I can't get to sleep
I think about the implications
Of diving in too deep
And possibly the complications

Especially at night
I worry over situations
I know will be alright
Perhaps it's just imagination

Day after day it reappears
Night after night my heartbeat shows the fear
Ghosts appear and fade away

Alone between the sheets
Only brings exasperation
It's time to walk the streets
Smell the desperation

At least there's pretty lights
And though there's little variation
It nullifies the night
From overkill

Day after day it reappears
Night after night my heartbeat shows the fear
Ghosts appear and fade away
Come back another day

I can't get to sleep
I think about the implications
Of diving in too deep
And possibly the complications

Especially at night
I worry over situations that
I know will be alright
It's just overkill

Day after day it reappears
Night after night my heartbeat shows the fear
Ghosts appear and fade away
Ghosts appear and fade away
Ghosts appear and fade away

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Overkill Lyrics as written by Colin Hay

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Overkill song meanings

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22 Comments

+10
My Interpretation
I know a lot of people are trying to say schizophrenia, paranoia, or some crap about relationships, but as someone with anxiety, i can tell that this is what this song is tackling. The lines "Especially at night I worry over situations I know will be alright Perhaps it's just imagination" is what puts this in my head, as this is largely what having anxiety is like. It might be similar to other mental illnesses, but i'm sure anxiety is the main subject. As for the "ghosts appear and fade away" i'm sure it is meant to be taken in a metaphorical sense. With anxiety problems really do haunt you like ghosts.

I know a lot of people are trying to say schizophrenia, paranoia, or some crap about relationships, but as someone with anxiety, i can tell that this is what this song is tackling. The lines "Especially at night I worry over situations I know will be alright Perhaps it's just imagination" is what puts this in my head, as this is largely what having anxiety is like. It might be similar to other mental illnesses, but i'm sure anxiety is the main subject. As for the "ghosts appear and fade away" i'm sure it is meant to be taken in a metaphorical sense. With anxiety problems really do haunt you like ghosts.

Reason:

underlyricks70on June 18, 2016 Link
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@underlyricks70

@underlyricks70 I suffer anxiety too... I agree 100% with you :-)

ricardo deon December 11, 2018
+3
General Comment
I don't think it's necessary to resort to as radical an idea as schizophrenia, though they were certainly treading that ground with "Who Can It Be Now". I think this is clearly just a song about insomnia related to anxiety. I've suffered from it for years, and I can tell you straight out that when it hits, it's better to go for a walk and clear your head rather than try to fight it out "alone between the sheets". You look at the stars, chill out, and that nullifies the "overkill", the unnecessary worrying about situations you know will be okay. What a fantastic song.

I don't think it's necessary to resort to as radical an idea as schizophrenia, though they were certainly treading that ground with "Who Can It Be Now". I think this is clearly just a song about insomnia related to anxiety. I've suffered from it for years, and I can tell you straight out that when it hits, it's better to go for a walk and clear your head rather than try to fight it out "alone between the sheets". You look at the stars, chill out, and that nullifies the "overkill", the unnecessary worrying about situations you know will be okay. What a fantastic song.

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cbehrenson March 01, 2006 Link
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@cbehrens
+2
General Comment
I love this song...I really do. What it's about? Well, I'm thinking it's about this person who is thinking about situations that they're stuck in. This thing is driving him nuts, and he can't do much. The line "Ghosts appear and fade away..." is like the flashbacks of the situations. He knows they'll be alright but still, he worries about them. Everyday, the situations reappear, and there's no way for him to make them go away. Kind of reminds me of my own situations....right now, a whole bunch of my friends are pretty much estranged from each other. We still barely talk, and it is sure as hell not the same. I think about these things all time. My friends are now those ghosts that appear and fade away. I guess that's why the show Scrubs used this song. It's just overkill....that's all...

