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.
Who took your measurements
From your toes to the top of your head
Yeah, you know
Who bought you clothes and new shoes
And wrote you a book you never read
Yeah, you know
Who was it, yeah you know, we real cool
On the far side of the morning
Who was it, yeah you know, we real cool
Now 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 out behind
Clinging to your high flying heels
Your high flying, high flying, high flying heels
Who was it, yeah you know, we real cool
On the far side of the morning, who was it
Yeah 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, yeah you know, we real cool
And the world keeps on turning
Who was it, yeah you know, we real cool
And 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 no more
On the far side of the morning
Who was it, yeah you know we real cool
And I hope you hear me, and you'll call
Yeah, we real cool
Yeah, we real, real cool
From your toes to the top of your head
Yeah, you know
Who bought you clothes and new shoes
And wrote you a book you never read
Yeah, you know
Who was it, yeah you know, we real cool
On the far side of the morning
Who was it, yeah you know, we real cool
Now 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 out behind
Clinging to your high flying heels
Your high flying, high flying, high flying heels
Who was it, yeah you know, we real cool
On the far side of the morning, who was it
Yeah 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, yeah you know, we real cool
And the world keeps on turning
Who was it, yeah you know, we real cool
And 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 no more
On the far side of the morning
Who was it, yeah you know we real cool
And I hope you hear me, and you'll call
Yeah, we real cool
Yeah, we real, real cool
Lyrics submitted by smallwonderrobot, edited by pankykapus
We Real Cool Lyrics as written by Warren Ellis Nicholas Cave
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Mute Song Limited
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fortnight
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This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
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Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
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.
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.
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.