Warren wanted a Beach Boys thing for this one, and Carl Wilson and Billy Hinsche came in, with Carl arranging the vocal parts. The other harmony vocalists (credited as the "Gentlemen Boys") were Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, Zevon's longtime backers Waddy Wachtel and Jorge Calderon, and Linda Rondstadt/Stone Poneys guitarist Kenny Edwards.
Why can't i walk down a street free of suggestion?
Is my body the only trait in the eyes of men?
I've got some skin
You want to look in there?
Lays no reward in what you discover
You spent yourself watching me suffer
Suffer your words, suffer your eyes, suffer your hands
Suffer your interpretation of what it is to be a man
I've got some skin
You want to look in?
She does nothing to deserve it
He only wants to observe it
We sit back like they taught us
We keep quiet like they taught us
He just wants to prove she does nothing to remove it
We don't want anyone to mind us
So, we play the roles that they assigned us
She does nothing to conceal it
He touches her 'cause he wants to feel it
We blame her for being there
But, we are all guilty
Is my body the only trait in the eyes of men?
I've got some skin
You want to look in there?
Lays no reward in what you discover
You spent yourself watching me suffer
Suffer your words, suffer your eyes, suffer your hands
Suffer your interpretation of what it is to be a man
I've got some skin
You want to look in?
She does nothing to deserve it
He only wants to observe it
We sit back like they taught us
We keep quiet like they taught us
He just wants to prove she does nothing to remove it
We don't want anyone to mind us
So, we play the roles that they assigned us
She does nothing to conceal it
He touches her 'cause he wants to feel it
We blame her for being there
But, we are all guilty
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The way this song speaks to me🥺🥺when I sing it I feel like I relate
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In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
I was at a show once, it was the first time I saw Fugazi, it was 1989 I believe - Ian introduced the song saying it was inspired by a friend of his (for some reason I think it was a woman who works at Dischord) who basically was wondering what she couldn't walk down the street without guys accosting her (either literally or figurative I guess)...so yes, it's about objectification.....The thing is though, that the answer to the question, is" "because sex is instinct."
@moxley You're missing the other half, which is that physically, women aren't very strong. There are all kinds of instinctual things that everybody knows are unacceptable to do to other people and we therefore almost universally don't do. And it can vary so much from one society to another (think the Taliban, for example) that it's worth asking why we're doing as well as we are, why we aren't doing better, and how well we can do. There were probably people in 1865 who said that women were already being treated as well as (male) instinct allowed.