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.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Underneath the bridge
Tarp has sprung a leak
And the animals I've trapped
Have all become my pets
And I'm living off of grass
And the drippings from the ceiling
It's okay to eat fish
'Cause they don't have any feelings
Something in the way
Mm
Something in the way, yeah
Mm
Something in the way
Mm
Something in the way, yeah
Mm
Something in the way
Mm
Something in the way, yeah
Mm
Underneath the bridge
Tarp has sprung a leak
And the animals I've trapped
Have all become my pets
And I'm living off of grass
And the drippings from the ceiling
It's okay to eat fish
'Cause they don't have any feelings
Something in the way
Mm
Something in the way, yeah
Mm
Something in the way
Mm
Something in the way, yeah
Mm
Something in the way
Mm
Something in the way, yeah
Mm
Something in the way
Mm
Something in the way, yeah
Mm
Tarp has sprung a leak
And the animals I've trapped
Have all become my pets
And I'm living off of grass
And the drippings from the ceiling
It's okay to eat fish
'Cause they don't have any feelings
Something in the way
Mm
Something in the way, yeah
Mm
Something in the way
Mm
Something in the way, yeah
Mm
Something in the way
Mm
Something in the way, yeah
Mm
Underneath the bridge
Tarp has sprung a leak
And the animals I've trapped
Have all become my pets
And I'm living off of grass
And the drippings from the ceiling
It's okay to eat fish
'Cause they don't have any feelings
Something in the way
Mm
Something in the way, yeah
Mm
Something in the way
Mm
Something in the way, yeah
Mm
Something in the way
Mm
Something in the way, yeah
Mm
Something in the way
Mm
Something in the way, yeah
Mm
Lyrics submitted by kevin, edited by LHGL, ELVIS PRESLEY BITE OF 87 XXXFREE
Something in the Way Lyrics as written by Kurt Cobain
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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'The “something in the way” was Kurt. He felt like he was just something in the way. The song details the time he supposedly lived under a bridge. (He never actually did live under a bridge, but told people that he had.) The song is essentially about being discarded by those around you and made to feel like a burden. It’s a pretty personal song.' –The Amazing Atheist
@Psychonomaly yeah this is bull shit
@Psychonomaly Quoting "The Amazing Atheist". Yikes. A name I haven't heard in a long time, and hope not to again.
Actually it's about when his parents kicked him out and he was living under a bridge.
@King Nothing Its Obviously not about his parents kicking him out because he lived with his aunt and uncle
@King Nothing. Hey, as mentioned above I was the lyric writer for "Something In The Way". As remember it, vaguely, it was like that Kurt had an argue with his mother about something, and had to move out for a period, but I think he could live with his aunt and uncle if he wanted to, maybe he temporarily for some days lived under the bridge, somehow I joined him, also maybe lived there for some days.
Through reading Charles Cross's Kurt biography it's been found from a number of reliable sources (family and friends of the time) that the story of running away and sleeping uner the bridge in aberdeen is untrue - the people that say that it isn't true (His aunt and two friends I think) explain it in a really good way - they say that "Kurt never let the facts get in the way of a good story" I like to think of him that way - he wrote these amazing songs and although we dont have to read them as though they are all autobiographical, they still hold so much poetic imagery and beauty! Bye4now!
@CaNiS mAjOr I'd say it was probably what Kurt imagined it felt like living under a bridge, or at least a metaphor for his feeling of abandonment.
@CaNiS mAjOr I agree. He was a song writer. He had imagination. He was an artist. Props to saying that. People dont realize that. Ive personally written poetry thats untrue lol and it just occurs to me that this poetry would be better. Its more common for songs to be autobiographical or people want them to be or want to veiw them that way. Kurt wrote music first before lyrics. The feeling was more important
@CaNiS mAjOr ETM, Bye-4-Now?
@CaNiS mAjOr. I can solve your riddle here. I might have been the lyricist. I was probaly the one who wrote the lyrics during the summer of 1989/90/91. <br /> I was the one lying under the bridge, maybe Kurt joined too, remembers this vaguely.
