Life inside the music box ain't easy
The mallets hit, the gears are always turning
And everyone inside the mechanism
Is yearning to get out
And sing another melody completely
So different from the one they're always singing

I close my eyes and think that I have found me
But then I feel mortality surround me
I want to sing another melody
So different from the one I always sing

But when I do the dishes
I run the water very, very, very hot
And then I fill the sink to the top with bubbles of soap
And then I set all the bottle caps I own afloat
And it's the greatest voyage in the history of plastic
And then I slip my hands in and start to make waves
And then I dip my tongue in and take a taste
It tastes like soap, but it doesn't really taste like soap
And then I lower in my whole mouth and take a gulp!
And start to feel mortality surround me
I close my eyes and think that I have found me

But life inside the music box ain't easy
The mallets hit, the gears are always turning
And everyone inside the mechanism
Is yearning to get out
And sing another melody completely

Is yearning to get out
Is yearning to get out
Is yearning to get out


Lyrics submitted by lunarxeclipse

Music Box song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

75 Comments

sort form View by:
  • +1
    General Comment

    I never take the songs Regina sings as something that is very personal to her. She said so herself that she almost never ever writes about her own life. I love this song because it just makes me think of people bored with the same old routine.

    adamanteveon July 24, 2006   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    First off, I see alot of people who have almost got the right idea, but fall just a bit short.

    In the old days, before modern medicine, if you ate something poisonous or were bullimic you drank soap water because it makes you vomit.

    Regina is saying that the "mechanism" isn't what she wants to be in, and she's yearning to get out, but when she does dishes she can't help but fall into the old, horrible habit of making herself vomit. Anyone who has thrown-up knows the sensation of thinking you might die while you're gasping for breathe. Bullimia and depression go hand in hand, and the control you think you have when you can just make yourself sick and not gain any weight "I close my eyes and think that I have found me." This song is truly chilling.

    jajabinx66on October 25, 2009   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Well see I've heard a lot of people say this song is about suicide, and I think they may be correct. I would see it as: Music box= life gears are always turning= there is always something going on in life and it is just wearing her down And all the people in the mechanism are yearning to get out= either there are a lot of people in the world who are suicidal, or that we all will die eventually and our souls desperately want to escape drinking soap=poisoning herself, trying to leave her imprisonment and think that i have found me= as she feels the life drain from her body she thinks she did what she was suppose to do then i feel mortality surround me= she is dying

    It's all up to the listeners point of view and maybe I'm wrong, but I still adore this song. It is quite beautiful in a haunting way.

    glojo14on January 16, 2014   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I think that at times this song refers to her childhood. I read that Regina used to sing and make all sorts of noises whilst doing the dishes, and her family would all tell her to stop making bad noises etc. Hence the basic terminology ("i run the water very very very hot")

    Music Box = her head, her mind "Life inside the music box ain't easy"... etc

    It's completely associable, dont you think?

    Lanon March 23, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Totally, and I've also read that her friends always would ask her to make up and play songs when she was little. And since she was so used to playing big, powerful symphonis by Beethoven and Bach etc, it wasn't until she was about fifteen that she actually realized that she was writing songs. Quite remarkable how you can be so neglectant of your talent...

    lemonjuiceon April 15, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    for me:

    this song is about getting bored of the same old pap.

    in this case singing the same old melody.

    this could be taken as a lot fo things really, saying the same stuff all the time, having the same old conversations, or it could even be taken as if the person is bored of his/her personality, and singing the same old song. or maybe she had started getting stuck in a certain way of writing songs and she wanted to break that, thats an almost literal take on it.

    in this song the part where she starts washing the dishes seems to be her breaking out of this routine and singing a different melody.

    what you've said about that reflecting summin u read about her childhood sounds like its gotta be true, either way this part of the song definately gets more childlike, its like she lets go of all the adult worrys etc and just becomes a child for a while....

    then theres that line, 'I close my eyes and think that I have found me'... shows implies the song has gotsummin to do with her trying to find herself...

    this finding herself stuff kinda links with some of the stuff i said earlier aswell.

    thats the way i got the whole musicbox analogy anyway, i'm not quite sure about some fo the lines in it though.

    another way of looking at it is all to do with writing music;

    the people who are trapped inside the 'mechanism' of formulaic song writing are all crying to get out of it wether they know it or not.

    and that analogy can be applied to a million different things.

    a_secret_chordon May 28, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    i think it means that she wants to break the mold and sing something unique... hence 'sing another melody completely'

    love this song.

    agreene175on June 22, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I think that she is so tired of being bored and singing the same melody, that she tries to make things interesting by doing the dishes in a different way...like making boats with bottle caps...you know...

    nobodysmithon June 27, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    The bit about washing the dishes and the greatest voyage in the history of plastic made me laugh when I first heard it.

    Munglaion August 25, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    haha, i love this song. it's so simple and childlike in the way that the subject (whoever it is) speaks. i like the bit about the dishes...

    funny. whenever i get bored, this song comes into my head and i just have to sing it.

    Rosemageon September 28, 2006   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
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"
Album art
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988. "'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it." "There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Album art
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version. Great version of a great song,
Album art
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Album art
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it. “I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.