Straight No Chaser

No offense to anyone, but I keep hearing people say Bush's songs have no meaning. Gavin Rosdale is a god, and I assure you each one of his words mean something deep to him. The best way to listen to music is just apply it to yourself, and even if we cant depict the exact meaning of these songs, all Bush songs totally make me feel things.

I always felt like this song was about trying to keep a straight face when everything around you is falling apart. I've been there more times than I would care to recount, but suffice it to say,

Always be there, face I live with.

Now even living alone, away from all that, I can still feel that face leftover from

All the fallen down angels, raw pain distress

Of course it wasn't my pain, and all I ever dreamed about was getting away. I think in many ways, the hope of getting away was what kept me going.

It's all in the way we know that we could have it all

But in the meantime, war on all sides.

One of the most disarming things about the song to me has always been that first violin note, the one that comes out after he sings the title of the song. I don't know a lot about music, but I know a 6th note doesn't usually belong on top of a root (first) chord. Yet the dissonance of it just works so beautifully.

Drinking life as it comes, straight no chaser, that's the easy part for the narrator who's surrounded by people who need to chase it up with smoking, drinking, or just whispering curse words to themselves on the job (don't even get me started on that person. Haha) I climb inside my own awesome head and build a system of valleys and motorways, e.g. my new life away from these people.

Then suddenly it changes up. "It's all in the face of what we thought we knew before." Apparently some new information has come into the picture that changed what we thought we knew. It could be one of two things. Either you're finally getting some insight into what makes those around you seem so miserable, thus leading you to understand them better, and then it doesn't bother you so much anymore. Or #2, something terrible happens to you and turns you into one of them. Cue the nonstop deluge of crazy violin. But it's too late, not like you can control everything.

Either way, you keep on driving.

I never understood the line "Hair left morning wet" before until I read it here, but it's fascinating to know now that that's what the line is. My best guess is like a previous poster pointed out, hair still wet from the morning shower and it hasn't quite dried off yet. So even when you leave, the misery doesn't just up and disappear like that, it kind of sticks with you.

Yet still, how wonderful it was to get away. Even Gavin seems more than resigned to his fate, "Nothing like losing you." When I lost those people, my life went back to being a lot smoother than I had ever remembered. Note the absence of the dissonant violin note on the last verse. It's gone, yet somehow you still expect it to creep in because you've grown to expect it, even though everything's fine now.

I'm sure this didn't make a lick of sense, but it's fun to play around with the possibilities anyway.

I dunno what the hell this song means....a few parts make me start to feel like i know but i really dont! someone help w/ me this one.....i love this song though and not exactly knowning the meanign of it doesnst stop me from hearing how it feels

i totally understand. I have absolutley no clue, although it seens like a sort of love song. i really like it though, its in my top three fav bush songs. anyways, some PLEASE HELP US OUT!!! i think i might have a sorta meaning here. . . mabye its about this guy and this girl, who have this great relationship and all, but something happens, and it messes everything up and thats why "war on all sides" and they break up or what ever, and he relizes that it was a stupid reason for them to break up, "there's nothing like losing you". that was a complete wild guess there, so go easy on me if its way off.

When i was younger, I was totally into Bush. I thought they were so deep and I was stupid because I couldn't make sense of what they ever meant. Now, four years later, I just realize that they make no sense.

to me.. this song is about life... "drink life as it comes, straight, no chaser" Life is hard, but, you have to deal with it. be strong and suck it up no matter how much it sucks. (kind of like taking a shot of vodka, without a chaser... harsh, kinda gross... but its what you get.)

"always be there, face i live with" you will always be you... learn to love yourself, because you have to live with yourself.

"its all in the way we know we could have it all" if you try your best, you can get whatever you want in life.

"some sattelites of pain cant always be ignored" life is tough. you will get hurt, and it will be hard.

"theres a war on all sides" not everybody gets along... life is an ongoing war.

i hope that puts some of the pieces of the puzzle together anyways...

i agree with you babyelf. great song.

this song kicks it...bush rock...even though they make up songs that nobody understands....maybe we should get stephen hawkings to take a look at this one...

i think this song is about getting caught up in the whirlwind that is life. taking life and making the most of it (straight no chaser). thats the way he lives and he likes it, only sometimes he is afraid that he is so swept up that he is going to lose himself (always be there face i live with). "War on all sides" means something like everything in life is attacking who you are and what you are trying to do in some way or another but sometimes you just have to deal or ignore it in order to remember who you are cause "there's nothing like losing you." sometimes you can't ignore the pain of the attacks though so you just have to get away from it all and climb inside yourself annd regain confidence and believe in all the things you know deep down you can accomplish.

and i forgot to add that this song makes me cry, don't ask. and now I think that the "relationship side" to this song, was about Gavin and Jasmine Lewis (sp?) breaking up, i know that in their book he says that a lot of razorblade suitcase was about her, so i figured "there's nothing like losing you" was about her. But it means whatever the hell you want it to mean, i've learned that from trying to figure out the true meaning in bush songs.