Both as a standalone and as part of the DSOTS album, you can take this lyric as read. As a matter of public record, Jourgensen's drug intake was legendary even in the 1980s. By the late 90s, in his own words, he was grappling with massive addiction issues and had lost almost everything: friends, spouse, money and had nearly died more than once. "Dark Side of the Spoon" is a both funny & sad title for an album made by a musical genius who was losing the plot; and this song is a message to his fans & friends saying he knows it. It's painful to listen to so I'm glad the "Keith Richards of industrial metals" wised up and cleaned up. Well done sir.
I can't afford to breathe in this town
Nowhere to sit without a gun in my hand
Look back up to the cathode ray
I'm better off dead
I'm better off dead
I'm better off
Prove yourself
Prove yourself
Prove yourself
I want to breathe, I want to grow
I'd say I want it but I don't know how
I work, I bleed, I beg, I pray
And I'm better off dead
I'm better off dead
I'm better off
Prove yourself
Prove yourself
Prove yourself
I'm better off dead
I'm better off dead
I'm better off
Prove yourself
Prove yourself
Prove yourself
Prove yourself (whoa)
Prove yourself
Prove yourself
Prove yourself
Nowhere to sit without a gun in my hand
Look back up to the cathode ray
I'm better off dead
I'm better off dead
I'm better off
Prove yourself
Prove yourself
Prove yourself
I want to breathe, I want to grow
I'd say I want it but I don't know how
I work, I bleed, I beg, I pray
And I'm better off dead
I'm better off dead
I'm better off
Prove yourself
Prove yourself
Prove yourself
I'm better off dead
I'm better off dead
I'm better off
Prove yourself
Prove yourself
Prove yourself
Prove yourself (whoa)
Prove yourself
Prove yourself
Prove yourself
Lyrics submitted by piesupreme, edited by Heroicphantom
Prove Yourself Lyrics as written by Edward John O'brien Colin Charles Greenwood
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I took this to be about an artist of some kind moving to a major city to try to "make it big", but really struggling. The city's very expensive and he's making very little money because he'd had hardly any success, so he "can't afford to breathe in this town", and he can only afford to live in really dangerous areas ("Nowhere to sit without a gun in my hand"; I got that idea for that line's meaning from what Apcrypha wrote). So he's very stressed out for financial reasons, and then, on top of that, his lack of success is crushing his self-esteem and making him feel like he might never achieve his dream. He really wants to become great (the voices in his head keep saying "Prove yourself", and he's thinking "I want to breathe, I want to grow), but he doesn't seem able to. "I'd say I want it but I don't know how" seems to me like it could mean either that he wants it ("it" being success and greatness) but doesn't know how to get it, or that he wants it but doesn't know how to tell anyone he wants it because he's scared that he won't be able to succeed and doesn't want them to be watching him as he fails. And ultimately, because he was so focused on doing something significant with his art and hasn't yet had any validation that he's good at it, he's started to feel like he's entirely worthless as a person, and so he keeps thinking he might as well be dead because he's not adding anything with his life.
That could potentially work as a personal song for Yorke, or it could be some imagined artist (musician or not) or artists in general.
I don't know if that's what the band intended with the song, but that's what it sounded like it meant to me.
Also, I think that what fadedstars and Apcrypha wrote pretty much captures most of what this song struck me as being about, and what I wrote is really just like a more specific instance of the more general meaning they wrote.