(T. James/Chimes)
I'm on a helicopter ride through Vietnam. I'm the Leicester Square
Kid I'm superman. I'm putting weight for the Oscar. Man gonna
Get through anyway I can. Everywhere everyone is red and green.
I gotta lust for glory and a tape machine. I'm living out Frank
Coppola's dreams. Outta my mind I'm feelin' mean. I'm Nuremberg
Stepper blowin' wets away. I gotta headful of Hendrix, I'm feelin'
OK. I'm a late night thriller, I'm miss La Ray. Outta my mind
Can I come to play?
Hey hey hey we're in the movie. I feel up and I feel groovy.
Let's go out and get some of that. Gimme gimme gimme some Russian
Roulette. La la la.... I said hey.



Lyrics submitted by R_AMONA

Russian Roulette Lyrics as written by Van Morrison

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group

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Russian Roulette song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment

    I take this song to be about watching movies, possibly, but not neccessarily, while stoned off your ass. Most every line is a refference to a movie of some sort, even the title and refrain can be seen as a refference to "The Deer Hunter". That said, I have no idea what is meant by the lyric "I'm the Nuremberg Stepper Blowin' Wets Away"; it doesn't make a lick of sense...

    Red Octoberon October 01, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    can anybody else hear the similarities between this song and kylie minogue's "can't get you out of my head" song. sounds pretty damn similar to me.

    aldo1980on December 24, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    The song is about the Vietnam war. It's from the perspective of a probably drafted young man. For context drug use was rampant. Doing pot was really common and the army gave soldiers speed like it was candy. 2.5 million doses officially. LSD, heroin and cocaine were also around. And adrenaline is a helluva drug.

    It was a 365 day rotation so that's "I'm gonna get through any way I can"

    It's about being high af and feeling groovy sometimes. Other times feeling mean, so pick your drug here but speed can do that especially if you're coming down off it and want more.

    "I'm in the movies" is about psychological dissociation. Feeling out of body and none of this is real and I'm not real. It's really common in trauma victims.

    "I'm a Nuremberg stepper blowin' wets away" - represents losing all sense of morality and wets are the sweaty people who live here. A lot of times in Vietnam there were no rules, shoot civilians and just add it to the body count figures and pretend they were enemy combatants as they say today. Body count was how the US measure success during the war. Officer reports his boys killed civilians it's a problem says they killed Viet Cong he gets a pat on the back. So no rules in the field.

    Gimme gimme some of that is the adrenaline rush and being high on I can do anything I want here feeling.

    Russian roulette was also used as a way to try to get prisoners to talk and give up intel.

    It's actually a brilliant and nuanced song. The music la la la you into feeling high and then the chorus and guitar work create the feeling of being mean and powerful and alive.

    benjaminl9on July 31, 2021   Link

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