Lyrics for Perfect Blue Buildings as interpreted by 3ssence

Perfect Blue Buildings Lyrics
Just down the street from your hotel baby
I stay at home with my disease
And ain't this position familiar darling
Well all monkeys do what they see
Help me stay awake I'm falling...
Down on Virginia and La Loma
Where I got friends who'll care for me
You got an attitude of everything I ever wanted
I got an attitude of need
Help me stay awake I'm falling...
Asleep in perfect blue buildings
Beside the green apple sea
Gonna get me a little oblivion, baby
Try to keep myself away from me
It's 4:30 a.m. on a Tuesday
It doesn't get much worse than this
In beds in little rooms in buildings in the middle of these lives
which are completely meaningless
Help me stay awake, I'm falling...
Asleep in perfect blue buildings
Beside the green apple sea
Gonna get me a little oblivion, baby
Try to keep myself away from me
I got bones beneath my skin, and mister...
There's a skeleton in every man's house
Beneath the dust and love and sweat that hangs on everybody
There's a dead man trying to get out
Please help me stay awake, I'm falling...
Asleep in perfect blue buildings
Beside the green apple sea
Gonna get me a little oblivion, baby
Try to keep myself away from me
I can't keep myself away from me
How am I gonna keep myself away from me

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the good captain
02-14-2002

Rated 0 
this song, i love but the subject matter i try to block out. this song is about aids if you look carefully at the lyrics its easy to spot the words that give it away.

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Brooklyn0316
04-18-2002

Rated 0 
I never saw the aids aspect of it i just love the song.

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mandalor
05-02-2002

Rated 0 
Captain, you've got it all wrong. The disease he's referring to, is boredom!
Just look at the line "In beds in little rooms in buildings in the middle of these lives which are completely meaningless"... It's practically giving itself away. The perfect blue buildings are symbols of what can make life boring; that everything's perfect. This is mentioned in several CC songs, to quote Monkey: "Hey monkey, what's life without an occasional surprise"

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Disarm
05-19-2002

Rated 0 
LMAO @ Captain!!!!! Nothing to do with aids LMAO!!!! The only thing is he stays at home with his disease LMAO!!!! So what makes you ASSume that he is talking about aids LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think it is a pretty sweet chillin song. Mandalor pretty much sums up a good meaning for the song. I sure wish more people would post on these songs. some of these are my favorites....

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kleinsteinium
05-27-2002

Rated 0 
Captian, I'm sorry to burst your bubble, but this song is blatantly about heroin, namely, a heroin overdose. The song mentions friends on Virgina and La Loma, those streets are infamous for being thick with crime and drug distribution. The perfect blue buildings and the green apple sea are a representation of the hallucinations that come from herion usage, everything tends to take on a warped and colorful appearance (at least people often only remember the color of things when they come out from under the drug's influence). People die from heroin overdoses when they fall asleep, their heart shuts down. The song states, "keep me awake". Lastly, around the middle it mentions little beds in buildings made on these lives, this can only represent hospitals in which lives are what make hospitals money, little beds being the hospitals beds. Sorry, this song can only be telling the story of a herion overdosage.

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michelob87
06-05-2002

Rated 0 
excelent kleinsteinium.

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viahavta
06-07-2002

Rated 0 
Hey I don't think we should all jump on anyone's particular interpretation of the song. If the good captain says it's about AIDS, it's none of our business to say they are wrong.

I had never thought about that interpretation, but had always assumed the song was referring to depression and estrangement. I think the possible AIDs aspect of it is interesting.

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fishmarket
07-08-2002

Rated 0 
I'm with viahavta, we should all respect each other. after reading all of them i'm pretty sure it is about herion, and before i got that info, AIDS sounded good to me.

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tms6879
07-10-2002

Rated 0 
i don't care. this song has nothing to do with AIDS, the same with heroin. My God. Does that really fit a counting crows song? it's about Adam being fed up with himself and wishing he were someone else!!!!

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divican
07-29-2002

Rated 0 
Adam stated once that "this song is about me." It's about depression. His disease is depression. The "beds in little room" statement is just a statement about how meaningless life is to a person sometimes. Keep me awake? - it is about depression again and not falling for the unrealistic fantasies a person can have when they are depressed. Sleeping too much is closely related with depression. Probably the most depressing crows song, and one of the most depressing songs in music.

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bluegalkt
08-21-2002

Rated 0 
i think that divican is right on this one, i think that the herion idea makes sense in the song but not really to the band, i like to respect the ideas of everyone but where did the AIDS thing come from? at least the herion one makes sense. personally i think it is about depression and boredom

this song is awsome and adam's lyrics and voice is always so genuine and awsome in all their songs!