I love this song...I really do. What it's about? Well, I'm thinking it's about this person who is thinking about situations that they're stuck in. This thing is driving him nuts, and he can't do much. The line "Ghosts appear and fade away..." is like the flashbacks of the situations. He knows they'll be alright but still, he worries about them. Everyday, the situations reappear, and there's no way for him to make them go away. Kind of reminds me of my own situations....right now, a whole bunch of my friends are pretty much estranged from each other. We still barely talk, and it is sure as hell not the same. I think about these things all time. My friends are now those ghosts that appear and fade away. I guess that's why the show Scrubs used this song. It's just overkill....that's all...

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TasChiBandGirlon October 05, 2002 Link
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@TasChiBandGirl

ghost represents issues in his life, like a problem you having that resolves itslef, its really about letting go of your worries and fears and not letting them consume you.
but your free to entrpret it however you like... unless your stuped... then i control your opinions>('w')<

Amanoftheredboxon April 07, 2009

This is part of an interview about the song :

"When we spoke with Colin Hay, he explained that this song could relate to a relationship with a person or a relationship with a place. He was living in St. Kilda, which is part of Melbourne, and felt he was going to leave there soon. Says Colin, "It's about leaving somewhere and leaving your comfort zone. You spend a lot of years trying to get something - fame or recognition or getting to a certain point, and then when you actually achieve it, there's always a certain amount of fear that comes with that, a sense of loss of control, because all of the sudden you're not in control of a situation any more, there's other people involved, it gets bigger and bigger with much more stress"

jessica104on October 06, 2014

This is part of an interview about the song :

"When we spoke with Colin Hay, he explained that this song could relate to a relationship with a person or a relationship with a place. He was living in St. Kilda, which is part of Melbourne, and felt he was going to leave there soon. Says Colin, "It's about leaving somewhere and leaving your comfort zone. You spend a lot of years trying to get something - fame or recognition or getting to a certain point, and then when you actually achieve it, there's always a certain amount of fear that comes with that, a sense of loss of control, because all of the sudden you're not in control of a situation any more, there's other people involved, it gets bigger and bigger with much more stress"

jessica104on October 06, 2014
+2
General Comment
Regardless of the reason whether it's due to them about to hit it big around the world or not...it illustrates something that comes up a few times in Men At Work's music. Paranoia. It's not necessarily to the level of Paranoid schizophrenia but the restlessness is about the insomnia caused by him overthinking everything (I think about the implication of diving in too deep). He's paranoid that something will go wrong. You'll see the same thing in Who Can It Be Now", "It's a Mistake" (this one may take a bit more looking at the root cause of why he would write a song about that and at least parts of "Down Under".

Regardless of the reason whether it's due to them about to hit it big around the world or not...it illustrates something that comes up a few times in Men At Work's music. Paranoia. It's not necessarily to the level of Paranoid schizophrenia but the restlessness is about the insomnia caused by him overthinking everything (I think about the implication of diving in too deep). He's paranoid that something will go wrong. You'll see the same thing in Who Can It Be Now", "It's a Mistake" (this one may take a bit more looking at the root cause of why he would write a song about that and at least parts of "Down Under".

Reason:

robertBosson September 28, 2011 Link
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@robertBoss
+1
General Comment
How about this song being about schizophrenia (sp?)? "Day after Day, it reappears Night after Night, my heart beat shows the fear Ghosts appear and fade away..." Schizos have problems with things "reappearing" to them time after time, mainly voices which would cause one to lose sleep. Some of these voices (ghosts in the song) can cause many of a schizo to worry about things that normally wouldn't trouble others. For example the voice in one's head telling one that someone will die or some thing will happen if they don't blink 33 times in a row. Or this could just be about depression? The ghosts being that feeling of helplessness under the weight of that terrible condition. This person doesn't want the depression to get worse, but the paradox being that thinking about wanting to avoid getting worse, just makes everything worse anyway. The sax solo in this song is quite haunting and beautiful...

