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Universal Shrug Lyrics
It's not your parents
It's not your friends
It's not your siblings' indifference
It's not your job
It's not your boss
It's not the last five years you lost
It's not that girl you could never get
It's not the lover you never met
It's not your stuffy studio
It's not that shitty car you want
It's you
You're the sum of all the mistakes you've plotted through
The product of all pleasures
The situations you should come to
The guilt you've gone through afterward
You're the reason you don't sleep well sober
The whole of your hangovers; poor kid
The measure of your motives
And where those motives led
It's not the city you never left
That haunted house where you shared a bed
What'd that woman say to you?
It's not me, it's you
It's not me, it's you
It's you
It's you
It's you
It's no big deal
You're the total of all the trials you've been through
The remainder of your anger
It's the albatross you'll never lose
That bird's been on your neck
Since you learned the world will always turn against you
You choose to live counter-clockwise
You're the time of your life
So what's in that dapper necktie?
Raise your cup to the universal shrug
Why get so worked up?
Just shrug it off, and pass the peanuts . . .
It's not your friends
It's not your siblings' indifference
It's not your job
It's not your boss
It's not the last five years you lost
It's not the lover you never met
It's not your stuffy studio
It's not that shitty car you want
It's you
The product of all pleasures
The situations you should come to
The guilt you've gone through afterward
You're the reason you don't sleep well sober
The whole of your hangovers; poor kid
The measure of your motives
And where those motives led
That haunted house where you shared a bed
What'd that woman say to you?
It's not me, it's you
It's not me, it's you
It's you
It's you
It's you
It's no big deal
The remainder of your anger
It's the albatross you'll never lose
That bird's been on your neck
Since you learned the world will always turn against you
You choose to live counter-clockwise
You're the time of your life
So what's in that dapper necktie?
Raise your cup to the universal shrug
Why get so worked up?
Just shrug it off, and pass the peanuts . . .
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
In the second stanza, the lyrics are "it's not that shitty car you want/ it's you."
Also, in the last stanza, the word is "bird's" and not "burn's." This is a reference to the poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." In the poem, a Mariner shoots an Albatross down(referenced in "It's the albatross you'll never lose"), and his crew forces him to wear it around his neck as punishment.