This song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
Blame it on the Tetons. Yeah, I need a scapegoat now.
No my dog won't bite you, though it had the right to.
You oughta give her credit 'cause she knows I would've let it happen.
Blame it on the weekends. God I need a cola now.
Oh we mumble loudly, wear our shame so proudly.
Wore our blank expressions, trying to look interesting.
Blame it all on me 'cause God I need a cold one now.
All them eager actors gladly taking credit
For the lines created by the people tucked away from sight
Is just a window from the room we're bound to.
If you find a way out, oh would you just let me know how?
Would you just let me know how?
Blame it on the web but the spider's your problem now.
Language is for liquid that we're all dissolved in.
Great for solving problems, after it creates a problem.
Blame it on the Tetons. God, I need a scapegoat now.
Everyone's a building burning
With no one to put the fire out.
Standing at the window looking out,
Waiting for time to burn us down.
Everyone's an ocean drowning
With no one really to show how.
They might get a little better air
If they turned themselves into a cloud.
No my dog won't bite you, though it had the right to.
You oughta give her credit 'cause she knows I would've let it happen.
Blame it on the weekends. God I need a cola now.
Oh we mumble loudly, wear our shame so proudly.
Wore our blank expressions, trying to look interesting.
Blame it all on me 'cause God I need a cold one now.
All them eager actors gladly taking credit
For the lines created by the people tucked away from sight
Is just a window from the room we're bound to.
If you find a way out, oh would you just let me know how?
Would you just let me know how?
Blame it on the web but the spider's your problem now.
Language is for liquid that we're all dissolved in.
Great for solving problems, after it creates a problem.
Blame it on the Tetons. God, I need a scapegoat now.
Everyone's a building burning
With no one to put the fire out.
Standing at the window looking out,
Waiting for time to burn us down.
Everyone's an ocean drowning
With no one really to show how.
They might get a little better air
If they turned themselves into a cloud.
Lyrics submitted by Grim713, edited by ApacheTomcat
Blame It on the Tetons Lyrics as written by Eric Judy Dann Gallucci
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I read the feature article in Spin last year about Modest Mouse and I found a copy of it on the magazine's website. If you haven't read it I suggest that you do, but here's a quote about Good News:
"its bright-side buoyancy suits the songs, which are about how life will beat your ass and how the only way to cope is to learn to love it anyway."
Keeping that in mind, this song makes a lot of sense to me. I think it exemplifies the quote's description of the songs on this album. The lines about everyone being a building burning make me think that they're saying that everyone is basically in the same boat. We all go through shit and there's always stuff that sucks in our lives. He then goes on to say that everyone is an ocean drowning and they should evaporate. Basically, really the only way to make things better is to stay above it all, lighten up about the shit because you're not alone and it's not going away anytime soon.
I also think the spider lines are a great example of this. You can spend your time focusing on the web, worrying about it, complaining about it, but there's other stuff, bad stuff in the case of this example, out there that we need to focus on. Don't dwell on one problem because there's another one coming and you're gonna have to deal with it. Similar idea with the dog. It apparently had license to bite somebody, but didn't. Don't waste time being angry about something and don't waste energy by being negative.
Now the Tetons. I really expect this to be the Indian reference, as someone pointed out earlier, as opposed to the mountains. I base this MM's recording history, most importantly the album "Lonesome Crowded West" because it feels like there're a lot of thematic elements having to do with Native Americans on it. My guess is that the reason he's blaming it on the Tetons is because the Tetons posed a large and recurring problem to the expansionist fervor that America was experiencing in the 1800s. They fought several costly wars with Americans and were basically mercilessly persecuted out of their territory over and over. Americans thought that the Tetons were a huge problem that needed solving, but in reality the Americans made them a problem when they didn't need to be. This goes along with the theme of making a big deal out of stuff that seems like it's impossible to get over or figure out but really is insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
So that's what I think. It took a long time to write. It is highly possible that I am reading way too much into the Teton reference, so if anyone else has another opinion I'd really like to hear it. Yes, I actually looked up the Tetons in a history book and did cursory research.
Ew I don't understand what's with you people and not liking this song.
"sight is just a window from the room we're bound to. If you find a way out, oh would you just let me know how?"
"Everyone's a building burning with no one to put the fire out. Standing at the window looking out, waiting for time to burn us down."
Um these are really good lyrics.
so so true. i love how this song makes me think. the idea that time is a fire and that we are all doomed burning. ah, such poetry!
