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Total Trash Lyrics
It start at the top
Now it's spiraling down
Works best when it's lost
Diggin' under the ground
Never mind it now
We can bring it back
It's total trash
And it's a natural fact
That I'm not no cow
It's never the same
It's more than a game
Can't take it away
Can't kill out the shame
It's a guilty man
That can grease the crack
It's total trash
Slap him on the back
With a heavy rock
There it goes again
Magic monkey friend
God I love the time
That he seemed to spend
With all the kids in town
It started at the top
Now it's spiraling down
Works best when it's lost
Diggin' under the ground
Never mind it now
We can bring it back
It's total trash
And it's a natural fact
That I'm not no cow
Now it's spiraling down
Works best when it's lost
Diggin' under the ground
We can bring it back
It's total trash
And it's a natural fact
That I'm not no cow
It's more than a game
Can't take it away
Can't kill out the shame
That can grease the crack
It's total trash
Slap him on the back
With a heavy rock
Magic monkey friend
God I love the time
That he seemed to spend
With all the kids in town
Now it's spiraling down
Works best when it's lost
Diggin' under the ground
We can bring it back
It's total trash
And it's a natural fact
That I'm not no cow
More Sonic Youth
Teenage Riot
The Diamond Sea
Schizophrenia
Bull In The Heather
Tunic (Song for Karen)
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i agree with swordeater, i think its about taking the drug, and feeling how most people in town are doing the same which is making the market less 'pure' and in a way spoiling it for him. if not just spoiling the town.
this song is fucked up all due to the part in the middle where it freaks out. it's one of my favorites though. i think swordeater has a pretty good idea about what the song means lyrically as well.
trash is slang for heroin I think. The cow thing is referring to how in Hinduism cows are sacred and the epitome of enlightenment. "Not no cow"=the drug doesn't lead to enlightenment.
My opinion might be tainted by the fact that Teenage Riot is on the same album, but I kinda see this as a pissed off young people song. Just like the anti-authoritarianism of Teenage Riot's "Acts as a hero, we painted a zero on his hand"... cutting down someone in authority and reminding them that they are just as human and just as fucked as the rest of us... Total Trash's "Smack 'em on the back with a heavy rock". And of course, drug references go hand-in-hand with that. :P
I think the fifth verse (There he goes again/Magic monkey friend/Can I love the time/That he seems to spend/With all the kids in town) is a reference to "the Ko-ko Show" segment in Ken Shapiro's 1974's film "The Groove Tube" which depicts a clown with a puppet called the Magic Monkey reading erotic literature on his children's show. Probably my favorite Sonic Youth song.
@GarbageBoxEXTREME Wow. Never knew that obscure reference to the clown in a kid's show. That's really very interesting. Thanks for that little nugget of useful trivia as information. I can use it next time I have to buy a silver rocket from the hyperstation
@GarbageBoxEXTREME Wow. Never knew that obscure reference to the clown in a kid's show. That's really very interesting. Thanks for that little nugget of useful trivia as information. I can use it next time I have to buy a silver rocket from the hyperstation
"It start at the top Now it's spiralling down Works best when it's lost Diggin' under the ground"
It's definitely about my relationship ;)
@BottleJuice hahahaha
@BottleJuice hahahaha
It’s a drug song about chasing a high and kind of warning folks that it’s trash.
Wow. Sonic Youth is my favorite band, and I love this song, but as to the meaning, may I ask: WTF??
@curlygirl You're so correct curlygirl, as to be spot on. I think so many Youth lyrics are entirely improvised words without a logical story behind them. People will read whatever suits their fancy, of course, but that's lending them far too much credence for me. I agree that they're entirely nonsensical
@curlygirl You're so correct curlygirl, as to be spot on. I think so many Youth lyrics are entirely improvised words without a logical story behind them. People will read whatever suits their fancy, of course, but that's lending them far too much credence for me. I agree that they're entirely nonsensical
I think this is song is about drugs in some way. The verse
It start at the top Now it's spiralling down Works best when it's lost Diggin' under the ground
is about shooting up with a syringe. The drugs work best when they spiral out of the syringe and get lost under the ground(read skin). Bassically, Thurston is just saying how drugs are total trash. Either way, this songs fucking rocks.
one of my favorite sonic youth songs it ######' rocks but dose any one know what Thurston meas when he says "that i'm not no cow"