This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
A carnival for the human race
Cotton candy, happy face
A child talking with his mouth full
Girlfriend gets stuffed animal
A festive mood is all around
Another world is what we've found
Step right up, let's make a deal
Let's ride on the ferris wheel
You know there's something lurking underneath the shape
With a mask over it's head and makeup on his face
Into the house of mirrors goes a clown and his elf
Take a look in the mirror and see the clown in yourself
If you want to know what's behind the show
You ride my carousel and enter life's jail cell
Love and blood begin to meld, you've lost the self that you once held
Merry go round your head - awake, asleep, alive, or dead.
The clown that painted a smile on you
Is now the one unmasking you
Animated scenes unwind
Dormant figures come to life
Entangled in your own web
A twisted tunnel overhead
A glimpse of light, a drop of dew
You slide into the swimming pool
A roller coaster ride into the rivers of your mind
The currents merge, your feelings surge, your life's a pantomime
Beauty is the spiral going round & round the beast
Without the vampire effect the carnival is deceased
Fun.
Roly Poly
Topsy turvy
Hang upside down
Fall to the ground
I think I'm going to be sick
Cotton candy, happy face
A child talking with his mouth full
Girlfriend gets stuffed animal
A festive mood is all around
Another world is what we've found
Step right up, let's make a deal
Let's ride on the ferris wheel
You know there's something lurking underneath the shape
With a mask over it's head and makeup on his face
Into the house of mirrors goes a clown and his elf
Take a look in the mirror and see the clown in yourself
If you want to know what's behind the show
You ride my carousel and enter life's jail cell
Love and blood begin to meld, you've lost the self that you once held
Merry go round your head - awake, asleep, alive, or dead.
The clown that painted a smile on you
Is now the one unmasking you
Animated scenes unwind
Dormant figures come to life
Entangled in your own web
A twisted tunnel overhead
A glimpse of light, a drop of dew
You slide into the swimming pool
A roller coaster ride into the rivers of your mind
The currents merge, your feelings surge, your life's a pantomime
Beauty is the spiral going round & round the beast
Without the vampire effect the carnival is deceased
Fun.
Roly Poly
Topsy turvy
Hang upside down
Fall to the ground
I think I'm going to be sick
Lyrics submitted by Fear_Of_Mole_Rats
Carousel Lyrics as written by Daniel Heifetz Clinton Mckinnon
Lyrics © Exploration Group LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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To me, this song narrorates on the whole album, everything is fine until you realize theres a secret dark side to everything and everyone "something lurking underneath the shape". When you start digging deeper and deeper into the essence of pure evil you realize that its complete chaos and the pure evil is in you too "clown...now the one unmasking you" and thats enough to make you want to kill yourself or " be sick".
"Will Warner Brothers put our record on the shelf?" I am glad someone took the time (or went to Bunglefever.com) to hear he doesn't say what the booklet does!
woa! i just realized something, "a carnival for the human race" think about it... corporations, goverment (US at least) all they do is bullshit us around sell us uselles junk and useless 'nessesities,' "whirling, twirling, confusion..." its what life has become. all the propaganda and shit like that. 'Take a look in the mirror and see the clown in yourself' everyone has been caught in this carnival and we are happy to be here... sad really, well i'm also all twisted in my head, not druged out, just not normal.. so think outside the box and re-read what i wrote, maybe you'll get it
Perhaps it's about getting in touch with your darker side. Clowns, circuses and carnivals are often seen as innocent and all-American, but they have their darker sides (Clowns in particular - John Wayne Gacy, anyone?) The lines about 'the clown in yourself' could be about how everyone looks down on those who get in touch with their darker side (scatologists?), and yet everyone has one.
Oh, and 'Will Warner Brothers put our record on the shelf?' is pure genius in my eyes.
It's like he's encouraging insanity! "It's just better to give in!!!" Take a look in the mirror and see the clown in yourself!
I think there are alot of messages hear. It's amazing how Mr Bungle, Mr Bungle has such a dense lyrical contect, whereas California is much more "too the point?" maybe... I think this song is about "the all american dream" aswell as what justedbin talked about. He sets the scene in verse one. It's where we all wanna be, having fun, the good old kid stuffin his mouth "awwww" the lil sis wins the animal. Classic. (I'm English Btw). Being given something and it taken away, or promises which turned out untrue seem to prevail aswell (in my ears anyway) Most verses are self-explanatory but written in a "fun fair" way. I think the re-occurance of the clown is himself, or "ourselves", he says "take a look at the clown in yourself" then speaks in the 3rd person "the clown that painted..." it's different views on this beautifully, easy life we all have! (or i may be wrong)
I..I..I think.. I think I'm gonna.. gonna be siick!
i love this. i mean what's better than clowns, going crazy, and killing a whole lot of people?
one of the highlights of the album! Puts me in a good mood. Lovin' that sax.