i went through the trouble of signing up just to tell you how retarded that sounded WallsTV
i haven't paid attention enough to put meaning into the whole song but the last part caught my attention earlier when this song was playing in the background of the room
Everyone's a building burning With no one to put the fire out
this might refer to our mortality were all slowly withering away where we stand and no one can really help us
Standing at the window looking out Waiting for time to burn us down
This refers to the perspective in which we live our lives in Our minds are standing in our head our whole lives
Everyone's an ocean drowning With no one really to show how
We're slowly drowning in the universe We have been randomly put here (in the looses sense) with no one to tell us what or how to do anything except for our instincts
They might get a little better air If they turned themselves into a cloud
People may enjoy life a little more if they see it for what it is (cloud over sea) instead for what it projects
these are just little thoughts i had while this song was playing
feedback would be greatly appreciated
@cord4 I went and found the original comment<br /> <br /> Here it is in all its glory:<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> My first ever post on this site!!<br /> <br /> Blame it on the Tetons (Indians tribe, a tribe)<br /> Yeah, I need a scapegoat now<br /> No, my dog won't bite you<br /> Though it had the right to<br /> You ought to give her credit<br /> Because she knows I would've let it happen<br /> (Yeah I could bite the hand that feeds me but I won't even though I have the right to: who feeds the MM band..the label the record industry these days)<br /> <br /> Blame it on the weekends<br /> God, I need a cola now<br /> Oh, we mumble loudly<br /> Wear our shame so proudly<br /> Wore our blank expressions<br /> Trying to look interesting<br /> Blame it all on me because<br /> God, I need a cold one now<br /> (MM is maybe saying sure blame it on the crazy weekends, like a parent the label may be saying don't party so much, but it's like this man we are doing what we do that's why you signed MM but go ahead blame it on us....and yet give us free booze and shit supported tours by the beer companies)<br /> <br /> All them eager actors<br /> Gladly taking credit for the lines created<br /> By the people tucked away from sight<br /> Is just a window from the room we're bound to<br /> If you find a way out<br /> Oh, would you just let me know how?<br /> Would you just let me know how?<br /> (sure take credit for the hard work MM has done over the years before the industry had the hand on them, now we need to fit into a box that works for the label..let me know how to get out of this contract...but yet we MM may know we can't make as much without, MM the tribe has mouths to feed/shelter/cloth)<br /> <br /> Blame it on the web<br /> But the spider's your problem now<br /> Language is the liquid<br /> That we're all dissolved in<br /> Great for solving problems<br /> After it creates a problem<br /> Blame it on the Tetons<br /> God, I need a scapegoat now<br /> (now the songs and videos are on the web, youtube and or napster and the industry is hurting so they blame the losses on these new "problems" yet they don't look at the problem that it could be helpful then they do use the problem to help their gains and but through all that fighting MM the tribe maybe thinking why don't they realize who can own the rights to words, lyrics, music etc..)<br /> <br /> Everyone's a building burning<br /> With no one to put the fire out<br /> Standing at the window looking out<br /> Waiting for time to burn us down<br /> Everyone's an ocean drowning<br /> With no one really to show how<br /> They might get a little better air<br /> If they turned themselves into a cloud <br /> (everyone is burning everyone man.. the industry, the internet, the fans, the band...{burning both in meaning to the copying music and slang to burn someone} but does anyone really know how to survive or live without all this shit, maybe MM needs to lighten up says the Industry so to get more airtime on the radio.... and that would be good for all, oh but would it, maybe thinks MM that the industry should lighten up about what they perceive as better)<br /> <br /> [So the tribe being MM is only trying to survive and all they are doing and wanting is to survive by doing what they love, playing music together, but all this other shit gets into the way thus it eventually gets into the process of their music and they sing about it, like a poet who writes in ways so those in power may not get??]<br /> <br /> MM is an awesome band and I have no idea if this is what they meant by this song but I spent all drunken Sunday thinking about it! Till next time thanks for reading..<br /> Peace<br /> scapegoat<br /> WallsTV<br /> WallsTVon July 19, 2009
Could somebody tell me what the word 'tetons' means, please. I couldn't find it from any dictionary.
Thanks.
Tetons are a Native American tribe. Google my friend, Google.
Tetons in the house of the late scapegoats?
The Tetons are a mountain range. I'm only assuming that THOSE are the Tetons of the song's namesake. Maybe it's about the absurdity of a scapegoat and looking for ANYONE or ANYTHING to blame, such as a mountain range, etc.
^ This.<br /> <br /> Making a mountain out of a molehill?
"blame it on the web but the spider's your problem now" i love that its like, everyone just stop carrying on about who's fault the situation is, and deal with the problem itself. kinda like the ridiculous climate change blame game, while no one actually does anything about it
Blame it on the Tetons. Yeah, I need a scapegoat now. No my dog won't bite you, though it had the right to. You oughta give her credit 'cause she knows I would've let it happen.
I believe it's about blaming our mothers (Tetons=Breast, the nipple that fed you as a baby) for raising us how we are. We blame the world for what it made us into because it's easier to blame others instead of yourself. The dog part is saying that he would let the dog bite you and the dog knows that but still chooses to not bite. Just because the dog can doesn't mean it's going to. It's being responsible.
"Blame it on the web but the spider's your problem now. Language is the liquid that we're all dissolved in. Great for solving problems, after it creates a problem. Blame it on the Tetons. God, I need a scapegoat now."
I'm pretty sure that this part's referencing a poem by Robert Graves, The Cool Web:
"[...] There's a cool web of language winds us in, Retreat from too much joy or too much fear: We grow sea-green at last and coldly die In brininess and volubility.
But if we let our tongues lose self-possession, Throwing off language and its watery clasp Before our death, instead of when death comes, Facing the wide glare of the children's day, Facing the rose, the dark sky and the drums, We shall go mad no doubt and die that way."
Personally I think this song's about apathy and emotional disengagement - always looking for someone else to blame the problem on, or cloaking it in words and avoidant behaviour. Everyone's a burning building, but people all around them are just standing there, too scared to just reach out and try to help.
The Tetons are a mountain range in northeaster Wyoming.
nps.gov/grte/