Like a lot of the other comments are saying, I think this mainly about voyeurism. If the song was about his girlfriend, then why would he use the word spy. If you are a spy it means you shouldn't be caught, that is kind of the whole point, and if you are a voyeur, the whole point of the pleasure you get from it, is the fact that the other people don't know you are watching them. See a bit of a connection there?
I didn't know what a brute I was
I dipped my cigarette and rode the bus
Vengeance built me hastily
And I drag the clanging notion I was nobody, nobody
Nobody
All I had was my invention
And my love it fitted on you
Oh, look what thoughts can do
What thoughts can do
If you're not by now dead and buried
You're most certifiably married
Oh, married
I'm sure you're sleeping sound
With a mistress of the hours
The hours that grind your life to dust
Oh, easy loves
You keep lap pets
Denied them you are powerless
Whatever keeps you sleeping through the night
I'm not the man you thought I was
My love has never lived indoors
I had to drag it home by force
Hired hounds at both my wrists
Damp and bruised by stranger's kisses on my lips
But you're the one that I still miss
You're the one that I still miss
And the truth is that it comes as no surprise
I'm not the man you think I am
I'm not the man you think I am
I dipped my cigarette and rode the bus
Vengeance built me hastily
And I drag the clanging notion I was nobody, nobody
Nobody
All I had was my invention
And my love it fitted on you
Oh, look what thoughts can do
What thoughts can do
If you're not by now dead and buried
You're most certifiably married
Oh, married
I'm sure you're sleeping sound
With a mistress of the hours
The hours that grind your life to dust
Oh, easy loves
You keep lap pets
Denied them you are powerless
Whatever keeps you sleeping through the night
I'm not the man you thought I was
My love has never lived indoors
I had to drag it home by force
Hired hounds at both my wrists
Damp and bruised by stranger's kisses on my lips
But you're the one that I still miss
You're the one that I still miss
And the truth is that it comes as no surprise
I'm not the man you think I am
I'm not the man you think I am
Lyrics submitted by laughing_man, edited by Salvar
Vengeance Is Sleeping Lyrics as written by Paul Rigby Neko Case
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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
The Spy
Doors, The
Doors, The
Step
Ministry
Ministry
Both as a standalone and as part of the DSOTS album, you can take this lyric as read. As a matter of public record, Jourgensen's drug intake was legendary even in the 1980s. By the late 90s, in his own words, he was grappling with massive addiction issues and had lost almost everything: friends, spouse, money and had nearly died more than once. "Dark Side of the Spoon" is a both funny & sad title for an album made by a musical genius who was losing the plot; and this song is a message to his fans & friends saying he knows it. It's painful to listen to so I'm glad the "Keith Richards of industrial metals" wised up and cleaned up. Well done sir.
Fortnight
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
The song 'Fortnight' by Taylor Swift and Post Malone tells a story about strong feelings, complicated relationships, and secret wishes. It talks about love, betrayal, and wanting someone who doesn't feel the same. The word 'fortnight' shows short-lived happiness and guilty pleasures, leading to sadness. It shows how messy relationships can be and the results of hiding emotions. “I was supposed to be sent away / But they forgot to come and get me,” she kickstarts the song in the first verse with lines suggesting an admission to a hospital for people with mental illnesses. She goes in the verse admitting her lover is the reason why she is like this. In the chorus, she sings about their time in love and reflects on how he has now settled with someone else. “I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary / And I love you, it’s ruining my life,” on the second verse she details her struggles to forget about him and the negative effects of her failure. “Thought of callin’ ya, but you won’t pick up / ‘Nother fortnight lost in America,” Post Malone sings in the outro.
