The lunatic is on the grass
The lunatic is on the grass
remembering games and daisy chains and laughs
got to keep the loonies on the path

The lunatic is in the hall
the lunatics are in the hall
the paper holds their folded faces to the floor
and every day the paper boy brings more

And if the dam breaks open many years too soon
and if there is no room upon the hill
and if your head explodes with dark forbodings too
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon
The lunatic is in my head
The lunatic is in my head
you raise the blade, you make the change
you rearrange me ' till I'm sane
you lock the door
and throw away the key
there's someone in my head but it's not me

And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
you shout and no one seems to hear
and if the band you're in starts playing different tunes
I'll see you on the dark side of the moon



Lyrics submitted by Demau Senae

Track duration: 03:50


Brain Damage song meanings
Add your thoughts

190 Comments

sort form View by:
  • +1
    General Comment:It is about Syd and his illness.
    " And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes"
    References to when Syd was on stage he sometimes would play a different song that was not the one he was supposed to be playing. When a reporter asked him about this, he simply gave a blank expression, he never knew what he did actually happened, kinda like a dream.
    Flag CrimsnEdgeon March 04, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Mental illness

    On the grass is he talking about paranoid schizophrenics obsession with marijuana, was it synchronized with the Oz or is it symbolical?

    Fuck it it's songmeanings eclipse is on.
    Flag bkabbotton February 25, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Mental illness

    On the grass is he talking about paranoid schizophrenics obsession with marijuana, was it synchronized with the Oz or is it symbolical?

    Fuck it it's songmeanings eclipse is on.
    Flag bkabbotton February 25, 2013   Link
  • +1
    Song Meaning:This song is simply about the different faces of insanity. The lines
    The lunatic is in the hall
    the lunatics are in the hall
    the paper holds their folded faces to the floor
    and every day the paper boy brings more
    is referring to the crazy shit you read about in the paper.
    The lines below to be are about schizophrenia and lobotomies.
    The lunatic is in my head = "I'm crazy"
    you raise the blade, you make the change "You lobotomize me"
    you rearrange me ' till I'm sane "I stop freaking out.. externally"
    you lock the door "I no longer can communicate."
    and throw away the key "forget about me, I am zombified by the lobotomy, not a problem for you anymore"
    there's someone in my head but it's not me "But I'm still crazy and in hell in my own head"

    Lastly, the lines
    And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
    you shout and no one seems to hear
    and if the band you're in starts playing different tunes
    I'll see you on the dark side of the moon
    Are 100% about Syd Barret. Sometimes Syd would just freak out on stage and start playing songs that no one else in the band knew. In his own head, he'd get blasted with a ringing in his ears, and he'd try to call out, but it was as if no one could hear or understand him.

    This is definitely one of my favorite Floyd tunes.
    Flagged Mabvson November 03, 2012   Link
  • -1
    General Comment:In an interview, Daron Malakian explained, "the song is about how we are regarded differently depending on how we pass. Everyone deserves to die. Like, if I were now to die from drug abuse, they might say I deserved it because I abused dangerous drugs. Hence the line, 'I cry when angels deserve to die'. The lyric 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit' is a reference to Jesus' death on the cross, as, according to the Gospels, it was one of the seven things Jesus said while dying."
    Flagged Ilovegrungeon June 20, 2012   Link
  • -1
    My Interpretation:I am convinced that this song (and album) is really about the Federal Reserve and how we are being controlled by the corrupt economic system. You can also reference "Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars" which details how to control a population with money or "paper". The money keeps us down (keeps our folded faces or closed minds down/suppressed) and every day the Federal Reserve (the paper boy) creates more money (inflation). See "Ron Paul"

    The whole album can apply to this idea. I know some people don't believe they intentionally linked this to the Wizard of OZ (ounces), but look at what that book was really about. Follow the yellow brick road (gold bars), don't mind the man behind the curtain (the politicians/bankers) who are pulling the strings or secretly controlling our lives. We are not smart enough to understand (if I only had a brain / Brain Damage). It is actually related to the Silverite's movement. Her slippers were initially Silver and changed to Ruby red for the movie. There is much more to it than I can explain. You can find documentaries and articles linking the book to the economy.

    Guesses:

    I don't know all the details and it would be nice if someone else did, because I cannot seem to find many other people that have this interpretation. Lunatic on the grass = Green money or capitol hill? "Got to keep the loonies on the path" = Got to keep us in line. of coarse we are not loony, but what are we looked at as from the people in power. And if the dam breaks open many years too soon, And if there is no room upon the hill = If this system crashes or people are exposed to the truth, what would happen to our lives and what would happen to our property and farm land?

    Do we know what is on the Dark Side of the Moon? We can only see 59% of the moons surface EVER. I still don't know what Pink Floyd (and mind opening psychedelics that link us to another dimension, see Joe Rogan DMT) thought about the moon, but some people say it has secret bases or even life on the other side. Were we planted here and being controlled? some people have theories, but I will refrain from looking weirder (to closed minded people), LOL. We do know that it does control our minds and our tides. So its not too crazy to theorize about it being here to calm the oceans and support life, plus we are 70% water and need the moon to survive.

