Black Like Me

i've been waitin this lyric! my favorite song of Spoon. makes me feel free, calm and wild joy at same time! i think it's about smth simple, feelin what you uderstand that everything is OK or it's gonna be

your last verse is all wrong, my friend. it goes 'All the weird kids up front, tell me what you know you want, someone to take care tonight.' Some other words are wrong too, but that is the worst.

Ah, okay; I knew I'd get something worng. Your version makes much more sense.

"I'm in need of someone to take care of me tonight" instead of "I believed that someone'd take care of me tonight"

When I first read, "I spent the night in the map room, I humanized the vacuum." I thought he meant that he uh... loved himself with help of a vacuum cleaner, but after I read it here I realized that there's another type of vacuum he could humanize just by showing up!

"my boots are on the mend / and they ain't walkin' home"

I'm sort of indecisive about these lyrics... I feel like this song is supposed to be rather melancholy. I think it's essentially about being lost and desiring some sort of connection in the world outside oneself.

Listen to the tone, I don't think that "I believe that someone'd take care of me tonight," means that he succeeded in finding someone to take care of him... and Junie is also in the same predicament as well as the "weird kids"... I think is a depressing, drunken ballad from generation Y about the lack of connection.... and the failed search for it.

im not sure if this is right but, its just wut it says to me.

"street tar in summer" a summer of binging on black tar heroin. "i need someone to take care of me tonight" hes going through withdrawals. "whats gonna get me out of this" he wants it to be over with.

the song is also called black like me, as in black tar heroin. thats just wut i got from it.

Corrected lyrics from the liner:

I'm in need of someone to take care of me tonight As I walk into Dorian's, can you see it in my eyes? My boots are on the mend, and they ain't walking home Street tar and summer do a job on your sole Street tar and summer do a job on your sole

Jenny's watching Cover Shot My head's feeling light I'm in need of someone take care of me tonight Anyhow, anyway, so I split Like just getting out of there is gonna get me out of this. I spent the night in the map room I humanized the vacuum.

I'm in need of someone to take care of me tonight Ah and as I'm lookin' out at you, can you see that in...in my eyes, On the mend, now they could lead me home Street tar and summer, they play a trick on your soul

Oh Jenny's gone day and night Ah it makes me feel so light Just somebody to care tonight

Jenny's watching day and night Ah my head's still feeling light Someone to take care tonight

All the weird kids up front, Tell me what you know you want Someone to take care tonight.

Listening to the song, there are a few spots where it sounds like he's saying, "I believe that someone take care of me tonight" instead of "I'm in need". But Britt Daniel has always kind of garbled his lyrics and that's one of the joys of Spoon so.... take it or leave it.

Sorry to post twice but I still wanted to comment on the song since it's great. I'd say it's one of my favorites but all the songs on Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga are too good to be picking favorites.

I think this song is about wanting someone to care for him. Simple as that. He says over and over, "I'm in need of someone to take care of me tonight".

When he lived in Austin, Britt often wrote about local establishments, but he moved to Portland a couple of years ago and a web search revealed that Dorian's is a shoe repair shop in Portland, OR. I think he's feeling like his life is in disrepair and he reflects this through his boots. Their soles stand for his soul. "Street tar and summer" have done a job on his soles and played a trick on his soul. Dorian's stands for a performance venue because in each place he expects his need for repair and care to be so great that people can see it in his eyes.

The other part of this song, the Jenny lyrics are strange to me. I get the feeling that Jenny should be the one caring for him but she's either never around or mentally distant or watching Cover Shot (which I think is that terrible TLC show where housewives are made over into models and given a photo shoot. Maybe he feels like a Cover Shot model, like someone that shouldn't be a rock star and shouldn't be on stage but is, with all the publicity and adoration lavished on him for one day then he has to go back to taking his worn out boots into Dorian's.

I'm not really getting the black tar heroin interpretation and I don't think it's fair to assume that since Britt Daniel has never said, "I do heroin" and it doesn't seem in keeping with his nature to do heroin. I don't know him and I don't want to come across like I know for 100% what he's thinking, but it just doesn't fit with the band and what they've presented in the past.