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Passing Through a Screen Door Lyrics
Cigarette smoke
Dances back in the window
And I can see
The haze on the dome light
I’m conjuring ghosts
On a forty-hour ride home
And they keep asking me
What I’m doing with my life
While my cousins go to bed with their wives
I’m feeling like I’ve fallen behind
Well the highway won.
I’m listening to traffic reports
One on one
Coming quietly undone
I was born to run
Away from anything good
An escape artist’s son
With sun-drenched pavement in my blood
The first thing that I do when I walk in
Is plan a way out for when shit gets bad and
I’ve been looking for
Tears in the screen door.
(Tears in the screen door)
I’ve been waiting for
Another disaster
(Another disaster)
I’m terrified
Like a kid in the sixties
Staring at the sky
Waiting for the bomb to fall
And it’s all a lie
What they say about stability
It scares me sometimes
The emptiness I see in my eyes
All the kid’s names
I’ve ever liked
Are tied to tragedy
And I don’t want my children
Growing up to be
Anything like me
I’ve been looking for
Tears in the screen door.
(Tears in the screen door)
I’ve been waiting for
Another disaster
(Another disaster)
But I was kind of hoping you’d stay
I was kind of hoping you’d stay
I keep a flashlight and a small knife
In the corner of my bed stand.
I keep a flashlight and the train times
But you wouldn’t understand
How could you understand?
Jesus Christ
I’m 26
All the people I graduated with
All have kids
All have wives
All have people who care if they come home at night
Well Jesus Christ, did I fuck up?
I’ve been looking for
Tears in the screen door
(Tears in the screen door)
I’ve been waiting for
Another disaster
(Another disaster)
But I was kind of hoping you’d stay
I was kind of hoping you’d stay
I was kind of hoping you’d stay
Dances back in the window
And I can see
The haze on the dome light
I’m conjuring ghosts
On a forty-hour ride home
And they keep asking me
What I’m doing with my life
While my cousins go to bed with their wives
I’m feeling like I’ve fallen behind
I’m listening to traffic reports
One on one
Coming quietly undone
I was born to run
Away from anything good
An escape artist’s son
With sun-drenched pavement in my blood
The first thing that I do when I walk in
Is plan a way out for when shit gets bad and
Tears in the screen door.
(Tears in the screen door)
I’ve been waiting for
Another disaster
(Another disaster)
Like a kid in the sixties
Staring at the sky
Waiting for the bomb to fall
And it’s all a lie
What they say about stability
It scares me sometimes
The emptiness I see in my eyes
All the kid’s names
I’ve ever liked
Are tied to tragedy
And I don’t want my children
Growing up to be
Anything like me
Tears in the screen door.
(Tears in the screen door)
I’ve been waiting for
Another disaster
(Another disaster)
But I was kind of hoping you’d stay
I was kind of hoping you’d stay
In the corner of my bed stand.
I keep a flashlight and the train times
But you wouldn’t understand
How could you understand?
Jesus Christ
I’m 26
All the people I graduated with
All have kids
All have wives
All have people who care if they come home at night
Well Jesus Christ, did I fuck up?
Tears in the screen door
(Tears in the screen door)
I’ve been waiting for
Another disaster
(Another disaster)
But I was kind of hoping you’d stay
I was kind of hoping you’d stay
I was kind of hoping you’d stay
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the song title "Passing Through a Screen Door" is a acronym for PTSD(Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)"
Now THIS, motherfuckers, is music.
God. This song just gets me. Especially after reading the interview that came out with the release of this song- we never are going to find true stability and keep it. It literally illustrates my biggest fears. The allusion of the stability of a family, or a home, or a job. It can be ripped out from under you within a split second. I feel okay right now- but I know what it's like to be that kid waiting for a bomb to fall, running out of control on loose gravel. The thought of going through life feeling like that again literally brings me to tears. This song is exactly about that for me, and that moment where you kind of wish you had taken the opportunity to even have that sense of stability and, theoretically speaking, doing what you're supposed to be doing.
Also, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the reference to Me vs. The Highway - It looks like the highway won.
But I was kinda hoping you'd stay...
Such a great song. I think "I was kind of hoping you'd stay" might be a reference to This Party Sucks "Say say you'll stay"
As much as I'd like to believe this, I feel like it's a stretch. It just seems like a coincidence.
As much as I'd like to believe this, I feel like it's a stretch. It just seems like a coincidence.
This song has so many scenic moments and emotions--I love it. He's been on the road with the band for years and he's realizing that all his friends and family are moving on and growing up--his cousins are getting married and are starting familys...so why isn't he? What did he do wrong? (that's how he feels)
"the highway won" because he's choosing to continue touring with the band instead of settling down "i was born to run, ect....." he feels like he turns around every good opportunity that comes to him "I've been looking for a tear in the screen door..."he's been looking for an escape or an answer to his problems? the next verse is unbelievably amazing, "I'm terrified....." It shows how he's so scared he's never going to have stability in his life and that noone really cares about him too much. "I keep a flashlight and a small knife In the corner of my bed stand. I keep a flashlight and the train times But you wouldn’t understand" To me this sounds like he's referring to cutting to take the pain and unknowing away and no one could understand what goes through his head and why he does it. "esus Christ I'm 26 All the people I graduated with All have kids All have wives All have people who care if they come home at night Well Jesus Christ, did I fuck up?" restates a point made in the beginning of the song that everyone is creating families and moving on and he's being left behind and wants to know what he did to deserve this. "I was kind of hoping you’d stay" Someone (referring to a girlfriend or just a best friend that he thought was always going to be there for him) has left his life and he thought that person was mean't to stay with him but even they left him.
I always thought the small knife and the train times was him talking about running away from it all because both of those are methods to runaway
I always thought the small knife and the train times was him talking about running away from it all because both of those are methods to runaway
I think, with the exception of "find a way out for when shit gets bad", the fact that "well Jesus Christ, did I fuck up?" Is the first time that Soupy swears on the album really enhances the desperation in the song.
It's also just so terrifying really; Soupy just bares his whole fears open in one line, and I'm certain I've screamed along with it more than once...
WELL JESUS CHRIST, DID I FUCK UP?!