Once round outside and check the door
Only thing he came here lookin' for
One man wasting another man
One hand washes the other hand

Born traitor, soul fader
Stoplight flashes in the street
Injected concrete hide bloody feet
Armed and shining in his hands

Cold metallic green, he don't give a damn
Born traitor, soul fader
Down come the hammer, fall my god, you say
Once again the big dog has his day

One man wasting another man
One hand washes the other hand
Born traitor, soul fader
One man wasting another man

Born traitor
One hand washes the other hand
Born traitor
One man wasting another man

Born traitor
One hand washes the other hand
Soul fader


Lyrics submitted by black_cow_of_death

Dickeye Lyrics as written by Jerry Cantrell

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management

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Dickeye song meanings
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8 Comments

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  • +2
    My Interpretation

    it's possibly a play on words from a quote in the '67 film version of "In Cold Blood", Dick Hickok says "ole dead eye Dick.." when asked if he's going pheasant hunting by a gas station attendant...the reference to footprints in concrete is also important because it was the only physical evidence that placed both murderers at the scene...and got them both hanged...$40 for 4 lives, and 2 scumbags...there is enough ambiguity to suggest it has nothing to do with the Klutter murder case specifically, but there is some suggestion that this may have been the root...

    mineheadon November 24, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I think this is Jerry's best song ever. But i'm still kinda confused about the name of the song haha. awesome song though.

    Body Hammeron April 04, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    A betrayer of mankind. A murderer. I guess a murderer is kind of a dickhead? I don't understand the title either

    Ramtharlikesguyson February 28, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I feel this is a song about Layne. One man (Layne) wasting another man (Jerry). One hand (Jerry) washes the other hand (Layne). Especially true when you take into account the Unplugged thing when Layne messes the lyrics for "Sludge Factory" and then Jerry has to speak up for him trying to cool things down.

    Also, us Chileans have the following phrase: "pico en el ojo" which is pretty much what "dickeye" means (Dick in the eye), whenever someone tries to take advantage on you (f.ex. Someone selling you a fake iPhone instead of the real thing). I think maybe Jerry felt that way regarding how AiC turned out to be at the end of the nineties.

    H4T3M4CH1N3on December 02, 2015   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    It sounds like the Trump presidency.

    Dodgerfan34on October 01, 2019   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation

    Based on "mother spinning in her grave" from Degradation Trip, I'm assuming that this is also related to Jerry's coke or crack drug use. He's either talking about Lane and him both being into drugs feeding off each other when they were together, or perhaps about Jerry and his drug dealer, when he may have gotten to a point where he couldn't live without him. And like others have interpreted from the other song, a glass dick is a crack pipe or a pipe to smoke coke, and apparently Jerry did this quite a lot. If you listen to some of their earlier interviews Jerry was quite the coked-up chatterbox!

    But Jerry has always been incredibly hard on himself in his lyrics, vuciously self introspective, and so he says he is a born traitor, a "soul fader," and may be saying--very sarcastically--the big dog (Jerry) had his day (got his stash and got high again....like he always did.

    Txredheadon June 17, 2022   Link
  • -2
    Song Meaning

    It's based on the old addage "An Eye for an Eye". Whereby if a person killed someone, someone killed them.

    Read the lyrics with that in mind and it becomes pretty clear..

    I'd say it's more related to a leader of a gang being taken down by someone "the big dog has his day"

    Lirraciston July 17, 2010   Link
  • -3
    General Comment

    Well, A dickeye is sticking your dick in someones eye. Not that complicated.

    As for the song, the lyrics together with the song title make me think we're talking about a prowler/rapist.

    fatpomon April 14, 2007   Link

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