Both as a standalone and as part of the DSOTS album, you can take this lyric as read. As a matter of public record, Jourgensen's drug intake was legendary even in the 1980s. By the late 90s, in his own words, he was grappling with massive addiction issues and had lost almost everything: friends, spouse, money and had nearly died more than once. "Dark Side of the Spoon" is a both funny & sad title for an album made by a musical genius who was losing the plot; and this song is a message to his fans & friends saying he knows it. It's painful to listen to so I'm glad the "Keith Richards of industrial metals" wised up and cleaned up. Well done sir.
One by one, they stand single file
To see the king of the hill atop his worthless pile
The king has no clothes
Throw stones, watch him implode
All for one or are we all alone
Brick by brick, it's a house built on lies
Because illusion is easy to young adoring eyes
It's not hard to see
Through deceit, make them believe
Fight the stampede, be the one to lead
(All my missteps, I retrace
Every failure, I'll erase
My pride is gone
I find the strength to carry on
Looking back, what's left of me
Am I the person that I wanna be
Do I belong
I find the strength to carry on)
Rung by rung, he's climbed up to the top
But once the engine is running, it's hard to make it stop
Ignore what you're told
Eyes closed, dig from below
Don't care where you're from, just where you go
Step by step, we're ignoring the signs
That cocky bastard is planting the seeds of his demise
There's nothing to gain, only shame
We fan the flames
Fight through the pain, live another day
Just one more day
(All my missteps, I retrace
Every failure, I'll erase
My pride is gone
I find the strength to carry on
Looking back, what's left of me
Am I the person that I wanna be)
Do I belong
Do I belong
Writing's on the wall
That Cheshire smile says you don't have the courage to take the fall
You're not fooling anyone
You're no one
(All my missteps, I retrace
Every failure, I'll erase
My pride is gone
I find the strength to carry on
Looking back, what's left of me
Am I the person that I wanna be)
Do I belong
Do I belong
To see the king of the hill atop his worthless pile
The king has no clothes
Throw stones, watch him implode
All for one or are we all alone
Brick by brick, it's a house built on lies
Because illusion is easy to young adoring eyes
It's not hard to see
Through deceit, make them believe
Fight the stampede, be the one to lead
(All my missteps, I retrace
Every failure, I'll erase
My pride is gone
I find the strength to carry on
Looking back, what's left of me
Am I the person that I wanna be
Do I belong
I find the strength to carry on)
Rung by rung, he's climbed up to the top
But once the engine is running, it's hard to make it stop
Ignore what you're told
Eyes closed, dig from below
Don't care where you're from, just where you go
Step by step, we're ignoring the signs
That cocky bastard is planting the seeds of his demise
There's nothing to gain, only shame
We fan the flames
Fight through the pain, live another day
Just one more day
(All my missteps, I retrace
Every failure, I'll erase
My pride is gone
I find the strength to carry on
Looking back, what's left of me
Am I the person that I wanna be)
Do I belong
Do I belong
Writing's on the wall
That Cheshire smile says you don't have the courage to take the fall
You're not fooling anyone
You're no one
(All my missteps, I retrace
Every failure, I'll erase
My pride is gone
I find the strength to carry on
Looking back, what's left of me
Am I the person that I wanna be)
Do I belong
Do I belong
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Ministry
Ministry
Fortnight
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
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.
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
I think this song is a sort of indirect dialogue between a ruler that failed to do his work properly and the angry people. The angry people speak during the verses, talking about the lies behind the failure and their ideals, while the ruler recognizes his faults and asks himself if he's sure of what to do now, as stated in the chorus.
Imo, this is what the song is SPECIFICALLY about.
The song can also be interpretated in a different, more generic way, and I like this enterpretation more because it can be applied to a lot more situations of life.
If you make a mistake, you probably won't be forgiven, even if you recognize your mistakes and want to repair what you broke. This isn't either good or bad, it's just how the world goes, because the same thing could be applied to the others that were directly hit by the mistake you made. It's something related to pride, imo, and it reminds me the first verse of "Take this Life" from In Flames: "It's not so much the pain, it's more the actual knife"; it doesn't matter if you didn't want to do something or if you regret it, you still did it and there's nothing that will change that. Sure, you can still try to fix what you did, but the wound won't disappear. But this song also shows off the hypocrisy of the people: "don't care where you're from, just where you go" is my favorite phrase from the song and it literally says that it doesn't matter what you did, it matters if you do something good to fix it. It's totally the contrary of what people think if someone else makes a mistake.