Camouflage, Camouflage Lyrics
she said, "look in the encyclopedia's ceaseless chatter."
"alice, where's your hair?"
she said, "look in the sharp of a well-worn butterfly knife."
"alice, where's your teeth?"
she said, "look at the piano. they're dangling from every single chord."
"alice, where's your lips?"
"look in the empires roaring; the tyrants getting so loud and boring."
"alice, where's your man?"
"look in this black eye written like the o in the word goodbye."
"alice, where's your house?"
"it's built on the hush of your favorite record's screeching halt."
"alice, where's your clothes?"
"they'll be sweet sheets around your eyes when street boars eat you alive!."
"alice, where's your swans?"
"flying in hotel rooms stealing stereos."
the streets are skipping records blaring hiss.
camouflage, camouflage.
the city's draped in camouflage.
the taxis are jaguars throwing fits.
subways are subterranean bullets.
camouflage, camouflage.
the city's draped in camouflage.
can't you find your own face shining in the sky's false reflection?
where's your voice?
where's your dress?
where's your bones?
draped in camouflage.
where's your beach?
where's your sky?
where's your clouds?
draped in camouflage.
not to smash that Telecaster before it births a thousand useless slums.
And love bit you in the throat while you were staring at the sea.
all the girls in Montreal are smashing skateboards in the street.
And it's 4 AM, she's at your door with a suitcase, in a nightgown.
we slip through streetlights in crooked rows.
i saw the sky split in two: one half jealous and one half cruel.
i felt my chest cave in under a pile of synthetic grins.
the fields are day-glo under sobbing rainbows dragged through filthy
thoughts, false applause and camouflage.
it was camouflaged as a tape loop repeating.
i couldn't see the glorious meadow,
it was camouflaged as a smashed stained glass window
i couldn't see the love and affection,
it was camouflaged as a jungle of erections.
i couldn't see the skeletal lightning,
it was camouflaged as a young machete.
Please note that I am not saying I am right and you are wrong-- I hate it when people do this and assume it as an insult to their intelligence (if you have already "interpreted" these lyrics). This is just my "interpretation".
First, my favorite stanza: i couldn't see the solar system, it was camouflaged as a tape loop repeating. i couldn't see the glorious meadow, it was camouflaged as a smashed stained glass window i couldn't see the love and affection, it was camouflaged as a jungle of erections. i couldn't see the skeletal lightning, it was camouflaged as a young machete."
Okay, now let's break that down: "i couldn't see the solar system, it was camouflaged as a tape loop repeating." -History repeats itself and it needs to stop, bad cycles need to be broken especially in our society like the reciprocation of violence and negative ideas.
"i couldn't see the glorious meadow, it was camouflaged as a smashed stained glass window " -Life is supposed to be "glorious meadow" yet today everyone's life is portrayed asa "smashed stain glass window", and generally if you think something hard enough it tends to come true which is what I think they're trying to say is happening with the portrayal of life.
"i couldn't see the love and affection, it was camouflaged as a jungle of erections." -Love and affection are being too negatively affected by people's sexuality and society's portrayal of it. Again, the media's portrayal of things negatively affecting them (a recurring theme in this stanza and in that things are "camoflauged-- by the media).
"i couldn't see the skeletal lightning, it was camouflaged as a young machete." -Basically: I couldn't see the energetic, happy teenagers, they were camoflauged as a bad/dark group who doesn't listen to groups and excercises destructive behavior (sexuality being included) and the media's portrayal of teenagers in this way (again with the camoflauge).
I might post a few stanzas later but this is all for now. -TRT
Sorry if I'm obvious or repetitive, but I'll just post my ideas on the song.
Overall, I believe it speaks about the way things really are - what is happening in the world and people don't realize. He's asking Alice "where's your tongue?", and Alice says that she speaks what the encyclopedia tells her that is right. He hair reflects the violence, the radical. And it goes on showing that nothing is what you think it is, there's always a "greater control" behind, from "tyrants" that are so "loud and boring". He increases the strenght of his questions untill Alice realizes that she has nothing of what she thought was hers - ideas, fashion sense, music style and so on. The street - the sidewalks - are showing last year's fashion, slowly changing it to the new fashion of the year, that someone decides; slowling "peeling off last year's skin". And then he comes all out and throws it to "her" face with direct questions. "Where's your voice? Where's your dress? Where's your bones? Draped in camouflage!"
She understands it and proceeds to ask why shouldnt her remove all the logic and pre-determined ways from her life, the "zeros and ones", like if she was a programmed computer by someone else. She turns her anger towards the media, to the telecaster, that is creating a mass of the "zeros-and-ones" in the world. There are so many simple beauties in life that you never stop to appreciate. When you get your mind free from the control of "the-way-things-are", you can look at the Sea in a way you never looked at it before, and fall in love with it.
What yesterday wasn't meant to be, today is the rule. All the girls are on skateboards, and the woman comes on a sexy dress late at night to your door - which one would be her working equipment, the nightgown (or the lack of it) or the suitcase? The possibilites of intepretations on these two lines alone are absurdly exciting.
The fact that "we" slip and not move or walk means that someone doesn't want to see "us", or that "we" don't want to be seen - or both cases, depending on who we are. We are both on the mansions or in crooked rows under streetlights - but, in both cases, we're always sliping, which could be reflected on the jealousy or cruelty of the sky. But to whom is it cruel; to the people slipping from mansions, the people slipping through crooked rows, or to both? And jealous? We are all under the same sky. When you find out who you are and what you want, not everybody around you will accept your "rebel way" so lightly. The weight of all your life - all your friends and family and colleagues - will cave in on your chest under the false reactions of people who just struggle to keep life as "it's meant to be", as you once did. Now you'll have to deal with the duality of knowing your real place in the world, but having to co-exist with the ignorance still out there. The beautiful day, with the fields and rainbows are carried by filthy thoughts, false applauses and the ever-existent camouflage.
And, of course, the unavoidable thoughts of all the things you've seen, you've heard - they way they were for you before and they way that you see and feel them now, now that you can see through the camouflage.
*
Sorry for any hard trips there, I just go crazy sietunes =]
Wow, I come in here thinking I have stuff to say and then someone else mostly says it for me. Great job, I like your theories here:D
Wow, I come in here thinking I have stuff to say and then someone else mostly says it for me. Great job, I like your theories here:D
Flawless lyrics, a real gem, thanks a lot.
best song on the album
I could argue that with maybe Vital Beach or Giant Swan, but definately incredibly good.
i always thought "with a suitcase, in a nightgown" was
"with a suitcase, and a gun"
it sounds more like "in a nightgown" but i like "and a gun" better
Clearly it makes no difference which you like better.
it's camouflage
not camoflague
well hykinix you can suck my balls
"the fields are day-glo under sobbing rainbows dragged through filthy thoughts, false applause and camouflage." that is beautiful. really woah, i love the change in this song from about halfway in.