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.
Butterflies, three blind mice
Eight little maids in a box he met them
He kept them, he carefully puts them
Away for the rainy day, when
Nothing's left
No nothing's left to collect Whistling
And sometimes he'd look in his catalog
And it was like the whole wide
World bundled up and waved, and
He'd saved those waves, and he'd count
Them he'd count them, cos he loved
Counting things 3 french hens, 2
Turtles doves, a monkey in a big palm tree
A bunch of green bananas that
Are never ripe
An orangutan who says I love you
And you can pull a string
And it grins and it, it's
A happy little thing
But it doesn't say much
So it isn't much good company 15
934 plastic facsimilies of the Eiffel
Tower, twenty percent of which were broken
Because they were made in
Taiwan so they weren't built to last at all
And anyway the proportions
Were completely wrong
Because they don't have the Eiffel Tower in
Taiwan all they have is pagodas and he
Had many bagodas too he had
Twenty-eight bagodas
Which he shrunk with water and
Kept them all in a
Big trunk which he dug out from the sea
From a huge wreck of this old
Galleon, and he kept galleons too, many
Many galleons with skeletons and
Lots of treasure
And he collected them he collected
All the treasure in
All the world, and he owned all the banks
Eight little maids in a box he met them
He kept them, he carefully puts them
Away for the rainy day, when
Nothing's left
No nothing's left to collect Whistling
And sometimes he'd look in his catalog
And it was like the whole wide
World bundled up and waved, and
He'd saved those waves, and he'd count
Them he'd count them, cos he loved
Counting things 3 french hens, 2
Turtles doves, a monkey in a big palm tree
A bunch of green bananas that
Are never ripe
An orangutan who says I love you
And you can pull a string
And it grins and it, it's
A happy little thing
But it doesn't say much
So it isn't much good company 15
934 plastic facsimilies of the Eiffel
Tower, twenty percent of which were broken
Because they were made in
Taiwan so they weren't built to last at all
And anyway the proportions
Were completely wrong
Because they don't have the Eiffel Tower in
Taiwan all they have is pagodas and he
Had many bagodas too he had
Twenty-eight bagodas
Which he shrunk with water and
Kept them all in a
Big trunk which he dug out from the sea
From a huge wreck of this old
Galleon, and he kept galleons too, many
Many galleons with skeletons and
Lots of treasure
And he collected them he collected
All the treasure in
All the world, and he owned all the banks
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Ministry
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Techno Ted
Audioslave
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Techno Ted may be a person who caused Chris incredible emotional pain & trepidation as well as moments of peace & happiness but now is removed and awaiting his fate. Darling may be a different person who is also free of him and can live her life free of Ted's tyranny. "In between all the laughing, and daydreams ... lies: a desert of truth" Lies are like a desert or the omission of Truth: Where there were Lies then Truth was absent. The song, "Techno Ted", may be a cathartic celebration of the downfall of this person.
Fortnight
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Another one that can only come from the Dots, both music & lyrics. Very funny and, at the same time, poetic description of an obsessive-compulsive collector/hoarder. I love the part with the Eiffel Towers :-)