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Skin of a Drum Lyrics
And I can't become my father
When it's all be said and done
His completions won't complete me
I've divided me by one
I'm the answer to his riddle
I'm the caution of his wind
I'm the spoon wedged between tongues and teeth
Beneath his trembling grin
And I dare add my revision
For I dare not suffer twice
And I dare not re-invent the past
And dare not be the Christ
And I welcome any sufferer
And I welcome any Saul
Sitting in this room on wooden bench
Waiting for joy to call
And I suffer here alone, Lord
Peturbed by my every thought
How I've tried to strip them to the bone
I've struggled and I fought!
Every jealous warped intention
Smuggled, sewn into my genes
Every hidden monrgel tendency
Exploting me in me
Each time I put them under
But still they wanna test me!
I cry out through the thunder
You storm right past me!
I search and I plunder
I question and wonder
I roar and I thunder
Please let me in
I've been through waiting here
For what now seems the better of an hour
I've raised every crippled question
From the dead and given power
To the abscence of my sanity
The presence of a fear
That lines in between forgotten dreams
That pile up every year
Up above the highest testaments
Down below the wooden floor
There's a gutted room, pitch black at noon
Beneath a hidden door
Deep within you'll find the attributes
Of every sunken man
Who must bang his head against the dead
Each day he tries to stand
And he's standing pressed against the very woman that he loves
Kissing eyes and lips
Embracing hips
Surrendering to her touch
And just at the very moment
That he touches heart to heart
She pulls from his touch because it's too much
To mend what's torn apart...
Each time I put them under
But still they wanna test me!
I cry out through the thunder
You storm right past me!
I search and I plunder
I question and wonder
I roar and I thunder
Please let me in
It's so hard to be
The man I would be
If hatred and fear
No longer appeared
I swear I've become
The skin of a drum
The heart of a man
Divided I stand.
When it's all be said and done
His completions won't complete me
I've divided me by one
I'm the caution of his wind
I'm the spoon wedged between tongues and teeth
Beneath his trembling grin
For I dare not suffer twice
And I dare not re-invent the past
And dare not be the Christ
And I welcome any Saul
Sitting in this room on wooden bench
Waiting for joy to call
Peturbed by my every thought
How I've tried to strip them to the bone
I've struggled and I fought!
Smuggled, sewn into my genes
Every hidden monrgel tendency
Exploting me in me
But still they wanna test me!
I cry out through the thunder
You storm right past me!
I question and wonder
I roar and I thunder
Please let me in
For what now seems the better of an hour
I've raised every crippled question
From the dead and given power
The presence of a fear
That lines in between forgotten dreams
That pile up every year
Down below the wooden floor
There's a gutted room, pitch black at noon
Beneath a hidden door
Of every sunken man
Who must bang his head against the dead
Each day he tries to stand
Kissing eyes and lips
Embracing hips
Surrendering to her touch
That he touches heart to heart
She pulls from his touch because it's too much
To mend what's torn apart...
But still they wanna test me!
I cry out through the thunder
You storm right past me!
I question and wonder
I roar and I thunder
Please let me in
The man I would be
If hatred and fear
No longer appeared
The skin of a drum
The heart of a man
Divided I stand.
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don't know what it is about, but very awesome song!!! Saul and Trent what a f*cking team!
Sounds to me like a man whose been beaten down but still determined to stand up and be his own man. Probably my second favorite song on the album after Black History Month!
This track was one of the original 14 and by the time I got home from Australia it had really grown on me. I think its the second song I recorded with Trents music. I didn't realize until later that Trent and Alan both seemed emotionally attached to the music as something they had labored over for a long time and never found a home for. I should have known because the track had a title (march) although it had no lyrics. When I emailed Trent my home recording he quickly responded that he got chills from listening to it. I wrote most of the song sitting on the wooden bench in my kitchen waiting for my girlfriend to call me back (we break up in the next song). What's funny is I had NiggyTardust in mind the whole time even though the song is very personal, like Raw. When we mixed it I invited Persia White (XEO3 and 'Girlfriends') to do a little Cocteau Twinning on the outro. In the chronology of Niggy, this is the point of his story where he realizes that although the world seems to have divided him against himself, he can't lose. Its a triumph even though it's laden with heart break. He realizes that he has been broken to fit. -Saul Williams http://www.saulwilliams.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=002361