I am a prisoner in the sunlight
You are my cellmate in the darkness
There's a box full of mix tapes with titles you came up with
They can show us where we came from but not how to get back there
Listening to the songs can't heal my broken fingers
It's just weight for the anchor to keep your ship here

Goldfish crackers in a zip-lock bag
In a gas station garbage can
I'm filling up this evening so I won't have to at 6am
On my way into work but that could have been me
Working behind that counter on the curb there smoking
We're really not that different just a few steps from exploding

Now I'm serving time
'Till I've earned the right
To go back to the place where we started from
Now I'm serving time
'Till I've earned the right
Baby I swear one day we'll get the money straight

I am a prisoner in the sunlight
You are my cellmate in the darkness
I just hope I wake up before this streetlight changes
You know this world is eating him alive
But you just can't find the metaphor to describe
The bottle of pills and the emptiness in the soft light

Now I'm serving time
'Till I've earned the right
To go back to the place where we started from
Now I'm serving time
'Till I've earned the right
Baby I swear one day we'll get the money straight


Lyrics submitted by fallacies

Mix Tapes/Cellmates Lyrics as written by Rocky Votolato

Lyrics © ROUGH TRADE PUBLISHING, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

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Mix Tapes/Cellmates song meanings
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5 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment

    great song... for me, it's hard to really distinguish whether its optimistic or pessimistic, but I love listening to it... it always reminds me of coming home to friends and family after time away from them

    Burnddrummaon September 11, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    This song connects true with me more than any other song out there right now. It's about a guy driving, on his way into work the night shift. He gives voice to the desperate feeling of working hard all the time, and still hardly getting by. This is woven into his feelings of self disapointment that he has for not being able to provide enough for his woman("Baby I swear one day we'll get the money straight"). Its about the hoplessnes we all feel from going through the daily grind and never being able to get ahead. But he knows this realilty won't last forever, because he's know's somday he'll "get back to this place where we started from"(Heaven). Until then he's just "serving time, till I've earned the right".
    -That's what it means to me.

    sherrockjmon December 19, 2005   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    we're really not that different just a few steps from exploding. this song is beautiful.

    inparticularon June 16, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    this song is amazing,

    __angieslaughteron June 04, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    This song is so beautiful. "I am a prisoner in the sunlight/you are my cellmate in the darkness" is one of my favorite lines from Rocky.

    kate102031on May 13, 2015   Link

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