The Dismemberment Plan – Rusty

I pull my collar down low
To show my sucking chest wound
The taste of apple and tin
On a hot spring afternoon
A child screams in midair
A diving board springs to place
My eyelids burn with delight
Can murder be done with such
Grace and style
No no no no no no way

Now i'm face down in the yard
I'm feeling shakey and pale
My nails encrusted in brown
My big experiment failed
The swingset swings in the back
The chains are rusty and old
The crossbar creaks as it bends
The seat is slpintering
No no no no no no way


Lyrics submitted by SpooktheHerd

Rusty song meanings
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  • 0
    General CommentThis was such a beautiful song from !. The lyrics appear to be about a general loss of innocence, the world becoming a darker, more forboding place than it once was in our childhood. The question of can murder be done with grace and style later followed by the statement 'my big experiment failed' makes it sound, though, that the loss of the subjects innocence has not totally been the doing of some outside source.
    Could face down in the yard be his position at the time of arrest?
    Such a lovely, reminiscent sounding song with such ominous open ended lyrics, there really is no straight interpretation of this.
    SpooktheHerdon April 11, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General CommentThis song (like a few of the other ones on !) kind of gives me the creeps. It seems to be about this guy murdering a child, and his "nails encrusted in brown" are from his attempts to dig a hole to hide the body in. I don't know about deeper meaning though.
    fuiq3on April 06, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General CommentThis song reminds me of the time I was a kid, swinging and jumping from the swing. I miscalculated my final launch & hit the ground hard. Broke my arm in 5 places.

    To me, (on a riff from a previous post,) the song is, in fact, about a loss of innocence. The protagonist is at a childhood party, leaps from a swing set and ends up face down in the dirt. ("My nails encrusted in brown") While all the other kids are playing, he's in agony and comes to the inevitable realization that he's not invincible. Life hurts, a lot.
    7Endless7on July 15, 2016   Link

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