1 Meaning
Add Yours
Follow
Share
Q&A

Silent Machine Lyrics

I walk on to the woods and the streets every night
walk through people who walk too close
into each other they're hanging
I am told as a mother you may remember her

In the name of the father but never the ghost
Me I need the money for those just as hard
Who hung his head for the ladies all pretended he dead

She loves she loves she loves you so hard
The one person to have you can not
The child he is a sinner, tell me teacher to put on your light and then turn around

Silent machine is here to meet ya
Put on your lightnin, turn around
You lie, you lie, you lie, you lie, you lie
Turn around, turn around, turn around, you turn around

Silent machine is here to meet ya

If there ever was a religious figure
In my age it don't count to have buttercup eyes
But you know some of us we see more than other eyes

She loves she loves she loves you so hard
The one person to have you can not
The child is a sinner, tell me teacher you put on your light and then turn around

Silent machine is eating me child
You put on your light and then turn around
you lie, you lie, you lie, you lie, you lie

Silent machine is here to meet ya
Silent machine is here
1 Meaning

Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.

Add your thoughts...
Cover art for Silent Machine lyrics by Cat Power

word salad, William S. Burroughs 'cut up' technique Using chance words, feelings, emotions, not logical sense or story. Silent Machine revolves around an idea of a loving mother, a religious father, and a child that accepts without regret the role of the 'sinner', which the adults around him are drooling to discover. The mother strives to show this abstract emotion 'love', with her prayrs and personal martyrdoms, the father is a punishing figure - a silent machine - which regards the child as an objective other. Teachers, priests, what have you, all encounter a child "Charlie" who fulfills the whipping boy role. All of this behavior is to get the attention of the silent machine, the father, which (as a machine) is incapable of noticing him.

Personal interpretations aside, for the most part I think the song is an experiment in automatic writing.

 
Questions and Answers

Ask specific questions and get answers to unlock more indepth meanings & facts.

Ask a question...