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"
I've been away for a long, long time
Tears from the trees fall on sullen lives
Dropped in the wake of a plastic mind
Some kinda love and I heard it's mine
It's the Devil and I can't see you
Split the difference and you can be the same
I've been away for a long, long time
Tears from the trees fall on sullen lives
It's the Devil and I can't see you
Split the difference and you can be the same
Something will be on the minds so undeveloped
So they will leave links to the banks to crack the codes
It's the part of you that stays
Leaving nothing but a stain
Bang
Take you down a peg
(We crash into the rocks below)
(We crash into the rocks below)
No water here
No quarter here
I don't wanna fear you man, oh no
Just wanna have you here
Don't go
I've been away for a long, long time
Tears from the trees fall on sullen lives
Dropped in the wake of a plastic mind
Some kinda love and I heard it's mine
It's the Devil and I can't see you
Split the difference and you can be the same
It's the Devil and I can't see you
Split the difference and you can be the same
It's the Devil and I can't see you
Split the difference and you can be the same
Something will be on the minds so undeveloped
So they will leave links to the banks to crack the codes
It's the part of you that stays (take you down a peg)
Leaving nothing but a stain
Sometimes we'll be laying by the docks so undisturbed
Folding, maybe, leaves on the ground turned brown with age
That's the part of you that stays
That's the part I hope remains
Take you down a peg
Tears from the trees fall on sullen lives
Dropped in the wake of a plastic mind
Some kinda love and I heard it's mine
It's the Devil and I can't see you
Split the difference and you can be the same
I've been away for a long, long time
Tears from the trees fall on sullen lives
It's the Devil and I can't see you
Split the difference and you can be the same
Something will be on the minds so undeveloped
So they will leave links to the banks to crack the codes
It's the part of you that stays
Leaving nothing but a stain
Bang
Take you down a peg
(We crash into the rocks below)
(We crash into the rocks below)
No water here
No quarter here
I don't wanna fear you man, oh no
Just wanna have you here
Don't go
I've been away for a long, long time
Tears from the trees fall on sullen lives
Dropped in the wake of a plastic mind
Some kinda love and I heard it's mine
It's the Devil and I can't see you
Split the difference and you can be the same
It's the Devil and I can't see you
Split the difference and you can be the same
It's the Devil and I can't see you
Split the difference and you can be the same
Something will be on the minds so undeveloped
So they will leave links to the banks to crack the codes
It's the part of you that stays (take you down a peg)
Leaving nothing but a stain
Sometimes we'll be laying by the docks so undisturbed
Folding, maybe, leaves on the ground turned brown with age
That's the part of you that stays
That's the part I hope remains
Take you down a peg
Lyrics submitted by peaceoutside
Devil You Know Lyrics as written by Robert Harold Guy Dave Joseph Dobbyn
Lyrics © SC PUBLISHING DBA SECRETLY CANADIAN PUB., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
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Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
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Mountain Song
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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.
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No Surprises
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
this along with Blue Harvest and Good To Sea are my favorite tracks from this album. amazing.
this is one of the better tracks on the album. good job with these lyrics
My favorite track on the album, thanks for posting these!
i think its about a guy who was away in prison for a long time and finally got out and he still has a criminal mind cause thats just what he loves to do, be a criminal. then in the lyrics "something will be on the minds so undeveloped" meaning he'll have a not so well drawn out plan to steal something so then he gets people to get on the inside of a bank and crack the codes to the vaults. then when its like "thats the part of you that stays, its the part i hope remains" means like theres a part of him that knows hes doing wrong. then in the end he crashes into the rocks as in he gets caught again.
That prison idea is really interesting, but I think I interpret this a bit differently. First of all, I think the song is showing the progression of a person's life. It demonstrates how he moves from a natural and "human" lifestyle to a more corporate lifestyle "links to the banks" which interferes with the narrators personal concerns and back to a more natural and personable one "laying by the docks so undisturbed."
The first stanza introduces this story by saying the narrator has been "away." One can infer from the line "tears from the trees fall on sullen lives," that the narrator has moved away from his natural lifestyle to one that has become sullen. However, the next two lines show that he is now renouncing that lifestyle. The wake of a "plastic mind" can be interpreted as a figurative funeral of his materialistic lifestyle in favor of the love found in a more natural lifestyle filled with human relations.
The next stanza refers to his corporate lifestyle as the devil because of how it affects his relationship "I can't see you." He then decides to "split the difference" between the two lifestyles.
He then elaborates on how because of his "undeveloped" or naive mind he was led into a materialistic and corporate lifestyle. He refers to this as a "stain."
The "Bang" represents a turning point in the story.
The next stanza sounds like a plea to a loved one who was perhaps unsympathetic to the narrators selfish and materialistic lifestyle.
The next stanza represents a return to a more human lifestyle. Interestingly, here falling leaves are represented in a more beautiful yet melancholic way, whereas in the first stanza falling leaves seem to be represented a "tears." Very different imagery, which displays the contrast between lifestyles. Also, the narrator says that he hopes it is this lifestyle that remains-- perhaps as a memory?
The next line seems to be just embracing death as the next step after life. I'm not sure about the rest.
Just my wordy and ridiculous opinion.
During their performance at the Glasshouse in February, Rob introduced this song by saying it was about "people who still believe that things like satan and hell exist," or something to that effect.
Ok I am stumped can someone please help with the part "crack the codes" it is in A LOT of pinback songs.... in this song its lit(I think) but WTF is it doing in Grey machine??
This hard-rockin' edgy song is all about badass lakes and their rage fire. While you're at it, f*ck creeks too man.