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Spoonman Lyrics
Feel the rhythm with your hands
Steal the rhythm while you can, Spoonman
Speak the rhythm on your own
Speak the rhythm all alone, Spoonman
Spoonman, come together with your hands
Save me, I'm together with your plan
Save me
All my friends are Indians
All my friends are brown and red, Spoonman
All my friends are skeletons
They beat the rhythm with their bones,
Spoonman
Feel the rhythm with your hands
Steal the rhythm while you can, Spoonman
Thank you, good night people
Song Info
Submitted by
jt On Apr 18, 2001
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it's about Artis the Spoonman, a guy from seattle who plays spoons around the world... and he plays the spoon solo in this song
aldeayeah is on the money. Just saw Chris doing a solo acoustic show in (of all places) the armpit of America, Allentown, PA... I was in the 4th row in a venue that only held 1200 max and someone in the opening act was sick, so Chris came out and started playing and continued to play for 3 straight hours. The guy had at least 12 guitars on stage, used every one of them and did everything from Soundgarden, Audioslave, Temple of the Dog and even some Beatles covers. He talks a lot in his solo shows...
aldeayeah is on the money. Just saw Chris doing a solo acoustic show in (of all places) the armpit of America, Allentown, PA... I was in the 4th row in a venue that only held 1200 max and someone in the opening act was sick, so Chris came out and started playing and continued to play for 3 straight hours. The guy had at least 12 guitars on stage, used every one of them and did everything from Soundgarden, Audioslave, Temple of the Dog and even some Beatles covers. He talks a lot in his solo shows and even if the song were about drugs (which is isn't), it's clear when you see him in that kind of personal setting, he is a true artist and could not do what he does if he were into drugs at all. Managed to get a cam in and got (some halfway decent pics) and the local radio station asked if they could post them. Check them out here: wzzo.com/cc-common/gallery/photos.html
You guys are dumb. Look, he was a heroin addict, it takes your life over, its a huge deal. So for him to write a lot of songs about it is normal. Just because there's a dude playing with spoons in the music video, doesn't mean its about him. OK look, this song came out a long time ago, I would hope he's clean nowadays, but its eàsy to relapse. "Steal the rhythm while you can....speak the rythym on your own....speak the rythym all alone" the rhythm is his mind and body. Steal his life while it can, its all...
You guys are dumb. Look, he was a heroin addict, it takes your life over, its a huge deal. So for him to write a lot of songs about it is normal. Just because there's a dude playing with spoons in the music video, doesn't mean its about him. OK look, this song came out a long time ago, I would hope he's clean nowadays, but its eàsy to relapse. "Steal the rhythm while you can....speak the rythym on your own....speak the rythym all alone" the rhythm is his mind and body. Steal his life while it can, its all that they listen to(that calling) and its leaves them with nothing, hense speak the rhthym all alone. "All my friends are Indians, all my friends are brown and red" how would that be about a musician playing spoons? No! Heroin comes from opium, which comes from India and the middle east. Brown and red refurs to the dope is brown, and the red is blood when he draws back, to shoot it. "Save me I'm together with your plan" so you think he's asking a musician playing the spoons to "save" him? No! "Save me" either from the mental torment of simply wanting it, or save him from the dawning withdrawal."I'm together with your plan" hes wanting the heroin.
@aldeayeah @brokenskull48 is totally right..
@aldeayeah @brokenskull48 is totally right..
you guys are all drug crazy...do you have any idea how many times i've seen a song interpreted as being about drugs? some chick thought that because in the song control by puddle of mudd he says "I love the way you smack my ass" it was about smack (heroin). This song is simply about Artis the Spoonman just like aldeayeah said. The band is from the seattle area. actually one of my friends cousin used to party with them all the time till they broke up. so yeah... It's not about white domination, or herion, or jacking off...sorry to burst your bubble tylenol.;)
even if you're wrong, you have the most well-thought interpretation i've seen here so far
even if you're wrong, you have the most well-thought interpretation i've seen here so far
From a 1994 interview with chris cornell
Interviewer: Getting back to Superunknown, the first single was "Spoonman." The song is superficially about Artis the Spoonman, but the underlying sentiment is that rhythm and music have healing properties.
Chris: It's more about the paradox of who he is and what people perceive him as. He's a street musician, but when he's playing on the street, he is given a value and judged completely wrong by someone else. They think he's a street person, or he's doing this because he can't hold down a regular job. They put him a few pegs down on the social ladder because of how they perceive someone who dresses differently. The lyrics express the sentiment that I much more easily identify with someone like Artis than I would watch him play.
i don't know what's worse, everyone thinking it's about heroin, or everyone spelling it as "heroine".
@kelar I laughed so hard at that! I bet most people don't even get it. Heroine versus heroin. Poor, uneducated fools!
@kelar I laughed so hard at that! I bet most people don't even get it. Heroine versus heroin. Poor, uneducated fools!
@kelar or their phone auto corrects to "heroine" because it is statistically more likely what it thinks they are typing. As the phone is unaware of Chris Cornell's MASSIVE HEROIN ADDICTION PROBLEM.
@kelar or their phone auto corrects to "heroine" because it is statistically more likely what it thinks they are typing. As the phone is unaware of Chris Cornell's MASSIVE HEROIN ADDICTION PROBLEM.
@D_Psi4or
@D_Psi4or
this comment was from twelve years ago. auto-correct didn't even exist yet.
this comment was from twelve years ago. auto-correct didn't even exist yet.
@kelar hehe... Whoops..
@kelar hehe... Whoops..
@kelar Great comment! I will say it's the latter that is worse IMO
@kelar Great comment! I will say it's the latter that is worse IMO
hence all the references to the hands and beating the rythm... nothing to do with heroin, by the way
Spoonman is about the dominance of "white man" in indian culture. Many years ago we killed the indians off of their land and took it as the USA. Look at the lyrics....the white man "stole" the indian's "rhythm." The song is written in the perspective of an indian who is crying out to the dominant white man, the spoonman, to save him and spare him because he is "together with" the white man's "plan" to dominate North America. "All my friends are Indians..." "all my friends are skeletons." This shows the instant morphing of indians to skeletons with white dominance. The song is definitely about what I say.
And even if I'm totally off the map, my guess is way fucking closer than "doing heroine."
This song is about masturbation.
Feel the rhythm with your hands, <- Feeling his penis, getting the "rhythm" right Steal the rhythm while you can, Spoonman <- because he is horny as fuck Speak the rhythm on your own <- It's a solitary habit Speak the rhythm all alone, Spoonman <- don't want people watching
Spoonman, come together with your hands <-obvious Save me, I'm together with your plan Save me
All my friends are Indians <- fetishes All my friends are brown and red, Spoonman All my friends are skeletons <- fetishes They beat the rhythm with their bones, <- "beating" the rhythm on his bone(r) Spoonman
Feel the rhythm with your hands Steal the rhythm while you can, Spoonman
Thank you, good night people <- he's finished for the night
Billy Madison quote "That was the most rambling incoherentb thing I have ever heard. At no point in your argument did you come close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now stupider for having listened to it. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul".
Billy Madison quote "That was the most rambling incoherentb thing I have ever heard. At no point in your argument did you come close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now stupider for having listened to it. I award you no points and may God have mercy on your soul".
WAHTTHE FUCK?? about heroine.. IM SICK OF SEING SONGS INTERPRETED AS BEING ABOUT DRUGS... FOR FUCK SKAE UR THE CUNT ON HEROINE...
@Bort_The_Great nobody here\'s on drugs but uh, maybe you are????
@Bort_The_Great nobody here\'s on drugs but uh, maybe you are????
@Bort_The_Great Well bort I'm sick of belligerent idiots ranting posts that are in ALL-CAPS---because it's obvious that you're a whiny little bitch...
@Bort_The_Great Well bort I'm sick of belligerent idiots ranting posts that are in ALL-CAPS---because it's obvious that you're a whiny little bitch...
this is a great song, im not sure what its about but i dont think its heroine. it really bothers me that some people here think EVERY song is drugs.
@sugarmagik I'm positive it's not about a heroine such as Katniss Everdeen, Ellen Loise Ripley, or Alice Aberdeen.
@sugarmagik I'm positive it's not about a heroine such as Katniss Everdeen, Ellen Loise Ripley, or Alice Aberdeen.
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