I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Boys, they've got wicked things on their minds.
Before the father said you're toein' the line.
Like a finch on Saturday, sin with wings.
Give your tongue to God, on Sunday sing.
It all seems fine. These things are off your mind. Remember we're born to die,
but she was born to cry.
To cry herself to sleep.
Red cowards in the home of the brave.
Rather the knaves and crooks that twist the good book.
Peasants, paupers, pilgrims they are the same.
They give their dollars to God but they need their pay.
It all seems fine. These things are off your mind. Remember we're born to die,
but she was born to cry.
To cry herself to sleep.
Before the father said you're toein' the line.
Like a finch on Saturday, sin with wings.
Give your tongue to God, on Sunday sing.
It all seems fine. These things are off your mind. Remember we're born to die,
but she was born to cry.
To cry herself to sleep.
Red cowards in the home of the brave.
Rather the knaves and crooks that twist the good book.
Peasants, paupers, pilgrims they are the same.
They give their dollars to God but they need their pay.
It all seems fine. These things are off your mind. Remember we're born to die,
but she was born to cry.
To cry herself to sleep.
Lyrics submitted by raconteur
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
I don't really know what it means, but I'll take a stab at it.
I think it's about a boy growing up, and his father straightening him out. The father is making the distinctions in his son's life clear. And it's from the boy's perspective.
I really just looked at the lyrics and listened to the song at the same time to try and figure out what tones and hints it had, but I'm at a loss.
This song is full of resentment of religion. I think the singer has a frustration with being preached at and told what to do his whole life, and see's the hypocrisy of the preacher. He's sick of it and doesnt believe it anymore.
He's told all boys have bad things on their minds, and they need to give their lives and minds to god in order to be good. "Red cowards in the home of the brave (the United States)/Rather the knaves and crooks that twist the good book" is about how preachers tell lies and distort their messages in order to get people to follow them and give them their hard earned money. The singer is calling them cowards for simply choosing to believe and act blindly.
Thats what I get from it at leat
I think it's about a girl who has been told by 'religious' father figures in her life that boys only have one thing on their mind. But she stills enjoys her life on Saturday while still making it to church on Sunday.
This kind of life is killing her on the inside. On Sunday, she convinces herself that "these things are off [her] mind" and things seem fine, but she still cries herself to sleep.
It's a vicious cycle, she does what she hates and what she's been warned about, but come Sunday morning, she pretends to be fine. She's been hurt by people who say they believe in God. But they still "need to pay".