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We Real Cool Lyrics
Who took your measurements
From your toes to the top of your head?
Yea you know
Who bought you clothes and new shoes
And wrote you a book you never read?
Yea you know
Who was it? Yea you know
We real cool
On the far side of the morning
Who was it? Yea you know
We real cool
I hope you're listening
Are you?
Who was it you called the Good Shepherd
Rounding up the kids for their meal?
Who chased your shadow running up behind
Clinging to your highflying heels?
Highflying highflying heels?
Who was it? Yea you know
We real cool
On the far side of the morning
Who was it? Yea you know
We real cool
And I hope you're listening too
Who measured the distance from the planets
Right down to your big blue spinning world
And heartbeats and tears and nervous laughter
Spilling down all over you, girl
Who was it? Yea you know
We real cool
And the world keeps on turning
Who was it? Yea you know
We real cool
I hope you're listening
Are you?
Sirius is 8.6 light years away
Arcturus is 37
The past is the past
And it's here to stay
Wikipedia is heaven
When you don't want to remember anymore
On the far side of the morning
Who was it? Yea you know
We real cool
And I hope you hear me
And you'll call
Yea we real cool
Yea we're real real cool
From your toes to the top of your head?
Yea you know
Who bought you clothes and new shoes
And wrote you a book you never read?
Yea you know
We real cool
On the far side of the morning
Who was it? Yea you know
We real cool
I hope you're listening
Are you?
Rounding up the kids for their meal?
Who chased your shadow running up behind
Clinging to your highflying heels?
Highflying highflying heels?
We real cool
On the far side of the morning
Who was it? Yea you know
We real cool
And I hope you're listening too
Right down to your big blue spinning world
And heartbeats and tears and nervous laughter
Spilling down all over you, girl
We real cool
And the world keeps on turning
Who was it? Yea you know
We real cool
I hope you're listening
Are you?
Arcturus is 37
The past is the past
And it's here to stay
Wikipedia is heaven
When you don't want to remember anymore
Who was it? Yea you know
We real cool
And I hope you hear me
And you'll call
Yea we real cool
Yea we're real real cool
Song Info
Submitted by
smallwonderrobot On Feb 09, 2013
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I think this song is about how the role of myth and religion in society has been replaced by the certainty of facts and how accessible and dominant they are. Nick Cave has conflated that story line with a paternal older male lover chiding his young female lover for her perceived lack of gratitude.
I think it’s more likely to be about his son Jethro or maybe Luke (more likely Jethro as I don’t think he would have measured Luke, also Jethro thinks he’s pretty fucken cool).
Jethro if you're reading this call your dad.
ok the 'Spilling down all over you girl' line does not work with my view above. So I'll change it to about an old flame, which is harder to nail down as good old nick has had a few, but maybe Viviane or Beau or someone not known to Wikipedia or therefore me.
ok the 'Spilling down all over you girl' line does not work with my view above. So I'll change it to about an old flame, which is harder to nail down as good old nick has had a few, but maybe Viviane or Beau or someone not known to Wikipedia or therefore me.
possibly the 'who' is Christ, which would make this a little obnoxiously proselytic, but the other thread is the theme of aging, like a lot of the songs on this album... i do like the idea of Nick Cave reading about The Birthday Party on Wikipedia and remembering gigs he forgot about because he was out of his mind on heroin.
To me the whole song is about the success of science. From philosophy of Aristoteles to Heisenberg or even the great poets, who gave another insight to the knowledge of the world. It's a bit similiar to the Grinderman song "Go Tell The Women". But at some points some of these science inventions mind be a bit trivial. This can be seen at the stuff like the heels or something. The Good Shepard seems like a joke from the narrator.
Another interpretation is the relation of children to their parents - who took their measurements, bought their clothes, ran after them and literally defined the universe for them. But then, the children find a world that provides them all the information they might ever need and with far more certainty. The parents are reduced to somebody that might be called on occasion.
http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/we-real-cool
on one hand, who measure your height from the toes to the top of your head? a coffin maker. that's the first and very unambiguous association.
new cloths and shoes are also very often the part of the ritual. and a book you never read... there are plenty of post-mortem variants.
on the other hand there is a strong reference to the SUN!!!
"on the far side of the morning" is always SUN "who chase your shadow?" the light. and SUN by the very fact of casting your shadow, indeed is measuring you from the top of your head...
"who measured the distance to the planets?" THE LIGHT! it is so damn unambiguous!
what does it mean as a whole i have no idea.
He's Christian, he says--but he seems like the kind that don't fit in the reg box. To me the song feels like a call from beyond and a mocking of those who feel "real cool" but deny Who they don't accept or get, which to him is foolish n not that cool. It feels otherworldly, like a voice from an agnostic otherworld. Fun stuff.