On Your Own

This song is about the bathos of modern life. Notice how he juxtaposes the transcendent with the temporal. The first verse is about a holy man walking along the shores of the Ganges river, which is considered sacred to Hindus, hearing magic music because of the great reverence that he has for the site. Along the way, he's being gawked at by fat westerners in a bus, wearing tracksuits and slurping down corn-syrup and chemicals.

That being the case, I have to agree with some of the other comments here: the lyrics on this page are wrong. The real lyrics to the chorus are:

So take me home, don't leave me alone I'm not that good, but I'm not that bad Not a psycho-killer, hooligan guerrilla I drink to write, oh you should try it I'll read Thoreau, get gold-card soul The joy of life is on a roll And we'll all be the same, in the end.

The bathos, the "high" versus the "low", is also evident in the chorus lyric. The narrator of the song is talking about transcendence, and also about how good it is to be inebriated. He drinks to write, and he also claims that the joy of life is on a roll, rolling is slang for taking MDMA (aka Ecstasy).

This makes perfect sense as the second verse is about people having the same kind of transcendent experience in a dance club, taking psychotropic drugs.

So, there you have it. The song doesn't have a point or a meaning, it's an observation of the ways that people find transcendence of their surroundings and give meanings to their lives; through religion, through philosophy, through substances, and in whatever other ways they find.

But, like the song says, we'll all be the same in the end: we'll all be dead.

one of my personal favourites. i feel it about acid and how drugs can be accebtable but also dangerous "im not that good/ but im not that bad" expresses this duality. "I'll eat parole get gold card soul" again expresses the dangers with drugs use (i.e. prison) but how these can be problems can be overcome.

the line in the first verse "but he blew all his money away" is a statements at drug prices. the main note of the song "we'll all be the same in the end" could be in reply to those who condem drugs saying that it doesnt matter what happens coz the end is the same.

there are probably other meanings and i must say my state of mind wasnt... um... clean... when i figured this out but it kinda makes sense...

-Az

Yeah I definitely agree on the acid thing. Love the parallel in the first and second verses:

"Holy man tiptoed his way across the Ganges The sound of magic music in his ears" "Well we go happy day glow in the discos The sound of magic music in our brains"

The context of these quotes in the verses is about the cheapening of the religious / mystical experience (the bus-load of lemonade drinking tourists and the happy day-glo clad disco-goers).

I think the lyrics in the chorus are there mainly to make sense following on from the second verse, ie written from the perspective of the person who "stumbles to the bathroom with the horrors" on a bad trip.

Yeah exactly, he's pleading that he hasn't done anything wrong. I think "I dream to riot" means that his method of rioting is just to dream, i.e. trip on acid.

we'll all be the same in the end dead! hahahahaha umm then you're on your own crazy good. the remix of this song on the Beach soundtrack is good too.

When I was sixteen I forced my second cousin to write on piece of paper all the lyrics of this song, she was sleepy so in the end there was no meaning at all for her. She wasn't for "I'll eat parole" ..but I can't remember what she wrote. I loved the outro.. is you ready to.. I don't think drug is the main theme of the song..maybe a consequence.

Most of the comments here are bang on, I think.

You'll notice Albarn starting to insert American references more often at this point. Modern Life, Parklife and The Great Escape had the odd snide commentary on America, but they become more neutral and palatable (for Americans) on Blur's 1997 album.

And how 'bout that extraordinary guitar riff. Apparently Coxon was using the hold function on a DD-3 pedal with the feedback turned way up.

Song really simply just makes me think of a close group of friends splitting up, going their separate ways, and then reuniting again sweetly. Nothing more, nothing less.

damn I love this song. my last comment was at 9 a.m. maan what was I doing up that early??

haha the time is waaay off. but i posted that comment 2 months and twenty minutes ago. wow.