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Who Invited the Russian Soldier? Lyrics
Wait until they send your son home in a box.
See if you're dancing when water is everywhere.
Anguish is endless but deaths unambiguous.
Wave as it carries him off and pose while it fits you in hospital gowns.
Flirt with the men dressed in white.
Slip into bed with the fire that consumes our house.
Sing on your surveillance tape.
Smile in your autopsy photo for once.
Phone up the boys that have buried your bones.
Where do you get off loving life? As if it's done any of us any good
You're going to wish you were me when the unsuspecting are dragged to their graves and you're standing on the edge holding a rose.
Dead where we stand and you concern yourself with such things as your status and what's in fashion?
Don't say you can't be this bothered.
Death becomes us all.
You've got some never having hope in this ghost town port of call.
Someday your insides will turn themselves out.
Tell me what purpose our efforts have served when we end up in the ground?
More acts will follow the roles we have played.
Everything loved will expire. I've seen it all and I'm worse off because of it.
Good men have died in my arms.
I've been everywhere yet we'll end up at the same depth. What's the point?
You're going to wish you were me when the unsuspecting are dragged to their graves and you're are on the edge holding a rose.
You're standing on the edge holding a rose.
Don't say you can't be this bothered.
Death becomes us all.
You've got some nerve having hope in this ghost town port of call.
There's nothing to see here. And nothing gazes back at me.
There's nothing to see here. And that nothing looks back at us.
See if you're dancing when water is everywhere.
Anguish is endless but deaths unambiguous.
Wave as it carries him off and pose while it fits you in hospital gowns.
Flirt with the men dressed in white.
Slip into bed with the fire that consumes our house.
Sing on your surveillance tape.
Smile in your autopsy photo for once.
Phone up the boys that have buried your bones.
Where do you get off loving life? As if it's done any of us any good
Dead where we stand and you concern yourself with such things as your status and what's in fashion?
Don't say you can't be this bothered.
Death becomes us all.
You've got some never having hope in this ghost town port of call.
Tell me what purpose our efforts have served when we end up in the ground?
More acts will follow the roles we have played.
Everything loved will expire. I've seen it all and I'm worse off because of it.
Good men have died in my arms.
I've been everywhere yet we'll end up at the same depth. What's the point?
You're standing on the edge holding a rose.
Don't say you can't be this bothered.
Death becomes us all.
You've got some nerve having hope in this ghost town port of call.
There's nothing to see here. And that nothing looks back at us.
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First line is probably "Wait until they send your son home in a box"
Probably the best song on the new album too.
It is "wait until they send your home in a box."
Thanks for the correction. I agree that it is the best song on the CD along with "Turtles All the Way Down".
Good song. Anyone know what the song title is from?
Yes. I read in an interview that Keith said it was inspired by these stories of Russian soldiers who would suddenly just shoot themselves in the field. They couldn't handle the war (I'm assuming he meant WWII) and just ended it for themselves.
Yes. I read in an interview that Keith said it was inspired by these stories of Russian soldiers who would suddenly just shoot themselves in the field. They couldn't handle the war (I'm assuming he meant WWII) and just ended it for themselves.
This song depresses the shit out of me.
This song depresses the shit out of me.
it wasn't their inability to "handle the war," Keith said it was that they are known for their defeatism.
it wasn't their inability to "handle the war," Keith said it was that they are known for their defeatism.
i think it's about having all these fantastical ideas, standing for something only to come to realisation that it's all irrelevant. You'll die, an someone else will come along with the same opinion, and will change nothing. Russian soldiers realised the futility of war, so the title begs the question "who invited the Russian soldier?" cos he's bumming everyone out.
or..."Not too long ago ETID frontman Keith Buckley was hanging out at a dive bar, when a woman who seemed too young to be there bumped into him while dancing. She spilled his drink, and he started yelling "what the fuck are you doing?!" "Afterwards, i felt really bad about it," the singer says. "I realised i was officially that old dude who doesn't like it when kids have fun. It's very defeatist." Turns out the girl works with a friend of his, so he apologised the nest day for being "grumpy old man."
Thinking about it, he began correlating the defeatist feeling with stories he'd read about Russian soldiers. "About them marching in the cold, and how they'd shoot themselves rather than endure any trauma." This train of thought beacame the fuel for "Who Invited The Russian Soldier?"
Revolver Magazine, Nov '09
A really great song, though pretty depressing when you actually read the lyrics. Ha. One of my favorite lines in the whole album: "And you're standing on the edge holding a rose."
The singer is a pessimist and thinks suffering is all there is to life. He's directing the song at an opposing optimist, telling her that life is pointless and shitty etc. The story justfuckingtouchme posted makes perfect sense with the song.
I think the basic idea of the song is that many people can be optimistic, but it may be just because they haven't seen or felt what real pain is like. Sometimes that real pain is enough to destroy the value of life for someone who has experienced it, justifying suicide, explaining just why those Russian soldiers would want to off themselves.
Someone hug this guy or something.
I thought that the last lines of this song sounded familiar. Pretty sure he is referencing this quote:
"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche