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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
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Cover art for Spoonman lyrics by Soundgarden

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...

Not Valid

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...

@aldeayeah @brokenskull48 is totally right..

Cover art for Spoonman lyrics by Soundgarden

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

Not Valid
Cover art for Spoonman lyrics by Soundgarden

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.

Cover art for Spoonman lyrics by Soundgarden

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 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

this comment was from twelve years ago. auto-correct didn't even exist yet.

Cover art for Spoonman lyrics by Soundgarden

hence all the references to the hands and beating the rythm... nothing to do with heroin, by the way

Cover art for Spoonman lyrics by Soundgarden

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."

Cover art for Spoonman lyrics by Soundgarden

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

Song Meaning

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".

Not Valid
Cover art for Spoonman lyrics by Soundgarden

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 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...

Cover art for Spoonman lyrics by Soundgarden

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.

Cover art for Spoonman lyrics by Soundgarden

Me Seven