Rhinosaur

Soundgarden

Standing with my enemy
Hung on my horns
With haste and reverie
Killing with charm

Only happy when you hurt
Only deadly in a swarm
Only healthy in the dirt
Only empty in your arms

I play, I'm sick and tame
Drawing the hordes
I'll wait, and show the lame
The meaning of harm
The skull beneath my feet
Like feathers in sand
I graze among the graves
A feeling of peace

Only bending when you break
Only feeding when you're cold
Only healing when you ache
Only feeling when you don't

Only bending when you break
Only feeding when you're cold
Only healing when you ache
Only feeling when you don't


Lyrics submitted by jt

Rhinosaur Lyrics as written by Matthew D. Cameron Christopher J. Cornell

Lyrics © HIPGNOSIS SONGS GROUP, Peermusic Publishing

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Rhinosaur song meanings
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14 Comments

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  • +4
    General Commentits about people who are never happy unless they're unhappy
    treestumpon May 10, 2002   Link
  • +3
    General CommentThis song isn't about soldiers to me, because well..uh I was a soldier.

    Anyway, when I hear this song I hear two different points. The chorus is about all of the people in this world who are greedy, manipulative, vile, wretched evil deeds. Basically people who cause and amplify the suffering of other life and the planet. The really jammin verse parts, you know the part that people think is about satan or some mythical beast? It is us. It is the ones who are angry by such people. We are the ones who want to end these people. That's the beautiful thing about us, and you know exactly what I'm talking about. The thing is we don't actually go out and start a war use violence against these people. But as Cornell and so many others of our generation have appropriately expressed in song, we sure can be expressive of this anger in its rawest, purest form: music.

    We will persevere by our examples of peace, love, serenity, and tranquility. The Rhinosaur is the imagined manifestation of our anger.
    chirrhoon November 07, 2013   Link
  • +1
    General Commenti think its a neologism coined by combining rhinozeros and dinosaur, implying a massive, heavy, and reckless beast of primeval origin...
    Lepra Messiason October 19, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Commentone of soundgardens best songs
    cloudedcleenexon July 12, 2010   Link
  • +1
    General CommentGosh I love this song, it goes straight for the gut and bites you on the arse. I read that Matt Cameron wrote the music for this and it's awesome. What about Kim's solo in the middle? One of the best on DOTU. My favourite line is "Only empty in your arms" and the rest of the lyrics speak for themselves. I think the interpretations of Superunknown and Lepra Massias are both pretty accurate but I totally disagree about the whole Satan idea. But that's just me.
    feminist92on November 30, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General CommentIts about, just as the line says, Killing With Charm. You hate someone more than anything else in the world but you don't let them know it. You just do subtle things to destroy them

    Superunknownon July 02, 2002   Link
  • 0
    General Commentyeah, right, 'subtle' things like "my enemies hung on my horns"... to me it's a song about a treacherous opportunist, turnaround, and backstabber without any morals at all, someone who perceives others only as potential rivals, someone who doesn't let on but will take them out as soon as the opportunity arises, someone who works his way slowly up the pecking order, someone who would make a perfect nazi.
    Lepra Messiason April 15, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General CommentWhat the fuck is a rhinosaur?
    hunter_benedicton June 26, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General CommentWhat the fuck is a rhinosaur?
    hunter_benedicton June 26, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General CommentI took more of a religious interpretation from it, IE: Satan.
    Topchrison December 13, 2005   Link

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