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E1Jake
09-29-2002

Rated 0 
Im sorry, but this song just has to be about depression, and depression from boardom, or the the monotany of life, and that feeling like what ever i do doesnt really matter. its all the same, and always will be..."compleatly meaningless".at that, lately ive felt just the same as Adam portrays the feeling through the lyrics. ive been depressed lately, and all i can seem to find to do is sleep. its like hiding from the world and the depression, but its all the same if not worse when you wake up. i have so much ambissions i would love to pursue, and so many things that make them seem like nothing more than dreems. ive been sleeping 12hrs a day for the past month. and my girlfriend seems to be the only thing keeping me away from myself. if i could spend every moment with her, id never go too sleep. but because thats not possible. i seem so far from her when were apart. left back alone to endless sleep, or wishing i could sleep forever. i heard this song after not listening to August and Everything After since i owned the tape, and it effected me so much more than being a great song. it bled though me like none of my dreams ever could. it explained what i couldnt about myself. it was me singing,
i instantly remembered all of the lyrics from when i would let my tape player play in my Ford Omni. i feel like my life has no bearing and no meaning to it. just like those perfect little houses all down my street, with everyones perfect little gardens and fake attitudes, which all really ammount to nothing, and ARE meaningless to me. none of it really matters to me. its all worries for those who have something to worry about. i have nothing to worry about, and that worries me. its all just one more thing i cover with my large comforter, and toss around with when i cant sleep, but dont want to do anything else but sleep. my mind wants to be happy, but i cant seem to keep off my own back. ill be alone with my blanket tomarrow, and when i wake up, i know that ill wake up the next morning knowing that. everything's the same, but im too afraid to change a thing. some people can be so cruel to them selves. i have no reason to feel this way, but i do. i wish i could at least feel used. because i feel so useless.

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1 Reply
Jusa
10-05-2002

Rated 0 
I love this song. It's beautiful in that sad, oddly calming way. I know it's about depression, but that's what it does for me. I can kick back and listen to it forever.

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ButterflyInReverse
03-10-2003

Rated 0 
this song is definitely about depression. i know this because i am clinically depressed, and when i hear this song, it speaks very clearly to me. "i stay at home with my disease" is definitely a familiar thing to people with depression. i've often stayed home in bed all day, just crying because i feel so helpless. odd sleep patterns are also common, as i am always tired and yet can never make myself go to bed early. instead i stay awake, hours into the night and early morning, reflecting on how miserable i am. "it's 4:30 am on a tuesday, things don't get much worse than this" is pretty self-explanatory. while it's interesting to see others' interpretations of this beautifully tragic song, it's about depression and loneliness, and nothing more.

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McShine
04-24-2003

Rated 0 
yeah the songs about depression

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evil_killer_phone
06-15-2003

Rated +1 
lol, don't all artists say that what a song means to you is what it's about? *shrugs* i'd say it's about depression but there are parts of it that made me think heroin as well, and also i hadnt thought of the AIDs thing, but looking over it, it's possible.

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wavejars
06-18-2003

Rated 0 
well, i'm with everyone. when i heard y'all's inturpretations, i was like, that's what it means. i don't get the aids one, but i'm trying to. anyways, good song. heroin sounded best to me. i hate depression. gah. it sucks.

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Link64
11-26-2004

Rated 0 
In my opinion this song is just about seeking a place where you are not attached to anything. An oblivion. But he sees the irony that you will always be attached to yourself so the true oblivion doesn't exist. Just my interpretation.

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sourberville
11-28-2004

Rated 0 
I've always thought of this song to be about Scicsophrenia (sp?). Like multiple personalities. He's is shut out from the world and starts to go a little crazy. I doubt that's what its really about, but that's just what i've always gotten out of it

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regardemylasheskgm
12-11-2004

Rated +1 
alright im not even going to try to jump into this debate on what the song is about.

however, my favorite line is: "Beneath the dust and love and sweat that hangs on everybody, There's a dead man trying to get out."

just such a beautiful line.

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gravity_defiant
12-30-2004

Rated 0 
*shrug* I know that Adam Duritz has said that this song is not about drugs, but I don't quite get that. I mean, he wrote it and I believe him, but it sure SOUNDS like it's about drugs to me.

And this despite the fact that I have lots and lots and lots of experience with depression and very little with drugs.

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wannabesurfer
02-20-2005

Rated 0 
i don't know what it's about, but I live two blocks away from the corner of Virginia and La Loma in Berkeley(where Adam went to college) and its actually a fairly nice residential part of town on the north(rich/suburban) side of campus. it is definitely NOT famous for being drug ridden. so i don't know where kleinsteinium heard that, or if he just made it up, but don't listen to him. Berkeley is disgusting in general but not a very hard drug ridden city at all. Virginia and La Loma in particular is in one of the nicest parts of town, don't listen to negative rumors about my neighborhood!!!

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meathoof
06-22-2005

Rated 0 
it sounds like someone going through cold turkey/ O.Ding to me?
'I stay at home with my disease
'It's 4:30 a.m. on a Tuesday
'It doesn't get much worse than this
'Try to keep myself away from me
...the cold turky...
'Gonna get me a little oblivion, baby
'Help me stay awake, I'm falling...
...the O.D...

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mattstfc
09-03-2005

Rated 0 
The verses are about how horrifyingly gray and mundane and pointless life in general can be. Nothing catastrophic. Little horrors. Envy of other people. Deep need that is unsatisfied. Boredom. And so the chorus is about how seductive coma-visions are: these dreams of placidity, colors, shapes that are so clean. But the peace is a trap to the person in the song; he doesn't want to fall prey to the visions.

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orcakid
01-04-2006

Rated 0 
I always kinda thought it was about dying...I'm not that good at analyzing lyrics though. That's just what it sounds like to me, because perfect blue buildings sound peaceful, like heaven, and "get me a little oblivion" makes it seem like he's intending to die. Or maybe not something so drastic, maybe it'd be more like an emotional death. But because he says, "help me stay awake," I think he wants something more to live for.

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