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Failsafe Lyrics
Ready to bolt
At the first glimpse of failsafe
Signing my checks
With a name that's not mine
Clocking the hours that spin round through the tail end
There's gold in those hills ahead
We both had a hand in it
You and me both, kid
You and me both, kid
Raising a flag
At the first sign of failsafe
Another red flag and
We've lost half the team
I left the game
To find you at the pavement
There's gold in those hills ahead
We both had a hand in it
You and me both, kid
You and me both, kid
Ooh
Ooh
Ooh
You and me both, kid
You and me both, kid
At the first glimpse of failsafe
Signing my checks
With a name that's not mine
We both had a hand in it
You and me both, kid
At the first sign of failsafe
Another red flag and
We've lost half the team
To find you at the pavement
There's gold in those hills ahead
We both had a hand in it
You and me both, kid
Ooh
Ooh
You and me both, kid
Song Info
Submitted by
matwi On Jun 16, 2007
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Ready to bolt at the first glimpse of failsafe; Signing my checks with a name that's not mine. Clocking the hours that spin 'round through the tail end, There's gold in these hills ahead... We both had a hand in it...
You and me both, kid. You and me both, kid.
Raising a flag at the first sign of failsafe; Another red flag, and we've lost half the team. I left the game to find you at the Days Inn... There's gold in these hills ahead... We both had a hand in it...
You and me both, kid. You and me both, kid.
At first I thought it sounded like 'it's cold in those hills ahead', but I'm 95% sure now it's 'there's gold in these hills ahead' instead. That's what my hi-fi headphones tell me, at least!
Sounds like someone jumping ship in a relationship, where at least one of the two acknowledge that the fault for it rests on 'you and me both, kid'.
Originally an A.C. Newman demo, modified and turned into a New Pornographers song. The lyrics have varied ever since it's conception, here's an old Choir Practice cover of it: http://www.mintrecs.com/players/video/index.php?id=52&artist=The%20Choir%20Practice In a recent CBC Radio 3 podcast, a member of the Choir practice said that her interpretation was the fear of failure, whereas A.C. Newman himself defined it as hurting someone by saying you're doing something for 'us' but rather doing it for yourself. Podcast can be found at: http://radio3.cbc.ca/
Bad link, Choir Practice cover can be found under the video section of: http://www.mintrecs.com
Oh and apologies for the spam, but the lyric, going by A.C. Newman's definition is "you and me both care"
...and the podcast is #125:
125 – Language Arts
In a new feature called "History Of A Song", we chart the evolution of the AC Newman song "Failsafe". Also, Immaculate Machine drops by with a musical surprise for Grant, and we preview the Halifax Pop Explosion.
Again with the spam, apologies but here's the 2004 original version of Failsafe:
http://radio3.cbc.ca/concerts/AC-Newman-2004-10-25/
The speaker sounds trapped in a relationship. It seems this individuals is looking for an opportunity to leave his / her partner when the opportune moment arises. Failsafe could be the instance where the individual identifies reasoning to say both parties are to blame. Thus, the individual feels justified when the failsafe activity occurs to say he / she is not leaving for selfish reasons alone.
Failsafe, then, is a “justified” opportunity / excuse to escape...in this case justified on the imposed presumption of mutual failure.
I'm hearing bolt, too. It changes the meaning of the song entirely.
It sounds like it's about two partners in crime (or perhaps the two lovers in Challengers eloping), facing the obstacles (scolding the hills ahead), changing their identity (singing my checks), etc.
One person, the speaker, gives up (lost half the team) and finds the other still going, scolding the hills alone, and probably feels guilty for leaving.
Weird interpretation, I know, but the song is pretty weird, too.
I agree with above but what exactly does 'failsafe' mean?
I think "failsafe" began as an engineering term. It's a mechanism built-in to a machine (or into a system, routine, process, etc.) that in theory serves to shut-down during a catastrophic failure. In a worst-case scenario, where a human controller can't respond, where everything goes wrong, a failsafe is an automatic and last-ditch, usually preventing the worst from occuring.
I think "failsafe" began as an engineering term. It's a mechanism built-in to a machine (or into a system, routine, process, etc.) that in theory serves to shut-down during a catastrophic failure. In a worst-case scenario, where a human controller can't respond, where everything goes wrong, a failsafe is an automatic and last-ditch, usually preventing the worst from occuring.
I suppose a failsafe doesn't always shut something down. In an jet airplane, for example, a failsafe might simply prevent a catastrophic event from happening.
I suppose a failsafe doesn't always shut something down. In an jet airplane, for example, a failsafe might simply prevent a catastrophic event from happening.
In engineering, a failsafe is a device which makes something safe in the event that it fails. It does not necessarily prevent a failure from occurring, but it makes the system as safe as possible in the event of failure.
In engineering, a failsafe is a device which makes something safe in the event that it fails. It does not necessarily prevent a failure from occurring, but it makes the system as safe as possible in the event of failure.
@DJgif I know I'm chiming over a decade late, but I think the relevant definition of failsafe still hasn't been mentioned. It's a military term related to an operational system where pilots must assume their current bombing mission has been aborted unless they have received explicit orders to proceed by the time they reach a designated point, known as the failsafe point or simply failsafe.
@DJgif I know I'm chiming over a decade late, but I think the relevant definition of failsafe still hasn't been mentioned. It's a military term related to an operational system where pilots must assume their current bombing mission has been aborted unless they have received explicit orders to proceed by the time they reach a designated point, known as the failsafe point or simply failsafe.
I'm not military, so I my be describing this slightly incorrectly, but I learned this today after watching the Moral Oral episode "Dumb", which used "Failsafe" in place of the opening theme....
I'm not military, so I my be describing this slightly incorrectly, but I learned this today after watching the Moral Oral episode "Dumb", which used "Failsafe" in place of the opening theme. I think the concept is kind of beautiful (and the song is lovely too, albeit the lyrics are clearly a bit darker than the idea of a pilot hoping not to have to bomb anyone today).