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Problems And Bigger Ones Lyrics
Cross through the border states to the wrong side
And look away Virginia
Spend every day like the past is a bridge crossing twenty years
Whispers away not so much
Get your poison tongue out of my ear
Here's a fact you cannot rise above:
We'll have problems and then we'll have bigger ones
From damage to damned control
You wanted to go alone though
I never said no
I never said no
Spiteful confrontations, trial separations,
It's just another present to get past
The man was very helpful but I knew he wouldn't stay
There used to be a baby but the baby went away
Forswear what you undergo
You wanted to go alone though
I never said no
I never said no
It doesn't make me cry to hear Dylan say
Most likely you go your way
I'll go mine
I'll go mine
I'll go mine
Forswear what you undergo
You wanted to go alone though
I never said no
I never said no
And look away Virginia
Whispers away not so much
Get your poison tongue out of my ear
Here's a fact you cannot rise above:
We'll have problems and then we'll have bigger ones
From damage to damned control
You wanted to go alone though
I never said no
I never said no
It's just another present to get past
The man was very helpful but I knew he wouldn't stay
There used to be a baby but the baby went away
Forswear what you undergo
You wanted to go alone though
I never said no
I never said no
It doesn't make me cry to hear Dylan say
Most likely you go your way
I'll go mine
I'll go mine
I'll go mine
Forswear what you undergo
You wanted to go alone though
I never said no
I never said no
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it's songs like this that make me wonder why Harvey Danger wasn't more popular. Flagpole Sitta was good but the rest of Merrymakers was brilliant.
Brilliant song. Best on the album. One of the most underrated bands of the 90s (along with Marcy Playground).
This song BURSTS open. Great.
11 years later, but I know that feel.
11 years later, but I know that feel.
hands down, greatest song on the album.
i think its probably about a married couple and the marriage goes sour. also might be a miscarriage involved:
"There used to be a baby but the baby went away"
Either way, fantastic song.
i love how harvey danger crosses genre boundaries on both this album and king james version. this song is so 90's emo it makes me smile, whereas flagpole is definitely in the canon of 90's hits, and the rest can't be defined by anything more specific than alternative rock, which often is a bad thing but in this case i think it's good.
It doesn't make me cry to hear dylan say Most likely you go your way I'll go mine
props to that reference
This is a song about a tumultuous divorce involving multiple children ending in siblings being divided, told from the point of view of one of the children. Harvey Danger has a habit of including references in their songs, and I find that knowing the references--if you can spot them--helps in understanding the content of their songs.
The opening lines refer to the United States' civil war, a war mythologized in the U.S. as literally pitting brother against brother. "Look away" is a repeated refrain from the de facto anthem of the southern states during the war, but the line may specifically be referring to a historical-fictional novel from the 1970s called "Look Away!" taking place during the war about two brothers in the north whose lives were largely molded by a tyrannical father, with circumstances compelling one to move south and join the Virginia Military Institute, thus the line "Cross through the border states to the wrong side, look away Virginia". The war becomes an analogy for what is happening in this family, where children are being compelled into choosing sides (eg. which parent they want to live with).
The bridge names a Bob Dylan song, which is (I believe) about divorce. The child is declaring that he (or she) is being strong through this, or perhaps simply does not understand the emotions going on between the parents, and the line "most likely you'll go your own way, and I'll go mine" takes on a new meaning in the context of the child's meditation of it.
For evidence that the song is from a child's perspective, see the lines "The man was very helpful but I knew he wouldn't stay; There used to be a baby but the baby went away", which could only come from a child, trying to make sense of what is happening.
I feel the rest of the lyrics are pretty straight forward, but I do want to parse the chorus: "Forswear what you undergo" is another way for the child to say to the parent "please stop" or "don't do this". With "You wanted to go alone though; I never said no" (emphasis on "you"), the child is telling the parent that the parent is the one that wanted to go it alone (and leave the rest of the family behind), not the child, and the child never said no to the parent leaving on their own, i.e. allowing the child to stay with his other siblings and the other parent. "I never said no" may carry a double meaning in that the child acquiesced to the parent's wishes to leave the rest of his family with the parent, and regretted it once they had left.
It's heartbreaking but courageously poignant in teaching who the biggest victims of family separations are, especially when the parents fail to put the children's best interests first. I feel like HD's "Wrecking Ball" is a follow up to this song and explores how these traumas can carry with the child into adulthood.
i love this song sooooo much!!!! i love the beginning especially one thing i thought it was "From damage to dam' control" just thought id say XD
it probably has a double-meaning...the one that's up there and the one you said. whoever was the songwriter in harvey danger was certainly aware of all the different meanings of a word when he wrote.
it probably has a double-meaning...the one that's up there and the one you said. whoever was the songwriter in harvey danger was certainly aware of all the different meanings of a word when he wrote.