How about this song being about schizophrenia (sp?)? "Day after Day, it reappears Night after Night, my heart beat shows the fear Ghosts appear and fade away..." Schizos have problems with things "reappearing" to them time after time, mainly voices which would cause one to lose sleep. Some of these voices (ghosts in the song) can cause many of a schizo to worry about things that normally wouldn't trouble others. For example the voice in one's head telling one that someone will die or some thing will happen if they don't blink 33 times in a row. Or this could just be about depression? The ghosts being that feeling of helplessness under the weight of that terrible condition. This person doesn't want the depression to get worse, but the paradox being that thinking about wanting to avoid getting worse, just makes everything worse anyway. The sax solo in this song is quite haunting and beautiful...

Reason:

Hawkgoldon March 28, 2005 Link
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@Hawkgold

Great, buddy, I'm sure everyone feels pleasurably settled in their stomach already after you reiterated every fucking stereotype there is about schizophrenia. That "schizo" part I trust should be particularly endearing and visibly relieving to the general populace. Have you ever questioned yourself, bud, in your elaborate belief system, how come no one (shrink or other establishment feel-good vector) attaches labels to certain other "mental" or neurological conditions, or goes to such lengths to make a laughable subhuman congenitally inferior homunculus out of the sufferers of those conditions, which, as is never mentioned as the real aim of the libel but written all over the "recipe", are in the overwhelming majority male? 'Ow 'bout epilepsy or polio, for example? Naaah, don't look now, but there is not much of a brain to serve as a target for a psywar and an example for a witchhunt there, is there? Well, buddy, nobody said you were stupid. Untroubled minds mean the world is safe for consumerism, planned obsolescence, and perpetual devaluation of services creating a sea of opportunities, when the sea of troubles fades out of sight.

shuffleboredon August 14, 2010

It is a well-attested fact, of course, that once, every village had its idiot. How would that "folk wisdom" really compare with "psychiatrists" persistent claim for, I don't know, as old a time as John Nash's imaginary child friend, that around 1% of the population is genetically fated to be schizophrenic? Of course, "schizophrenia" can result from a variety of non-genetic causes, such as PCP, LSD and even marijuana. But it's probably not as "well-documented" then, because "the man who wasn't there" actually isn't there, at least not influenceably much, so there is no need for soul-rapists to knock on him. "It's easy to lie with statistics".

shuffleboredon August 25, 2010

Shoot, looks like I've just "violated" intellectually property rights. Must be coming from the lunatic "fringe" myself.

shuffleboredon August 25, 2010
+1
General Comment
Lazlo Bane covered the song and Colin Hay sang the last verse. It sounds great. Lazlo Bane slowed it down and changed the sound quite a bit from the way Men at Work had originally played it. But they managed to do it without disgracing the song. I think the schizophrenia thing could be right. It's hit the point where he's having trouble sleeping and now he's even noticing that he's lonely ("Alone between the sheets; Only brings exasperation.").

Lazlo Bane covered the song and Colin Hay sang the last verse. It sounds great. Lazlo Bane slowed it down and changed the sound quite a bit from the way Men at Work had originally played it. But they managed to do it without disgracing the song. I think the schizophrenia thing could be right. It's hit the point where he's having trouble sleeping and now he's even noticing that he's lonely ("Alone between the sheets; Only brings exasperation.").

Reason:

Bravuraon December 24, 2005 Link
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@Bravura
+1
Song Fact
Colin Hay wrote this song and explained that "It was a song about what was happening at the time, the experience we were going through of stepping into the unknown. It's about having a fear about that, but also knowing that what was going to happen was inevitable. Leaving behind where you are and stepping into something which is out of your control to some degree. That's what it felt like at the time." "And its also a relationship with a person or a relationship with a place. He was living in St. Kilda, which is part of Melbourne, and felt he was going to leave there soon. Said Colin, "It's about leaving somewhere and leaving your comfort zone. You spend a lot of years trying to get something - fame or recognition or getting to a certain point, and then when you actually achieve it, there's always a certain amount of fear that comes with that, a sense of loss of control, because all of the sudden you're not in control of a situation any more, there's other people involved, it gets bigger and bigger with much more stress."

