They Might Be Giants

Good To Be Alive

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Good To Be Alive Lyrics

Hello mind
It’s good to be awake again
Spend some time reflecting

Hello hand
We all salute you hand
Five fingers strong
It’s good to have you back again

Hello eye
The complicated eye
Focused so hard on inspecting

Hello leg
Such a shaky leg
Just barely more than decoration

I’m not a motivational speaker
But on this I have arrived
It’s good to be alive
Good to be alive

Hello hand
We all salute you hand
Five fingers strong
It’s good to have you back again

I’m not some mega-church style preacher
But my spirit is revived
It’s good to be alive (yeah)
Good to be alive (yeah)

I’m not a life coach or some teacher
But I think we’ll all survive
It’s good to be alive (yeah)
Good to be alive (yeah)

Submitted by

johnnylurg On Apr 07, 2015

Birdhouse in Your Soul

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JohnnyLurg

Submitter

2015-04-07 16:34:17

1 Meaning

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by BadBradRoberts

3y ago

This is a great song! I personally think that it's the sequel to the TMBG song My Man, https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858614929, which, if you'll recall, is about a guy coming to terms with his paralysis. In My Man, he's kind of calm about it but you can tell his disappointed that he'll never walk again. In this song, it the same guy kind of recovering from paralysis but realizing that it's all gonna be ok. Maybe he's been taking some mindfulness classes or something, cause he sounds really zen. Talking to his body parts is taking a different approach to his paralysis; before he just saw his body as something useless. I love that he salutes his hand, seeing it as not something useless, but something "five fingers strong" and that he's glad to have it back. And what really ties this theory together for me is the line "just barely more than decoration". What I really love about this song is that many TMBG songs are very bleak, but this one actually brings a positive outlook on life.

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