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Never the Machine Forever Lyrics

I can't live when it lives
It won't live if I die
Machine has no heart to give
Heart it takes could be mine

Come on
Come down
Come out from where you hide

Follows me down the river
Shadows me through the sky
A sideways glance in the mirror
Stalemate machine in a tie

Come on
Come down
Come out from where you hide
Get up
Get off
Get on with your life

Forever means all is not seen
Never means forever brings everything

I fashion will and desire
Always I and I survive
Mercurial mind the fire
Ferrivorous direction and drive

Come on
Come down
Come out from where you hide
Get up
Get off
Get on with your life

Presently, I see myself clearer
Why time I visualize
I spy device in the mirror
Checkmate watch machine die
16 Meanings

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Cover art for Never the Machine Forever lyrics by Soundgarden

For some reason I had a "memory" that this song was inspired by a novel but that's probably wrong.

It's based on Kim's personal experiences and according to him, "it's about a life-and-death match between an individual and a less specifically defined entity" - KERRANG!, March 16, 1996. The lyrics suggest that the voice in the song is the victor in the end, presumably due to their ambition, creativity, resourcefulness, and heart, all of which the machine lacks.

The machine is probably a metaphor. Kim stated that "It's not about computers" - CMJ New Music Monthly, July 1996.

In any case, this is one of Soundgarden's most interesting songs.

Cover art for Never the Machine Forever lyrics by Soundgarden

No clue what Kim actually meant but I like to interpret it as fighting some unbeatable machine......and WINNING. The machine can be symbolic of whatever you want it to be, and whatever you chose the machine to be YOU CONQUERED.

Cover art for Never the Machine Forever lyrics by Soundgarden

This is the best song in the wolrd ever ...and that is my generous input to the world.

Cover art for Never the Machine Forever lyrics by Soundgarden

one of the very few lyrics of kim, and a cryptic one for sure!

Cover art for Never the Machine Forever lyrics by Soundgarden

great cryptic lyrics. but there's two lines i can't decipher:

Forever means all is not seen Never means forever brings everything

What do you guys think it means?

I feel like "the machine" is sort of the system of modern day living and capitalism. The narrator struggles with being a part of it, and doesn't like being part of it, but is so dependent in the current lifestyle that it's hard to see through the gray area of living your life how you want to live it, but at the same time being influenced by society and modern day, industrialized living.

The only reason I interpreted it that way, is that I feel the same. There are so many things that drive me nuts and...

heh whoops, wrong place!

Cover art for Never the Machine Forever lyrics by Soundgarden

It seems like this song could have been in the soundtrack for the original "Matrix" movie. I especially like the imagery of the lines "Sideways glance in the mirror/Stalemate machine in a tie" and "I spy device in the mirror/Checkmate/Watch machine Die"...as well as "Forever means all is not seen/Never means forever brings everything"

Cover art for Never the Machine Forever lyrics by Soundgarden

seems to be about a battle with some kind of killing robot machine...

i dont see this mattering really, but he mentions mercurial (mercury) and Ferriferous (made of iron or yielding iron)

Cover art for Never the Machine Forever lyrics by Soundgarden

i think this is about the battle u have with yourself over the way u r when you dont wanna be cold like a machine so you fight the machine in you

Cover art for Never the Machine Forever lyrics by Soundgarden

Is it about that crazy show they air at 2am called 'robot wars', where college students battle their home made robots?

Cover art for Never the Machine Forever lyrics by Soundgarden

i doubt it, but they should adopt it as their theme song....i'd watch it...no, thats a lie...i'd watch the beginning just for the song...

 
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