| The Shins – Australia Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| James Mercer is an atheist. | |
| The Shins – Australia Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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OK, I am seeing too many people way off the mark with their interpretations. In terms of lyrics, listen to the song on youtube where there is a live version, he usually sings slower. ************************ So lets hear it from the horses mouth. This song is about WORK. Working a 9-5, 5 days a week and being miserable until you die. Australia was originally a PRISON COLONY where they sent convicts to work in work camps and where they couldn't escape. Listen to So Says I for similar themes. Interview with James Mercer http://www.nerve.com/content/hot-fuzz : Let's talk about your lyrics. I've never liked a band more in which I understood the songs so little. For instance, one of my favorite songs on the album is "Australia." :: Well that song isn't about Australia, first of all. That's from my memories of working in offices. I've had a hundred different jobs, and there is a special kind of sickness doing a job in an office. I was a bookkeeper and a secretary, and there is something so horribly boring and defeating about it. That song is also about this woman from Texas who was just awful, a racist and a miserable person. I felt sorry for her. In Australia, she's Himmler. So it's partly me wondering, "Is this what humans are meant to be doing?" You're in this fucking cage and there's people you can see through the window and you see the gardener and you're so fucking jealous. ************** OK lets look at the song again: Born to... Born to multiply? Born to gaze into night skies? <-------what is the meaning of life? All you want’s one more Saturday <------ all you look forward to is the weekend Well look here until then, They’re gonna buy your life's time. <---- your boss pays for your time So keep your wick in the air and your feet in the fetters <---wick=candle=hopes and dreams. Fetters are what they would hold convicts in. 'Till the day... <-------Till the day YOU DIE You come in doing cartwheels <---so full of hope and energy We all crawl out by ourselves. <----which gets sucked out of you And your shape on the dance floor <--- dancing is expression Will have me thinking such filth and gouge my eyes <----(but you look so depressed that I cant look any more) You’d be damned to be one of us girl Faced with a dodo’s conundrum I felt like I could just fly But nothing happened every time I try <--- dodo, a fat flightless bird that was hunted to extinction. you have hopes and dreams that get crushed as you grow older. Wooo, ooooh! A dual-tone on the wall A selfless fool who hoped he’d save us all <-people who try to make the world better... never dreamt of such sterile hands<------dont realise nobody wants to get their hands dirty You keep 'em folded in your lap, <-nobody bothers to rise up and make the world better Raise them up to beg for scraps<- all you do is keep going to work under your boss who pays you 'scraps' ie nothing You know he's holding you down With the tips of his fingers just the same <- and is controlling you by doing this Well you'll be pulled from the ocean<--- now mercer is looking at the possibilities. But just a minute too late Or changed by a potion You’ll find a handsome young mate for you to love<---will it be too late for you or will you escape and find a happy ending? You'll be damned to pining through the windowpanes,<-stuck in the office, watching life go by... You know you'll trade your life for any ordinary Joe<--you wish youd be able to get rid of it all and live a happy life. a 'gardener' from the interview linked above. 'Well do it now or grow old<--escape now! or itll be too late! Your nightmares only need a year or two to unfold<- You will be old sooner than you think, life passes by quickly Been alone since you were twenty-one <- this stanza is pretty obvious. you pretend as if you are happy but you are not. You haven't laughed since January You try and make of this as so much fun But we know it to be quite contrary La la la la la la la Dare to be one of us girl Faced with the android's conundrum I felt like I should just cry But nothing happens every time I take one on the chin<- android=robots=no emotions= you will become numb to life Yeah, Himmler in your coat, you don't know how long I've been<- himmler= evil nazi boss. Watching the lantern, starved of oxygen<-lantern starved of oxygen= lamp in the mines starved of oxygen. need fresh air. So give me your hand and let's jump out the window<- Escape...FREEDOM! |
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