Boyfriend In A Coma

This song has an important message: don't take the people you love for granted. They might be with you now, but "one look away and you're dead". If you tie the nurses to the doctors, they'll be forced to love and value each other. This is what the narrator wants. She wants the world to learn from her loss.

This has to be one of Amanda's best songs. It's actually called "Boyfriend in a Coma".

I think. Well, isn't bureaucracy/different viewpoints blamed for the sluggish pace at which the world's problems have been dealt with? Like a boyfriend in a coma, with the current health care crisis. This song, to me, is about vigilantism---doing something while other people idle away because they are afraid of screwing up. Amanda dreams of a simple solution---she can jolt the boyfriend back to life with "true love's kiss", despite what the masses may say.

Tying the nurses to the doctors is a symbolic wakeup call to the incompetency of conventional health care, the usual way how physical & emotional are usually dealt with.

I wonder if this song is inspired by a book called The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson, probably not because its a recent release, but this song describes this book completely. And I strongly recommend anyone go get it...

Wrong title! it's BOYFRIEND IN A COMA

This really feels like literally trying to do something when someone is in the hospital for serious surgery or in a coma. most of the lyrics really hit home about that. Then again, there is probably a second layer to this cake of a song as there always is ^^

Oh, and the title of this song is also probably a reference to The Smiths' song "Girlfriend in a Coma".

There is a story in the newsletter than Amanda wrote this for her boyfriend, circa 2004, when he had locked-in syndrome (or something similiar --- he seems to have recovered) and could only communicate by blinking (much like Jean-Dominique Bauby). I agree --- this is very much about not taking the people you love for granted.

The 2004 live version has different verses, accomodating an instrumental:

"Waking with a start I remember Where you really are And how you got there

I took both your arms And your eyes fell Straight into my heart And out the other---"

"Did I say too much? Are you angry? Are you safe to touch? Or will you hurt me?"

[instrumental]

"Who made all this mess? I did I did I'll come back at ten And kiss your eyelids

There's no more to ask..."

On her website she posted other song demos in which she originally wanted to use on WKAP with a little description as to the meaning, memory, or other tidbit about it. This is what she said about it:

i think this song would have been great on the record, but it slid down the list quickly. but as far as good demos go, i think this is one of the best. i wrote this one in the winter of 2003-4 when my (fairly new) boyfriend was in the hospital for a few months, paralyzed by a crazy syndrome that left him, for days, unable to move anything but his eyes. i wrote it and recorded it live the same week (the only time i'd played it live, until recently at the boston show in november) at a little gallery called the zeitgeist in cambridge. i took the recording to the hospital the next day and put the headphones on him so he could listen. he couldn't answer with words, but his tears did the job.

You can find this song and direct quote at : http://amandapalmer.bandcamp.com/track/boyfriend-in-a-coma

I haven't heard the song yet, but it caught my attention because of how much it reminded me of "Girlfriend in a Coma" by The Smiths.