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Every Little Hair Knows Your Name Lyrics
Every cell in this body
has been replaced since I last saw you
But the memory is in the DNA
and through the vessels and veins
weaves a halo round the brain
every little hair knows your name
Every little hair knows your name
Every little hair knows your name
I started working out when we broke up
I can do one hundred push-ups
I could probably do two if I was bored
I wrote some songs when we broke up
but nothing came out so I stopped
Every chord I struck was a miserable chord
Like an F minor 11 or an E flat major 7
It all sounds the same
Every chord knows your name
Every little hair knows your name
Every little hair knows your name
Every little hair knows your name
has been replaced since I last saw you
But the memory is in the DNA
and through the vessels and veins
weaves a halo round the brain
every little hair knows your name
Every little hair knows your name
I can do one hundred push-ups
I could probably do two if I was bored
but nothing came out so I stopped
Every chord I struck was a miserable chord
Like an F minor 11 or an E flat major 7
It all sounds the same
Every chord knows your name
Every little hair knows your name
Every little hair knows your name
Song Info
Submitted by
songsongsong On Sep 04, 2012
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The meaning of this song, by itself, is pretty apparent. I think where it gets interesting is the song's placement on the album and its context.
The album opens with a piano reprise of this song, though it's not truly a reprise, because you haven't actually heard the song yet. You hear this sparse, pretty melody, but don't know what it means yet.
You then go through the rest of the album and hear Jens struggling with his break up, trying to make sense of love, and by the end of it, maybe coming around to finding some peace with it all.
But then the last song comes up, and it's this one. You hear that melody again, but now it's accompanied by lyrics telling you that no matter what came before, it was all futile. No matter what he does or thinks or sings, it makes no difference. He can't forget the person that broke his heart.
The next time you listen to the album and it starts with the piano melody, you understand.
By teasing the song at the beginning of the album, he's basically letting you know: this is a foregone conclusion. Like secretly telling the reader on the first page how the story is going to end. He's going to work through this and try to figure it out, but by the end of the album he still won't be able to forget this person, because they have, literally, become a part of his body. They are with him through the entire album.
What I love about this lyric is how literal it is. Of course, pretty much all Jens lyrics are pretty literal and fact-filled, but in this case the title stands exactly for what is trying to say and it's not really a metaphor although it may sound as one. All the cells on his body has been replaced after several years by cell division, but since memory exists on the DNA, everything that his body grows, including even the smallest of hairs, carries the memory of his ex.