Standing On The Edge Of Summer
Thursday
Thursday
In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
The lyrics are definitely:
i didn't know what a brute i was i dipped my cigarette and rode the bus vengeance built me hastily and i dragged the clanging notion i was nobody, nobody nobody
all i had was my invention and my love invented all of you oh look what thoughts can do what thoughts can do if you're not by now dead and buried you're most certifiably married oh married
i'm sure you're sleeping sound with the mistress of the hours the hours that grind your life to dust your easy loves you keep like pets denied them, you are powerless whatever keeps you sleeping through the night
i'm not the man you thought i was
my love has never lived indoors i had to drag it home by force hired hounds at both my wrists damp and bruised by strangers' kisses on my lips
but you're the one that i still miss you're the one that i still miss and it's ruthless that it comes as no surprise
i'm not the man you think i am i'm not the man you think i am
[From Neko's site]
I love this song. I've always interpreted it as a bittersweet remembrance of a love lost. Everyone has that "one that got away", and this is a song about accepting that the person you've been in love with all this time really isn't as great as you remember. Hence "My love invented all of you", and "you're the one that I still miss/But its ruthless that it comes as no surprise". Almost as if she finally reconnected with this man and all of those years of wondering came crashing down. I also love the undertone of self-awareness, in the line "I dragged the clanging notion I was nobody, nobody, nobody." Kind of realizing that all this time you've thought so low of yourself that how could you have loved or been loved.
I also like the idea of it being about a tomboy in love- "I'm not the man you think I am". Like she's saying, I do have feelings under this tough exterior. And the description of how she's loved int he past- "My love has never lived indoors"- through that entire stanza. She's always had these rough, unsatisfactory affairs, and she isn't what this man wanted. She isn't an "easy love". But all she wants is a love that can be peaceful and fit with her, and that's who she thought this man was- but in the end it wasn't to be. It all boils down to acceptance and realization- she's moving forward. She's growing. But it still sucks, it's still painful. But it's getting better.
i like your interpretation quite a lot. <br /> <br /> this song has a sort of renewed significance to me right now. it is certainly, as you sapd, a bittersweet remembrance of a love lost. lately, i sometimes think about how this person probably really wasn't/isn't all that i made them out to be... or "the one," so to speak. <br /> <br /> it's funny because with other situations and people, i generally look at every side from every angle, almost to a fault... because it often leaves me indecisive, and unable to judge. but, when it comes to my own perspective, i think i have the tendency to neglect, or forget, the possibility that maybe expectations and reality never actually meet. like, maybe my ideas of love and what that's supposed to mean, or how that's supposed to feel, are not necessarily... how things really work. <br /> <br /> also, i think that i, however inadvertently, use certain people and things to fulfill certain roles (similar to the way we all interpret song lyrics differently, depending on how we relate to them, what they mean to us, what we want them to mean). oh, look what thoughts can do :) there seems to be no such thing as true objectivity, and so this applies to love as well. do we ever love anyone/anything simply for who they are/what it is?? we love what it is to us.<br /> <br /> i really like how she says "my love invented all of you," instead of saying "i invented all of you," as if she is somehow separate from her love, or it separate from her. <br /> <br /> "I also love the undertone of self-awareness, in the line "I dragged the clanging notion I was nobody, nobody, nobody." Kind of realizing that all this time you've thought so low of yourself that how could you have loved or been loved." -- almost choked up a bit reading this part. hit a bit too close to home, i think. the only thing is that i used to be much different. something happened (well, a lot happened)... and, over time, if you continually think so lowly of yourself, experience what you consider to be failure, think you don't try hard enough, avoid and give up, think that you are stupid, feel that you are not enough, that you barely even exist... eventually, you instill a form of self-defeat. now, i very much understand the undertone of self-awareness that you mentioned. and you become unloveable, and can't allow yourself to love. <br /> <br /> finally, i've always found this part interesting: "if you're not by now dead and buried, you're most certifiably married"... as if those are the only options. there's nothing in between. and, maybe there isn't.<br /> <br /> "a heavy burden lifted from my soul <br /> i heard that love was out of my control"<br /> -leonard cohen<br />
also, i apologize for including all of that in a reply directed only at you. got a little carried away. haha.