it was easily my favorite song from that entire show.
Like other posts say already, it just seems to be King Crimson playing on the fact that they're considered an old/dinosaur band.
"Somebody's digging my bones" ... is like sayng "yeah we've been around forever, but people are still digging our music."
A few years back when i was with some close pals driving around smoking joints during high school lunch break the kid behind the wheel put on this song and had some elaborate story of how it was about the lead singers use of ibogain (some sort of halluconogenic root used to remedy addiction to herrion/heavy drugs) lead to days on end of a horrific trip and furthermore this song. be it true or not its alot more interesting than all the other coments here. I later became a large king crimson fan when first introduced to i talk to the wind and 21st century man and cat foods but just discovered this was a crimson song when listening to their pandora station.