Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) Lyrics
That's ok
Were insured
Are you aching for the grave ?
That's ok
Were insured
We're getting away with it
All messed up
Getting away with it
All messed up
That's the living
She's out in deep water
Hope he's a good swimmer
Deep inside his temple
He knows how to surf her
Drinks like Richard Burton
Dance like John Travolta, now
He was all but drowning
Now they live like dolphins
Surprisingly I'm getting a very different interpretation from this song. The general theme, to me, is "we need to appreciate life more." Ever hear the adages "Life is wasted on the living" and "you never know what you have until you lose it"? These two statements encompass the spirit of this song, IMHO.
The lyrics make this clear by opening up through flippant disdain towards the concept of suicide. You want to end your life? Go ahead. We're insured. You wish you were dead? That's ok.
The chorus then gets to the heart of the matter: that life is not appreciated by the living, that we're getting away with the very concept of being alive, and that it's messed up because we don't deserve it.
To exemplify this, the lyrics then go on to tell a story about Daniel and Grace, the first willing to sacrifice his life for the second, who is in danger of drowning. Daniel is confident (deep inside his temple, he knows how to surf her), but doesn't make it.
Drinking like Richard Burton and dancing like John Travolta are metaphors for the act of drowning: the water going into the lungs, the movements of the body as it goes into desperate automated spasms of survival. Both Daniel and Grace die, and in a final recognition of the nobility of sacrifice and the unfairness of accidental death, the lyrics grant the subjects a happy ending: now they live like dolphins.
This story provides the contrast that matters. How can there be people who don't appreciate life and contemplate suicide? How can people worthy of life end up unwillingly leaving it? The living are getting away with living, and it's messed up that we have no appreciation for it.
Perhaps it's about alcoholism? Or about the craziness called "life"?
It looks like I got something completely different from everyone else. "Getting away with it all messed up" seemed to be about how we can continuously shoot ourselves in the foot, over and over again. It seems to be how our entire being is geared towards survival, and that the safety of the modern world has caused us to really get away with it all messed up. That is to say, because we survive, we view our actions, behaviours, attitudes and perspectives as "okay".
The metaphor of drowning shows water as all the parts of our lives that just don't work, to the point where it sufficates us. Then, the reference to dolphins depict a creature that spend their entire lives in water, surfacing only for enough air as they need to "get away with it".
"Daniel's saving Grace" did throw me a bit though. Here is where the song takes a different tone. It's no longer "getting away with it" but "going for it", which is a completely different vibe. Maybe all interpretations are bullshit, and it's just random words strung together.
I know this song is about Grease, but I can't help think it's about life in general. How we struggle to make it, how we make mistakes, but how nothing (well, almost nothing) is final and fatal. How we can always "bounce back" after a mistake. "Are you aching for the blade/grave" is the person unable to cope with his/her mistakes, believing he/her is not worthy of living anymore. I also thought the lyrics to this song followed "That's ok, we'ren't sure" (of course you can't write it like that..) as if telling the person that you don't know how life is either. We're getting away with it all messed up because we're human and flawed. I also viewed Daniel saving Grace because she couldn't handle the life she was living and Daniel tried to talk to her and make her feel better about herself. I never saw grease. I hope it's a decent movie, cause this song should be deep and inspiring.
I don't think this song is about Grease: there is a Daniel/Danny in Grease, but no Grace. Also, since Travolta plays Danny, it would be silly to say Daniel dances LIKE Travolta.
I don't think this song is about Grease: there is a Daniel/Danny in Grease, but no Grace. Also, since Travolta plays Danny, it would be silly to say Daniel dances LIKE Travolta.
The first lines are obviously about it doesn't mattering if you want to die, because we all will. Getting away with it all messed up - I love how this can be read as: "Getting awway with it. All messed up" or "Getting away with it all. Messed up", so either: since we are getting away with it, means the world is all messed up or we...