    You raise the blade, you make the change, You re-arrange me 'till I'm sane, You lock the door,and throw away the key, There's someone in my head but it's not me. = You manipulate the value of the dollar up and down in order to control and steal from us. When you bring it down, we lose our property, when you bring it up, we invest our last bit of wealth into the system and then you bring it down again to rob us until we are slaves. We are no longer who we should be because money controls our lives. "dig that hole, forget the sun (the truth, enlightenment, brightness) don't sit down its time to dig another one (slavery by economic control).

    You shout and no one seems to hear, And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes, I'll see you on the dark side of the moon. = No one wants to listen to the truth. The system is setup for people like me to look crazy. I am playing a different tune by going against what people are led to believe. "For long you live and high you fly, But only if you ride the tide, And balanced on the biggest wave,You race towards an early grave." = Conform or die, you live long and go places if you ride the tide (conform) make waves and you die, not necessarily death, but even societies collective condemning of me will suffice to prove this one.

    The song "Time" is a very good way to summarize the awakening of the people who see through this filter. The filter of true knowledge. its kind of like the album cover: filtering our minds from the light, the true colors, the Illuminati triangle and the all seeing eye is what separates "Us and them". Its the deception of reality. The truth about the moon, the truth about this world. What is being suppressed from us. "Us and them" is also interpreted as war. search Joe Rogan - The American War Machine on Youtube to see how it relates to the economy and stays within this concept.

    Wikipedia:

    While journeying to the Emerald City, she encounters a scarecrow, who represents a farmer; a woodman made of tin, who represents a worker dehumanized by industrialization; and a cowardly lion, who represents William Jennings Bryan, a prominent leader of the silverite movement.[34] The villains of the story, the Wicked Witch of the West and the Wicked Witch of the East, represent the wealthy railroad and oil barons of the American West and the financial and banking interests of the eastern U.S. respectively. Both these groups opposed Populist efforts to move the U.S. to a bimetallic monetary standard since this would have devalued the dollar and made investments less valuable.

    "Witch is witch and who is who?" - "Us and them"

    Money, it's a crime.
    Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie.
    Money, so they say
    Is the root of all evil today.
    But if you ask for a raise it's no surprise that they're
    giving none away.

    Finally the songs "Brain Damage" ends with ""I can't think of anything to say except...
    I think it's marvellous! HaHaHa!""

    The album starts with "I've always been mad, I know I've been mad, like the
    most of us...very hard to explain why you're mad, even if you're not mad..."

    Finally, Eclipse ends with

    "and everything under the sun is in tune
    but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.

    "There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact it's all dark."
    Flag Kevinishereon April 30, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:First: try get stoned! Then try to figure out what's going on, you'll be revealed in fact. Thanx to Pink Floyd

    Second: pending
    Flagged donjuan960on November 12, 2011   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:It is most definitely not a reference to weed and it hurts when someone ask's 'who is Syd Barrett'; RIP Syd. I think there is a thread linking 'Brain Damage' to Syd but only in the sense that he is the link between the song and the rest of humanity. Like a lot of Floyd's songs and, in particular, the politically charged writing of Roger (Waters), Brain Damage is explaining there view of society. Corruption, greed, war and humans discontent for each other (as laid out in Money, Us and Them) has led to insanity, which then, in turns, takes people to the 'other side'...the dark side of the moon where they find the eclipse; a better place. Apparently there is, literally, no dark side of the moon but i think in this song it is just a metaphorical state that represents a place that is hidden from the rest of the world.
    Flag DavidKnotton November 09, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
    and every day the paper boy brings more


    Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting a different result. Repetition. Fits that line.
    Overall I do think that the whole album is contrasting Syd's life with the life of a normal, everyday, non-rock-legend person going crazy, just through the strain of life in society. The album up until this point is all the little tiny factors leading up to Bran Damage, which is once the person finally breaks under the strain. Eclipse, I believe, is just outside reflection on the rat race.
    If you don't believe me, listen to this song on repeat for about 10 hours, absorbing every lyric, over and over again, and see if you don't end up crazy :P
    Great song... great album... great band.
    -▲=
    Flag Tig45on August 29, 2011   Link
  • +3
    General Comment:"The lunatic is on the grass"

    These words mean everything. The song is about the indignation of societies contempt of uncustomary behavior. People walk on the pavement, the man who steps on the grass is the "lunatic".

    "you raise the blade, you make the change
    you rearrange me ' till I'm sane
    you lock the door
    and throw away the key
    there's someone in my head but it's not me"

    As already mentioned on this forum, these lines refer to a lobotomy, which is metaphorical for sociological conditioning. Pressure to conform, and escape the socially destructive label of lunatic, overwhelms, and people are changed mentally, their idiosyncratic ways perish, and as a result we all live with "Someone in our head, and it's not us".
    Flag verumon July 25, 2011   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

Back to top
explain