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 am a passenger
And I ride, and I ride
I ride through the city's backsides
I see the stars come out of the sky
Yeah, they're bright in a hollow sky
You know it looks so good tonight
I am the passenger
I stay under glass
I look through my window so bright
I see the stars come out tonight
I see the bright and hollow sky
Over the city's ripped back sky
And everything looks good tonight
Singin' la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la, la la
Get into the car
We'll be the passenger
We'll ride through the city tonight
See the city's ripped backsides
We'll see the bright and hollow sky
We'll see the stars that shine so bright
Oh, stars made for us tonight
Oh, the passenger
How, how he rides
Oh, the passenger
He rides and he rides
He looks through his window
What does he see?
He sees the silent hollow sky
He sees the stars come out tonight
He sees the city's ripped backsides
He sees the winding ocean drive
And everything was made for you and me
All of it was made for you and me
'Cause it just belongs to you and me
So let's take a ride and see what's mine
Singin' la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la, la la
Oh, the passenger
He rides and he rides
He sees things from under glass
He looks through his window's eye
He sees the things that he knows are his
He sees the bright and hollow sky
He sees the city asleep at night
He sees the stars are out tonight
And all of it is yours and mine
And all of it is yours and mine
So let's ride and ride and ride and ride
Singin' la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la, la la
Singin' la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la, la la
And I ride, and I ride
I ride through the city's backsides
I see the stars come out of the sky
Yeah, they're bright in a hollow sky
You know it looks so good tonight
I am the passenger
I stay under glass
I look through my window so bright
I see the stars come out tonight
I see the bright and hollow sky
Over the city's ripped back sky
And everything looks good tonight
Singin' la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la, la la
Get into the car
We'll be the passenger
We'll ride through the city tonight
See the city's ripped backsides
We'll see the bright and hollow sky
We'll see the stars that shine so bright
Oh, stars made for us tonight
Oh, the passenger
How, how he rides
Oh, the passenger
He rides and he rides
He looks through his window
What does he see?
He sees the silent hollow sky
He sees the stars come out tonight
He sees the city's ripped backsides
He sees the winding ocean drive
And everything was made for you and me
All of it was made for you and me
'Cause it just belongs to you and me
So let's take a ride and see what's mine
Singin' la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la, la la
Oh, the passenger
He rides and he rides
He sees things from under glass
He looks through his window's eye
He sees the things that he knows are his
He sees the bright and hollow sky
He sees the city asleep at night
He sees the stars are out tonight
And all of it is yours and mine
And all of it is yours and mine
So let's ride and ride and ride and ride
Singin' la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la, la la
Singin' la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la, la la
Lyrics submitted by ApplesInMono
The Passenger Lyrics as written by Ricky Gardiner James Newell Osterberg
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Step
Ministry
Ministry
Fortnight
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
The song 'Fortnight' by Taylor Swift and Post Malone tells a story about strong feelings, complicated relationships, and secret wishes. It talks about love, betrayal, and wanting someone who doesn't feel the same. The word 'fortnight' shows short-lived happiness and guilty pleasures, leading to sadness. It shows how messy relationships can be and the results of hiding emotions. “I was supposed to be sent away / But they forgot to come and get me,” she kickstarts the song in the first verse with lines suggesting an admission to a hospital for people with mental illnesses. She goes in the verse admitting her lover is the reason why she is like this. In the chorus, she sings about their time in love and reflects on how he has now settled with someone else. “I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary / And I love you, it’s ruining my life,” on the second verse she details her struggles to forget about him and the negative effects of her failure. “Thought of callin’ ya, but you won’t pick up / ‘Nother fortnight lost in America,” Post Malone sings in the outro.
Light Up The Sky
Van Halen
Van Halen
The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Well, what I have learned about it - it is inspired by some poem by Jim Morrison. There is a relation from a concert when he puts a little light for all the people who like to think more about lyrics. Maybe he didn't thought much about it as it occurs that he was really high on drugs when he had written it but it isn't as it was meaningless.
He said - that it is about being a passenger in life - not really having much influence on it, lack of means, knowledge or whatever, so the only thing what you can do (when you cannot actually steer your life) is to be like passenger who can only watch through the windows, meet everything he experiences etc. So it is as if this song was written for teenagers or people feeling like this - that they don't have much control in their lifes and the only thing they can do is to wait "look through the mirror".
I think the song is about having fun and seeing wonderful things if we really see that in life you do what you do instead of you wanna do, choose to do, plan to do etc. Noticing beauty of this life, this world..
Ever sat in a car with too many drugs in your body. All thoughts spin around your head. Sometimes seeing elementary things of life. a falling star, the hollow look of the night sky. Maybe a taxi driving you home after too many drinks at night. Leaning with your head against the window of the car....Imagine! ;-)
@merrybreeder That's what it always conveys to me somehow.<br /> In the back of a taxi travelling through back streets.<br /> Night time and looking at all the sights.
Great interpretations. I agree with the idea of relinquished control and simply experiencing what is. The passenger is looking out his window passively and the world/life is flying by. All of it belongs to him and he just watches and lets it be.
In the song everything the subject sees is is beautiful but the song is unnerving. This makes me think that he is startled by it all. The LSD comment works here - its like he is seeing the world for the first time through a new set of eyes (acid) and its kind of freaking him the fuck out. The realization that he owns everything is overwhelming and frightening.
Bowie's backing vocals are not surprising as he was the producer and this album is considered one of his Berlin-trilogy albums. It was released as an Iggy album, but in reality it was a collaboration w/ Bowie.\
Anywho. This album is a masterpiece.
I think the sentiment is very Camus. The whole idea that he sees how wonderful everything is once he relinquished control, became the passenger instead of the driver. Though he has no say in the destination, he is now able to take in all the sights of the world along the way. "It doesn't take a degree to serve", that kind of mindset. On a side note, the book Time Traveler's Wife mentions this song when the main character is doped out in a car. Neat scene.
I've always thought this song was about a perspective of seeing life as a dream, and feeling that although it seems we can control our destinies to some extent in the relative world, ultimately whatever ends up happening to us is pretty much totally beyond our control, and this is the experience of the passenger; seeing and feeling and living everything that happens to you very intensely in the present moment, and yet knowing you have absolutely no control over where you're headed but that you're just another rider, a passenger on this incredible, miraculous, cosmic journey.
LALA basically mean s3x the 'passenger-i like to ride' is like riding your partner or doing it in the car and they are clearly both caught up in that moment for that night, just the two of them matter, aunion of two people having an amazing moment together and the pleasure kinda transcends them to the heavens. A short definition that is as blunt as it can get.
I love this song. i just feel like hopping in a car and driving anywhere with the windows down the music loud and just thinking.
wasn't punk good back then now you have ur blink 182 who is about lets go skate back then it was about the circle pits and the mosh pits and the blood the screams the alcohol the drugs the true way to rock is the way iggy did. FOUNDER OF PUNK RIGHT HERE IGGY POP!
my friend partly says this is about heroine. what is this about i dont know.
i end up humming this song to myself whenever im on a train or subway at some horrible hour of the morning and dead tired but enjoying the trip anyway. love it.