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Off the Rails Lyrics
We're off the rails.
Now we are trains ourselves.
No wait and see.
We're off this place,
doesn't mean we're somewhere else.
<I>This is all I know:
keeping still to watch the engines come and go.</I>
Now we are trains ourselves.
doesn't mean we're somewhere else.
keeping still to watch the engines come and go.</I>
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I see this song as being about society and how he is 'off the rails' or not on the same one-way path as most of society, but at the same time they are trains themselves, because they are not stagnant and others will follow. 'We're off this place, doesn't mean we're somewhere else' could mean that just because they aren't following the rest of the masses doesn't mean they don't know what is going on. I think the last part is about how he can't follow the 'rails' of society and he just sits and watches as it goes by because he doesn't know how/ want to rejoin the other 'trains'.
glorious
Even though the cd sleeve even says "keeping still"...it's actually sitting still...tho Im sure everyone worked that out themselves!!...so don't ask me why I felt the need to correct that..but still...
Being abandoned somewhere so all you can do is spectate?
My favorite song by them. Amazing, it's so happy, so calm.
almost esoteric..i am suprised the subject is trains,cars, engines..all of which are reoccuring themes on Neon Golden. I love this song but laugh at the trite subject matter its like an oxymoron a deep song about inmaterial things..
It doesn't seem trite to me at all. It makes me think of lying in the grass drinking cheap whiskey and watching the trains pass, wondering where they came from and where they are going. Wishing we could just jump in an empty boxcar and go, not knowing where we will end up.
classydame, you're on point. I like your interpretation.
I originally thought this song was about ending a drug addiction. Rails being rails of cocaine. But now I think I was wrong. Maybe they like to hang out at the trainyards. Maybe the train is a metaphor for something, maybe not. Regardless, it's a great song.
I always thought of this song as being about growing up or entering a new phase of your life. Like someone is leaving the safe and structured environment ("off the rails") and now they have to make it on their own ("we are trains ourselves").
I think it's about losing track of your life and needing to just take a minute to sit back and watch the world go by.