The first lines are obviously about it doesn't mattering if you want to die, because we all will. Getting away with it all messed up - I love how this can be read as: "Getting awway with it. All messed up" or "Getting away with it all. Messed up", so either: since we are getting away with it, means the world is all messed up or we are getting away with it all, which is messed up. The combined meaning would be that is it all messed up that we are getting away with it all/everything: we can do whatever we want. That's the living, alright, but we are also getting away with everything negative and self-destructive, because nobody cares about anyone else.
Then comes Daniel - a nice allusion to John Travolta, who is merely being mentioned as a great dancer, IMO, but also to the Biblical Daniel, who is a dream-interpreter who is taken away from his homeland aged ten, never to return, being more or less locked in a golden cage at the royal court of Babylon. Daniel is saving Grace, who is in deep water. Daniel cares about at least ONE other person, apparently. But it can also be read as: "Daniel's saving grace", as in: the thing in Daniel that makes up for his faults, apparently being in trouble at the moment. The second verse explains Daniel to be a heavy drinker (literally or figuratively), partying to a great extent. Well, he would need a saving grace for that, I reckon :-)
Daniel plays his ace - he shows his best feature or he uses it up (too quickly perhaps)... Or maybe his ace is the ace of spades, alluding to him committing suicide or maybe even killing someone else (Grace or grace maybe?). Deep inside his temple - more religion, but his temple would be his own private place, probably the part of his mind his keeps hidden from others. Then the next bit I believe is officially "He knows how to serve her", but I think that here another ambiguity is being introduced by the pronunciation: serv-(h)er and suf-fer are both quite recognisable. So he knows how to serve her (Grace? grace?) and/or he knows how to suffer/what suffering is. Combined with the previous phrase, it could again mean he knows how to serve Grace (who is probably also his saving grace) by killing her (well, with the opening referring to a death wish, it is not depression talking here, but the actual song! I am a very happy person, thank you very much :-)) and that he knows how to suffer and therefore wants to commit suicide.
Picture the people one reads about in newspapers so often: they are depressed and hate life (e.g. because their childhood has been taken from them, like it happened to the biblical Daniel), drink heavily and party all the time to beat the emptiness, yet they end up being more miserable and then their last saving grace, their girlfriend/wife (who could be called Grace), leaves them and they snap. They know plenty of suffering and what is 'good' for their ex-partners: they both have to die and be re-united in death. So they commit homocide and then suicide.
"Daniel's 'saving' Grace" (yes, from the 'mistake' she is making by leaving him, no doubt) "He was all but drowning / Now they swim like dolfins" - well, Daniel almost 'drowned' in his drinking problem, e.g. he almost hit rock bottom or even died from his bad habbits, but now he is together with 'Grace' again. Not happily swimming with dolfins, maybe more like 'sleeping with the fish'.
I think the music and the opening lines set the proper tone for the song and the rest of the text seems deceptively positive. I am not some emo who wants to read about suicide all the time, but I genuinely think this song is about the story I have written down here. There is no way anyone would make a song about Grease that had such a serious sound to it, instrumentally. Grease is all about happiness and feeling good and happy endings. Don't spoil Grease by linking this song to it and don't spoil this song by linking it to Grease; they are both marvellous and very enjoyable in the right state of mind. But the right state of mind is totally opposite for them!
@leethal I assumed it was about the singer "Daniel Johnston" who (like lead singer Tim Booth has/had Bipolar Disorder.) Daniel never achieved big commercial success but touched and influenced the lives of many, including Kirt Cobaine (who also suffered from Bipolar Disorder.)
@leethal I assumed it was about the singer "Daniel Johnston" who (like lead singer Tim Booth has/had Bipolar Disorder.) Daniel never achieved big commercial success but touched and influenced the lives of many, including Kirt Cobaine (who also suffered from Bipolar Disorder.)
TRUE...!!!
definatly deserved it's jjj hottest 100 spot
What is this song about? And don´t tell me is about just what it says...
Daniel drinks hos weight Drinks like Spiderbio.... I've consumed tons of beer by that song...
Living for today?
apparantly it's about a guy Daniel who was a friend of his and was thinking of commiting suicide... more than beer