Tasmanian Pain Coaster Lyrics
Do you think that if you were falling in space
That you would slow down after a while, or go faster and faster?
Faster and faster...
For a long time you wouldn't feel anything...
Then you would burst into into fire, for ever
And the angel's won't help you, 'cause they've all gone away...
I was like "wait" [echoes]
Bumped into this kid I knew, he often would walk strange
So I ignored the blood on his laces so this cat could save face
The dunks and the gaze stayed in an off grey haze
And the lump in his pocket talked to the ox that he clutched safe
So I saluted him there, waiting for the A
Trapped on the empty platform without the option to escape
Gave him the standard: "Yo, what up man, how you landin'?"
And the hypnotized response was no surprise: "I maintain"
"Yeah we all do, that's the standardized refrain
but on some really real man, good to see you, really, what the dealy deal?"
Oops, fuck, screwed the pooch, asked too much, knew the truth
On the train now, a caboose
In his brain now, no recluse
80 blocks to uptown spot, destination vocal booth
Metro-card like: "you get what you pay for, stupid", no excuse
He pulled his hoody off his cabbage rugged practical
And began to fancy the words I mistakenly jostled loose
The stogie he brazenly lit where he sit looked legit
But when the flame touched to the tip I could smell it's of another nit
He leaned his head back and inhaled the newpie dip and said
"The whole design got my mind cryin', if I'm lyin' I'm dyin'..shit"
This is the sound of what you don't believe still true
This is the sound of what you don't want still in you
TPC motherfucker, cop a feel or two
Dyin', I'm flyin', the same line, no disguise, guy...I'm bent up
Know the sky's high by coincidence and I'm tied blind insignificant
To the ground function I'm Munsoned, it's the dreaded 7/10 split again
The medic made it out to be, epidemic shaded...wow for me
Evidence of pressures mounting, residential shroud: King's County
Brotherhood of the working wounded, wounded working city unit
Taking out the trash and strappin in, let's get it movin', stupid
Many men make moves more useless, use abuse quick
Losers, juiceless
Bitch, either speak the truth or you leave toothless
Two fists of the furiously ruthless
Justice for my very own amusement with no regard for the conclusion
I swagger with rats tappin' the glass in a Gov. lab
Pass me the gloves, mask and flask of the cheapest liquor you have
In the back of the tasmanian path, insane again laughin
Cacklin' at the randomness of the city and all its facts
The dark art of interrogation agent skippin' class
And at last in a flash on my tip toes walkin' on cracked glass
Gats blast and wiz by fast or just catch in my calves like "hold that!"
In other words: I'm trash, glad you asked
This is the sound of what you don't believe still true
This is the sound of what you don't want still in you
TPC motherfucker, cop a feel or two
The plot smears on the wall
Said, your future's uncertain here now
The plot smears on the wall
The stogie he brazenly lit where he sit looked legit But when the flame touched to the tip I could smell it's of another nit He leaned his head back and inhaled the newpie dip and said "The whole design got my mind cryin', if I'm lyin' I'm dyin'..shit"
this is EL-P talking about his time when he smoked PCP. The cigarette he is smoking is dipped in liquid PCP, which him and his hip-hop group or any rappers in Def Jux use to smoke a lot (but not as much)
Anybody is aware of the link between this song and Twin Peaks ? The intro is from the movie "Fire, Walk with me", a prequel to the Twin Peaks tv show. I just went through Twin Peaks and it's the best television I ever watched but I'm puzzle by the meaning of this sentence in this song.
CosmicHorror, I've come across a couple of songs that use this as an intro within the last year. The Colorado metal band Cephalic Carnage song Black Metal Sabbath does also.
techy101, that makes sense. I had a dissociative vibe from this album.
A rap classic, El-P's killin em'!
"This is the sound of what you don't want stealing you"
I think it's that too, if not only.
This is a great song. I believe the whole song is about what el-p hates about himself. I think in the first verse the "kid he bumped" into was himself and he realizes he goes through life "just maintaining" instead of living. The second verse sounds like him riding around critizing the way people live as he is trashed on a train ect.
@waxlabltabler: "This is the sound of what you don't know killing you" is correct. This line is a play on the common expression "What you don't know can't hurt you.".
@Skiptomylou: This song is not about what El-P hates about himself. This song is about running into an old aquaintance at a train station and realising too late that this aquaintance intends to attack you for profit in order to fuel a drug habit. It is intended as a window into the life or concerns of a person growing up and/or living in brooklyn. "I'm maintaining." is a common expression having the same meaning as the next to meaningless 'I'm alright' which I'm guessing you're more familiar with.
@techy101: This section is describing the aquaintance lighting what first appears to be a tobacco cigarette but gives off the smell of PCP. It is not about whether or not EL-P or anyone he is associated with professionally has, does or will partake in the imbibation of narcotics.
@CosmicHorror: The link is the emotional impression of each: hopelessness, loneliness, emptiness, loss, uncertainty, aquiescence, melancholy, "...the solemnity of the remorseless working of things"... etc.
@MrKlorox: It doesn't make sense. The disassociative vibe I can only guess is in regards to to the somewhat industrial sound of the instruments and some of the more abstract lyrics. The lyrics are not intended to evoke drug-induced thought patterns.
I think you're taking the drug thing too literally rather than figuratively, lam8. I also get the impression that you've probably never done a dissociative hallucinogen (which are not narcotics. narcotics refer to opioid-related drugs, as far as I'm informed) which would explain your eagerness to isolate the concept of "drug-induced thought" from anything else the artist chooses to explore, as if there's a separation. There's not one. Drug-induced thought is still thought. Drug-induced experience is still experience. Drug-inspired art is still art.
I think you're taking the drug thing too literally rather than figuratively, lam8. I also get the impression that you've probably never done a dissociative hallucinogen (which are not narcotics. narcotics refer to opioid-related drugs, as far as I'm informed) which would explain your eagerness to isolate the concept of "drug-induced thought" from anything else the artist chooses to explore, as if there's a separation. There's not one. Drug-induced thought is still thought. Drug-induced experience is still experience. Drug-inspired art is still art.
Dissociative makes perfect sense as an adjective describing ISWYD in both music and lyrics (El-P...
Dissociative makes perfect sense as an adjective describing ISWYD in both music and lyrics (El-P has the tendency to synergize their effect in both). The album as a whole is an artifact of the disembodying consequences of a Metropolis lifestyle on the eve of self-promised destruction. It's Thanatotic - meaning the polarity from Erotic. If Eros is the spontaneous will to live, grow, make love, be curious, play, then Thanatos is the spontaneous will to stop existing, to self-destruct, to cancel out everything, to die. Where do you think ISWYD falls on that scale? El-P's trying to capture the human emotions that are swarming rootlessly around a nature-less metropolis: exhaust fumes, poisoned food, asbestos, urban heat, scavenger vermin, sewer water, densely compartmentalized dwellings, etc. and all the broken lives that this environment spawns. Paranoia, death wishes, isolation/alienation, panic, addiction, boredom, dread, etc. that subject matter is definitely some disembodying thanatos to me! and dissociative hallucinogens have been considered the Thanatos hallucinogens (PCP, Ketamine, DXM...). El-P doesn't need to be talking about being on any of these particular substances to evoke their atmospheres. The atmosphere here is universal and "dissociative" is a very appropriate way to relate it!