Colin Hay wrote this song and explained that "It was a song about what was happening at the time, the experience we were going through of stepping into the unknown. It's about having a fear about that, but also knowing that what was going to happen was inevitable. Leaving behind where you are and stepping into something which is out of your control to some degree. That's what it felt like at the time." "And its also a relationship with a person or a relationship with a place. He was living in St. Kilda, which is part of Melbourne, and felt he was going to leave there soon. Said Colin, "It's about leaving somewhere and leaving your comfort zone. You spend a lot of years trying to get something - fame or recognition or getting to a certain point, and then when you actually achieve it, there's always a certain amount of fear that comes with that, a sense of loss of control, because all of the sudden you're not in control of a situation any more, there's other people involved, it gets bigger and bigger with much more stress."

Reason:

billyhon January 03, 2021 Link
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@billyh
+1
Song Fact
Colin Hay wrote this song and explained that "It was a song about what was happening at the time, the experience we were going through of stepping into the unknown. It's about having a fear about that, but also knowing that what was going to happen was inevitable. Leaving behind where you are and stepping into something which is out of your control to some degree. That's what it felt like at the time." "And its also a relationship with a person or a relationship with a place. He was living in St. Kilda, which is part of Melbourne, and felt he was going to leave there soon. Said Colin, "It's about leaving somewhere and leaving your comfort zone. You spend a lot of years trying to get something - fame or recognition or getting to a certain point, and then when you actually achieve it, there's always a certain amount of fear that comes with that, a sense of loss of control, because all of the sudden you're not in control of a situation any more, there's other people involved, it gets bigger and bigger with much more stress."

Colin Hay wrote this song and explained that "It was a song about what was happening at the time, the experience we were going through of stepping into the unknown. It's about having a fear about that, but also knowing that what was going to happen was inevitable. Leaving behind where you are and stepping into something which is out of your control to some degree. That's what it felt like at the time." "And its also a relationship with a person or a relationship with a place. He was living in St. Kilda, which is part of Melbourne, and felt he was going to leave there soon. Said Colin, "It's about leaving somewhere and leaving your comfort zone. You spend a lot of years trying to get something - fame or recognition or getting to a certain point, and then when you actually achieve it, there's always a certain amount of fear that comes with that, a sense of loss of control, because all of the sudden you're not in control of a situation any more, there's other people involved, it gets bigger and bigger with much more stress."

Reason:

billyhon January 03, 2021 Link
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0
General Comment
I found out the real reason this was on scrubs: it turns out that Lazlo Bane, who do "superman" the theme, have a recording studio that Colin Hay (who apeared in that episode as the drifter/patient/dead guy) is somehow connected to so they made the suggestion to scurbs to let him do a song for the show.

I found out the real reason this was on scrubs: it turns out that Lazlo Bane, who do "superman" the theme, have a recording studio that Colin Hay (who apeared in that episode as the drifter/patient/dead guy) is somehow connected to so they made the suggestion to scurbs to let him do a song for the show.

Reason:

elscorcho3880on March 05, 2003 Link
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@elscorcho3880

The guy who plays J.D. (I can't remember his name off the top of my head) who also helped create Scrubs is always a big Colin Hays fan. THat's another reason eh was on the show.

robertBosson September 28, 2011

Zach Braff that's the guy's name.

robertBosson May 31, 2012
0
General Comment
This is a great song, one of my personal favourites as an Aussie. Colin Hay also does an incredible accoustic version of this on one of his more recent solo albums. Worth a listen. Cheers...

This is a great song, one of my personal favourites as an Aussie. Colin Hay also does an incredible accoustic version of this on one of his more recent solo albums. Worth a listen. Cheers...

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tillytesson April 10, 2004 Link
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