Both as a standalone and as part of the DSOTS album, you can take this lyric as read. As a matter of public record, Jourgensen's drug intake was legendary even in the 1980s. By the late 90s, in his own words, he was grappling with massive addiction issues and had lost almost everything: friends, spouse, money and had nearly died more than once. "Dark Side of the Spoon" is a both funny & sad title for an album made by a musical genius who was losing the plot; and this song is a message to his fans & friends saying he knows it. It's painful to listen to so I'm glad the "Keith Richards of industrial metals" wised up and cleaned up. Well done sir.
In your white lace and your wedding bells
You look the picture of contented new wealth
But from the onlooking fool who believed your lies
I wish this grave would open up and swallow me alive
For the bitterest pill is hard to swallow
The love I gave hangs in sad-colored, mocking shadows, yeah
When the wheel of fortune broke, you fell to me
Out of grey skies to change my misery
The vacant spot, your beating heart took its place
Now I watch smoke leave my lips and fill an empty room
For the bitterest pill is hard to swallow
The love I gave hangs in sad-colored, mocking shadows
The bitterest pill is mine to take
If I took if for a hundred years, I couldn't feel any more hate
The bitterest pill is mine to take
If I took if for a hundred years, I couldn't feel any more hate
Now autumn's breeze blows summer's leaves through my life
Twisted and broken-down, no days with sunlight
The dying spark, you left your mark on me
The promise of your kiss, but with someone else
For the bitterest pill is mine to swallow
The love I gave hangs in sad-colored, mocking shadows
The bitterest pill is mine to take
If I took if for a hundred years, I couldn't feel anymore ill
The bitterest pill is mine to take
If I took if for a hundred years, I couldn't feel any more hate
The bitterest pill is mine to take
If I took if for a hundred years, I couldn't feel any more hate
The bitterest pill is mine to take
If I took if for a hundred years, I couldn't feel any more hate
You look the picture of contented new wealth
But from the onlooking fool who believed your lies
I wish this grave would open up and swallow me alive
For the bitterest pill is hard to swallow
The love I gave hangs in sad-colored, mocking shadows, yeah
When the wheel of fortune broke, you fell to me
Out of grey skies to change my misery
The vacant spot, your beating heart took its place
Now I watch smoke leave my lips and fill an empty room
For the bitterest pill is hard to swallow
The love I gave hangs in sad-colored, mocking shadows
The bitterest pill is mine to take
If I took if for a hundred years, I couldn't feel any more hate
The bitterest pill is mine to take
If I took if for a hundred years, I couldn't feel any more hate
Now autumn's breeze blows summer's leaves through my life
Twisted and broken-down, no days with sunlight
The dying spark, you left your mark on me
The promise of your kiss, but with someone else
For the bitterest pill is mine to swallow
The love I gave hangs in sad-colored, mocking shadows
The bitterest pill is mine to take
If I took if for a hundred years, I couldn't feel anymore ill
The bitterest pill is mine to take
If I took if for a hundred years, I couldn't feel any more hate
The bitterest pill is mine to take
If I took if for a hundred years, I couldn't feel any more hate
The bitterest pill is mine to take
If I took if for a hundred years, I couldn't feel any more hate
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Step
Ministry
Ministry
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
smithersjones, exactly. this was supposed to be a joke to mock other big selling artists. he basically proved that he could be that if he wanted to... and i must say the melody is really kind of beautiful. just because he wrote it as a joke doesn't mean he didnt try to make it sound good... im having trouble explaining my thoughts, but im sure you probably get what i mean. i personally think this song is great. not too jam-like, but none the less, a great tune. :]
Great, great track from one of my favourite bands. The late 70s/early 80s was such a good time for music. That's not even my era, I'm 19! Those 'sad coloured mocking shadows' paint such a haunting picture to show the narrators depressed state of mind. Great stuff!
Thsi song was written as a joke to prove that the sort of songs being written by ABC, Duran Duran etc were a piece of cake to write. Which is what Weller did. And it got to No.2 in the UK chart. If it had gotten to No.1, it would've been the longest song title to get to No.1 ever.
I've also heard that these lyrics were deliberately over the top.
the song is a joke, I need the sick bucket, the jam with strings the writing was on the wall the moment this was released.
sivilla... what?
But it's still a great song - regardless of its deliberate over the top-ness?
butterflykiss84, I am 20 and I agree that this is a great song regardless of its over the topness!!!! The Jam are one of my favourite bands, and I don't care if some people hate Paul Weller for things he is done in the past because no one can deny he is a lyrical genius and completely brilliant at what he does!! :-)
just dont like the song I was a massive fan of the jam until weller decided enough was enough and decided to replace power chords with power strings.
He always said this was supposed to be ironic, especially lines like "Now autumn's breeze blows summer's leaves through my life" but he said that the press still didn't get it and saw it as part of Weller's introspective phase!