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Our Bovine Public Lyrics
Didn't think I'd have to choose
Didn't think I'd wear brown shoes
Didn't think that I'd ever have to read about this in the news
You're gonna have a go
Well, I don't want to know
I just thought that I should try and say, hello, to those
Who'd never exist without being generic
You'll have to impress our Bovine public
You'd never exist if you wasn't generic
You'll have to impress our Bovine public
I'll never forget how all this begun
And I will never regret a thing I have done
But you would never exist without us
So maybe, I do not have the time, fair weather friends of mine
A year's a long time, you're doing nothing with your life
I heard you felt alert
Well, I'm hoping that it hurt
'Cos you played too much silent grammar
To be ground into the dirt by those
Who'd never exist without being generic
You'll have to impress our Bovine public
You'd never exist if you wasn't generic
You'll have to impress our Bovine public
I'll never forget how all this begun
And I will never regret a thing I have done
But you would never exist without us
So maybe, I do
Well, you say nothing
So, you'll always mean nothing to me
And if what you say means nothing
Then what you say will always mean nothing to me, ooh
Didn't think I'd have the time, fair weather friends of mine
A year's a long time, been doing nothing with your life
I heard you felt alert
Well, I'm hoping that it hurt
'Cos you played too much silent grammar
To be ground into the dirt by those
Who'd never exist without being generic
You have to impress our Bovine public
You'd never exist if you wasn't generic
You'll have to impress our Bovine public
I'll never forget how all this begun
And I will never regret not one thing I've done
But you would never exist without us
So maybe, I do
Didn't think I'd wear brown shoes
Didn't think that I'd ever have to read about this in the news
Well, I don't want to know
I just thought that I should try and say, hello, to those
You'll have to impress our Bovine public
You'd never exist if you wasn't generic
You'll have to impress our Bovine public
And I will never regret a thing I have done
But you would never exist without us
A year's a long time, you're doing nothing with your life
I heard you felt alert
'Cos you played too much silent grammar
To be ground into the dirt by those
You'll have to impress our Bovine public
You'd never exist if you wasn't generic
You'll have to impress our Bovine public
And I will never regret a thing I have done
But you would never exist without us
So maybe, I do
So, you'll always mean nothing to me
And if what you say means nothing
Then what you say will always mean nothing to me, ooh
A year's a long time, been doing nothing with your life
I heard you felt alert
'Cos you played too much silent grammar
To be ground into the dirt by those
You have to impress our Bovine public
You'd never exist if you wasn't generic
You'll have to impress our Bovine public
And I will never regret not one thing I've done
But you would never exist without us
So maybe, I do
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i thought this song was having a go at the pigeon detectives, cause they used to cover cribs songs before they were discovered, so they wouldn't have got famous without the cribs? and now theyre mainstream fake indie shit
brilliant tune! not really sure what its about tho...
and i think theres a small mistake in these lyrics... "for other friends of mine" = "fair weather friends of mine". i'm pretty sure - i listened real close!
agreed, I've requested the change. good catch. It's tough for us Yanks to decipher Brit vowel sounds, esp with what must be thick regional accents!
do you think this bit is accurate...
"I heard you felt alert well I'm hoping that it hurt cos you played too much silent grammar "
Even after putting this bit on repeat for maybe 5 minutes, I still wasn't 100% confident in both "alert" and "silent grammar". the latter is definitely not a common phrase on this side of the pond, but perhaps they're being poetic.
cheers
this lyric is about someone who likes a guy but never say anything to him. but the guy knew that she likes him.
in the end, the guy tired of her, so he wrote the song :p
"I heard you felt alert well I'm hoping that it hurt cos you played too much silent grammar " to be honest i listened to it, and think it could well be...but this is what happens when there are no sleeve lyrics! haha, anyone else think that the "d'you" at the start could be '"to"? e.g "To think i'd have to choose" etc.? i always thought thats what it was
right! lets solve this once and for all! haha, i realised there are sleeve lyrics on the back...didnt notice them first time round! -"didn't think i'd have to choose didn't think i'd wear brown shoes didn't think that i'd ever have to read about this in the news" -"you're out to impress our bovine public" -"...not have the time, fairweather friends of mine" -"cos we spent too much time doing groundwork to be ground into the dirt by those who'd" hard to get just from ear tho...good effort papaslurp
this song sounds like it's about the tabloid media and their relationship with the band. perhaps it's refering to journalists when it says "you'd never exist without being generic" and the readers of tabloids whom it describes as "bovine"
not sure about the reference to "a year of doing nothing with your life", perhaps it's describing a person and how they were depicted in the tabloids???
any ideas
Cheers theprentoshow for the correct lyrics.
I'd say it's pretty clear that with this song the band is telling music writers that 1) the band is indifferent to negative critics and press, and 2) music criticism is a sham anyway, because at the end of the day the goal is to "impress" the public (ie rather than writing an honest review, the reviewer goes out of his way to be shocking/dismissive/elitist/cool/intellectual etc)
badlydrawn27, I suspect the "year's a long time" comment to be a wry dig against music writers and press who phone them up when their new album's out for interviews and comments as if they were old mates, yet have made no contact with the band since the last album was out.
it seems we spent too much time in groundwork to be ground into the dirt by those who'd never exist...
lalai- it's more about the type of people that follow the crowd, or indeed the "herd"... and the new "independent" music that just takes the piss out of every indie band that ever was - like the fratellis and the kooks selling their dullard riffs to the public on the back of an "independent image".
i've heard the bovine public, beyond the obvious, is the way people act 1am in the morning stumbling out the club, just acting like animals. self-perpetuating thing - people don't want to be treated like animals by the police etc but the fact is if they act so much like them they will get treated as such.