@CaNiS mAjOr. Just a reply to your sentence "Kurt wrote music before lyrics", but for me it would be like "Martin wrote lyrics before music", hehe. I was the lyricist for many Nirvana songs,
Too bad he never actually did live under a bridge.
Actually yes he did dumbass he said it in an interview.
@nirvana68 most sources outside of Kurt himself suggests that he did have a transitional period in his life, but it is unlikely that he actually did live under a bridge (at least for any substantial period of time).
@StephM168 Hey, it was me the lyricist that lived under the bridge, so the lyrics can be plausible enough.
hey thats really cool... [adds washington bridge to places to go before i die]
Man, lol. Some people have it right on here some people don't.
This song was written by Kurt as almost a stab at his parents and family, telling them that this is where they have sent him, 'underneath the bridge'. Also, it was a methaphor for isolation and lonliness that all of us feel as adolscents.
It is NOT a true story. Kurt could not sleep underneath the bridge that he is referring to, as the Wishkah rivers tide rises and would wash him away!
Also, as a sidenote, Kurt recorded the Nevermind version of this lying on his back in Butch Vigs recording studio, playing his old beat up stella I believe.
They couldn't get the song right, so Kurt walked up to Butch as said 'This is how it should sound' and layed down on his back and started playing/singing. But was like 'Whoa, whoa, wait wait' and turned off everything in the whole place, put mics all around Kurt, and let him go at it. And it worked out beautifully.
No matter how sad some think this song is, I always get a chuckle out of imagining Kurt lying on his back and singing it, heh.
@OnTheMantle very much agree with your interpretation regarding that "underneath the bridge" is a metaphor for his abandonment.
@OnTheMantle He did in fact live, more so slept, under the bridge. I too have slept under the same bridge on multiple occasions and not once did i ever get washed away. The water doesnt get that high unless it's flood season. I know he did this for a fact as my family is actually very good friends with his cousin and a lot of other people that knew him. "Something in the way" refers to himself feeling in the way as well as feeling like something is in the way of him being happy.
@OnTheMantle not all bridges have water under them
I think Underneath the bridge The tarp has sprung a leak
is literally, a bridge over troubled water.
and if you listen to the song that fits musically too, as the ending is in stark contrast to the first part of the song, and somewhat violent.
also
The album's title refers to the Wishkah River in Aberdeen, Washington, where Cobain claimed to have spent nights sleeping under the Young Street Bridge as a teenager (as referenced in the song "Something in the Way," from the band's 1991 release, Nevermind). This claim has since been refuted by Novoselic, who said, "He never lived under that bridge. He hung out there, but you couldn't live on those muddy banks, with the tide coming up and down. That was his own revisionism."[
@oliverthered he was a story teller. I dare say one day whilst "hanging out" under the bridge he imagined what life would be like there, perhaps even felt living under the bridge was a great metaphor for where his life was at that stage.
@oliverthered if he’s under a bridge how/why does the tarp leak?
WRONG
You guys keep arguing about what he specifically talks about in this song. But usually when someone writes a song/poem. They dont use a specific memory, situation, etc. Ok lets say someone was feeling sad, and wanted to write a sad song, they don't neccasirly draw from one experience. Because that makes the song one sided. And kind of makes it hard for everyone to relate. In away everyone is right, he could of been drawing from being under a bridge or a rock star. Personally, the song is one of my favorite songs mainly because you have to listen to what Cobain says. He makes it very hard to listen to his lyrics, on purpose. Personally I think he did what he did because he felt he sold out. But that's another subject. But I pull from the song a intimate feeling of loneliness and isolation,..
After hearing this many many times it made sense it's okay to eat fish because they don't have any feelings. Kurt was a Pisces aka a fish and he didn't have any feelings because he was numb. I know the song is just a song nothing really real happened but it's depression and my thoughts about Pisces and not having feelings (Kurt not everyone who's a Pisces ) makes sense.