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Swingin' Party Lyrics

Bring your own lampshade, somewhere there's a party
Here it's never ending, can't remember when it started
Pass around the lampshade, there'll be plenty enough room in jail

[Chorus]
If being wrong's a crime, I'm serving forever
If being strong's your kind, then I need help here with this feather
If being afraid is a crime, we hang side by side
At the swingin' party down the line

Pound the prairie pavement, losing proposition
Quitting school and going to work and never going fishing
Water all around, I never learned how to swim now

[Chorus]
If being wrong's a crime, I'm serving forever
If being strong's your kind, then I need help here with this feather
If being afraid is a crime, we hang side by side
At the swingin' party down the line
At the swingin' party down the line

[Instrumental]

Bring your own lampshade, somewhere there's a party
Here it's never ending, can't remember when it started
Pass around the lampshade, there'll be plenty enough room in jail

[Chorus]
If being wrong's a crime, I'm serving forever
If being strong is what you want, then I need help here with this feather
If being afraid is a crime, we hang side by side
At the swingin' party down the line
At the swingin' party down the line
Song Info
Submitted by
turnthatshitoff On Jul 06, 2013
3 Meanings

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Cover art for Swingin' Party lyrics by Lorde

"Quitting school and going to work and never going fishing." - After you graduate or quit school you're suppose to get a job and work. Usually when someone puts up a sign saying, "Gone fishin" it means they're taking a break from work. "Never going fishing" means never taking a break; continually working.

"Water all around, I never learned how to swim now" - School/college is suppose to prepare you for the future and what to expect; but when you actually get there you realize how unprepared you really are, and everything you were taught doesn't help you.

"If being wrong's a crime, I'm serving forever. If being strong's your kind, then I need help here with this feather. If being afraid is a crime, we hang side by side, at the swingin party down the line" - They are afraid of something (the future?) and maybe made some bad decisions that they're going to pay for.

My Interpretation

Lampshade is code for anti-depressants (codeine) mixed with soda because they make you dim, like a lampshade.

Cover art for Swingin' Party lyrics by Lorde

I could be wrong, but I think the line "I need help here with this feather" is a reference to the white feather which was used as a symbol of cowardice during World War 1 to shame young men into enlisting in the army.

Song Meaning
Cover art for Swingin' Party lyrics by Lorde

Dear native speakers,

does anyone know why you should bring a lampshade?

Btw, after I heard this song for the first time I thought she was singing about a collective suicide plot - "here it`s never ending, can´t remember where it started" - the eternity you find in death; "swinging party", "we hang side by side" sounds still very romantic to me, but I guess I was wrong

 
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