Ben Folds Five – Underground

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I was never cool in school
I'm sure you don't remember me
And now it's been 10 years
I'm still wondering who to be
But I'd love to mix in circles, cliques, and social coteries, that's me
Hand me my nose ring (Can we be happy?)
Show me the mosh pit (Can we be happy?)
We can be happy underground

Who's got the looks
Who's got the brains
Who's got everything
I got this pain in my heart, that's all
Hey you with the long and lonely face
There's got to be something else
Let me tell ya something else
There was a girl who passed me by
She gave a smile but I was shy
I looked down, so down
Don't look there no no, go go underground
But now there's a place to go
It's the morning now, it's the evening
It's everything
I click my heels and I'm there

Underground, underground
Everything's happy underground
(Underground) You been kicked around
(Underground) Did life bring you down here
Everything's heavy underground

We'll be decked in all black
Slamming the pit fantastic
Officer Friendly's little boy's got a Mohawk
And he knows just where we're coming from
It's industrial, work it underground
Get down, get down, get down

Underground, underground
Everything's happy underground
(Underground) You been kicked around
(Underground) Did life bring you down here
Everything's heavy underground

We can be happy, we can be happy, we can be happy
Underground

We can, we can, we can be
Everything's Heavy
(Underground) You been kicked around
(Underground) Did life bring you down here
Everything's heavy underground

We can, we can, we can be
(Everything's happy underground)

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Lyrics submitted by kevin

Track duration: 04:11

"Underground" as written by Mark Christopher Batson, Marshall B. Iii Mathers, Trevor Lawrence, Dawaun W. Parker, Andre Romell Young

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


Underground song meanings
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30 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:for me ten years later i can still relate to this shit, its a great song and back in 1994/95 ben folds five were those 'underground' type people playing their own style music that pissed rockers or punk kids off and some of them started liking it, poking fun at the rejection feelings a nerd has and maybe inside secretly, they wanna be something else

    you can either stay being a nerd and playing world of warcraft or you can start listening to big black haha or option three, you can do that cool change within yourself and still feel shitty, and left out like me ten years on after junior high, but i myself got the lip ring..
    Flag el_pasoon January 19, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:to me this song DOESN'T mean*
    Flag jellybellyellieon April 27, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:to me this song means 'when you don't fit in with the crowd grab your comabt boots' like themobnymph. I think it is kind of satirical. If people aren't like the "cool" crowd they become exactly what the hate...people that pretend they are something they aren't. No one is really like that, just like no one is really like the "cool" kid. At least to me, the song is ironic.
    Flag jellybellyellieon April 27, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song is so cheery and jumpy and it kind of makes me feel like i'm in a music video. When you have a song that can do that, you know you have a really special one!
    but are they saying "heavy" or "happy" in the chorus?
    Flag curiouspondaon June 29, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i think its the bass player who says it. and there are no 'jazzy black singers' its all band members
    Flag javsavon May 28, 2007   Link
  • +2
    General Comment:I love the way the guy says, "Hand me my nosering!" Like he's talking to his harem of concubines while they're hand-feeding him grapes. Anybody know who that guy is, at the beginning? Is that just Ben talking in a funny voice?
    Flag Archaia Sophiaon May 16, 2007   Link
    • 1 Reply
  • 0
    General Comment:clearly GromReaper is right also it has to do with underground and indie type music

    'we can be happy underground'

    like you get the point.
    Flag tinypinkdancer27on March 06, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:At first, I really wondered whether the song was actually a jab at the whole punk/indie sub/counter culture movement deal or a straight up praise of it...

    I can see it either way, and after reading Ben's thoughts on it, I do agree. Yet another badass job, Mr. Folds and company, just badass.
    Flag downsidedrumon July 27, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Funny story:

    When I first got into Ben Folds Five, this was one of the first songs I had heard. I eventually tried to pass on the BFF awesomeness to a friend, and he loved this song. It eventually came to be the theme song to his cellar where everyone that's anyone around his place goes to get high.

    "Everything's happy underground."

    Yes, indeed. Heh.
    Flag Ludeyon July 20, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:the most cheerful song my ears have ever had the pleasure of listening to.
    Flag megisme123on May 23, 2006   Link

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