Soup

I understand that Shannon Hoon was a drug addict and died because of it. But a lot of you people have no idea what he and blind melon stood for. Drugs and their usage were obviously a part of their music both in writing and in live performance. But my God, Shannon had a great girl, a daughter, a great family in his band, and many other things that we all consider normal. I think way too many of you look for drugs in these songs as an answer to Shannons death. A lot of their songs are about life, plain and simple. Not just the happy times, but the awful shitty ones too. Do me a favor and actually listen to these songs. You can hear it in his voice, he wasn't always depressed and strung out. Learn to appreciate the original blind melon and the music they left us with

i know this has nothing to do with the song, but my cousin just died in a car accident...and i bought this cd like the day before, so this song reminds me of him, along with Hell and Soul One. i guess some songs just remind me of events that were goin on when i started listening to them.

I love this song, because it's like when you have a bad day, listen to this.

"Now tell me what's wrong you see everyone's gone You gotta do your best to decorate this dying' day This dying' day"

"And now I'll close my eyes really, really tight And make you all go away, I'll make you all go all go away" ...it's good stuff

a lot if the songs blind melon recorded were along the lines of this kind of childhood selfishness. they either have a repentant tone, or they are celebrating the joy of that simplicity.

The best version of this song is the Woodstock 94 version. He was clean and sober for weeks before hand but couldnt pass up the opportunity to take LSD at Woodstock...and then drink alot. They played a version of their song "Time" and it wasnt very good...Shannon was throwing drums into the croud and freeking out. When they played soup he was mellow and he nailed it...it was such a great moment in music history. All the while wearing thick mascara and a white dress.

I think the "pull the trigger" line pertains to his intraveinous drug use. "Corner Stone" is also a bit of a heroin reference...but have never heard a story of Shannon using heroin. I think the song is about using drugs as entertainment and then realizing you are healing yourself and killing yourself with the same substance.

i can picture shannon writing this, sitting in the kitchen 'over a bowl of bitter beans'....dealing with boredom as well as dealing with shit and pressure from everyone around him (that he wishes he could make all go away) ...his end 'solution' to dealing with all this i guess could be suicide or drug use or a homicidal rage even...or maybe he'll just close his eyes and clear his head and thats his way of dealing with these assholes or demons in his head perhaps...i dont fuckin know

"All over a bowl of bitter beans". Here's what I got from that:

Some great tragedy has been perpetrated over something petty and worthless. Beans are often associated with the poor, a cheap meal that has no real worth.

It's like he's trying to say that, whatever bad thing happened, it was all for something worthless... something that was bitter anyways.

I am totally on board with the drugs. BM has been and always will be about the struggle to step up to life - to take responsibility and to make something of it. At first that is all I got from it. Then I got a habit and heard a lot more. I don't know that shannon ever caught a habit but he definately shot dope (axl rose is god). Plus "shooting dope" is often used to refer to drug use overall - captures the false hope and degredation. bitter beans = dope. willing to do anything for this thing that seems like it could make everything alright even if just for a minute - but i know it is so not worth it.

Soup and Nico are totally about the struggle with drugs, which is not all that different from struggles people have without drugs. - the struggle to live

I don't think every single Blind Melon song is about drugs.

My thought on the meaning, or what I take from it anyway:

The song is about a child, or a young boy, who loses a loved one, probably his grandpa.

"The clothesline of cold eyes is washing away the face before" to me says that the people, family or friends or whatever, that were hung out to dry or not really important to this person who died are hanging around during this period of mourning and beginning to tarnish the memory of this person. The following line is pretty self-explanatory.

The next few lines, and most of the rest of the song, seems to be about possessions. The "bowl of bitter beans" refers to worthless people fighting over worthless items. He mentions the rocking chair and says he doesn't want to see it any more because the man is dead. He says he has a "corner store" that he can "praise upon the holidays," meaning he has been given personal items from this person after his death, but the line seems sarcastic because although he may be thankful for the memories the items will provide, they are no substitute for the person lost.

The last lines are him closing his eyes and wishing all these other people would disappear. The lines about pulling the "trigger" are just fantasy as he slips off into his fantasy world, which is the only place he can go to see the person who is now gone.

Anyway, maybe it's totally wrong but just my take.

Soup at Woodstock 94

youtube.com/watch