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Lying like needles
On forest earth
Euphoric rush
Trees bend to pray for us
I'm sputtering
Like cold machines
Late for the birth ritual, ritual, ritual, ritual
You can drive my tail
To watch the circus
A birth ritual
A birth of idiots
Now I woke up blessed
And good strives for heartache
Marked for the death ritual, ritual, ritual
[Chorus]
As you start the song
And face this garden
I light a cigarette before the execution
Now you see your crime
For every miracle
Add another drug at every birth ritual
I took the drug
To make me stay
And now everything
Dies in shyness
The snake retreats
Admits defeat
And waits for the birth ritual, ritual, ritual
[Chorus]
Shining light
Child's highs
Mark his sides
Bright until the newness wears off
[Chorus]
Ritual,
Ritual,
Ritual
On forest earth
Euphoric rush
Trees bend to pray for us
I'm sputtering
Like cold machines
Late for the birth ritual, ritual, ritual, ritual
You can drive my tail
To watch the circus
A birth ritual
A birth of idiots
Now I woke up blessed
And good strives for heartache
Marked for the death ritual, ritual, ritual
[Chorus]
As you start the song
And face this garden
I light a cigarette before the execution
Now you see your crime
For every miracle
Add another drug at every birth ritual
I took the drug
To make me stay
And now everything
Dies in shyness
The snake retreats
Admits defeat
And waits for the birth ritual, ritual, ritual
[Chorus]
Shining light
Child's highs
Mark his sides
Bright until the newness wears off
[Chorus]
Ritual,
Ritual,
Ritual
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I heard this song in the PJ20 movie. Loved Soundgarden for a while, but just discovered this song
\m/
The first verse is obviously about sex.
I don't really get the second verse.
But thhe last line. "Marked for the death ritual" Means that an unborn baby has been marked to be aborted.
"As you start the song and face this garden."
These lines are about a pregnant girl getting prepared to have an abortion.
"I light a cigarette before the execution."
The dude waits outside, and has a cigarette (obviously), but the important part is the "execution" of the unborn baby.
"Now you see your crime, for every miracle"
Every time the girl or guy sees a baby ("miracle") they think of what might have been if the baby hadn't been aborted. And reflect on the "crime" of having a baby aborted (or a person killed).
"Add another drug at every birth ritual"
I'm not too knowledgable about abortions, having never know anyone who's had one. But I think it's done with a drug? I don't know, if it's not, this could be about the morning after pill, or just your standard birth control pills. But yeah, the "birth ritual" refers to sex. So, put plainly it says:
Add another birth control pill/morning after pill/abortion every time someone has sex.
It doesn't really make sense with abortion, seeing as you wouldn't have an abortion every time you had sex, so maybe the song is about birth control drugs in general. Idk.
The third verse is about sex again, I think.
"I took the drug to make me stay"
About viagra. Need I say more?
"And now everything dies in shyness"
Idk, brain dead atm.
"The snake retreats, admits defeat"
It's all finished up and he's lost his erection.
"And waits for the birth ritual"
I think "birth ritual" has a different meaning here. Idk what though.
After this I think the song may be about several things.
1 -Drugs to do with sex: viagra, BCP's, morning after pills.
2 -Abortion
3 -Some other third thing I have failed to see.
Lying like needles
On forest earth (dead needles fallen off the tree)
Euphoric rush (the death experience)
Trees bend to pray for us (connection to god/nature w/e)
I'm sputtering
Like cold machines (like a car running out of gas.. more dying)
Late for the birth ritual, ritual, ritual, ritual (and dying again)
You can drive my tail (follow)
To watch the circus (everyone running amok trying to save him)
A birth ritual
A birth of idiots (calling those that use medicine to stay idiots I guess)
Now I woke up blessed (had an epiphany)
And good strives for heart ache (the righteous know people die, but allow it and accept the mourning)
Marked for the death ritual, ritual, ritual (again, the dying theme)
Goes on and on. I may be wrong, but that what I see in it. This was the 1st Soundgarden song I ever head, and it's still my favorite. Love his voice. And the guitar riff is just .. wow. Simple, repetitive and fucking epic!
To make me stay
And now everything
Dies in shyness"
I always thought this verse said:
"I took the drug, to make me see,
now everything is doubt and shadow"
I kind of like that better
Yeah his voice is really high but it seems like that in most of soundgardens songs. Like he is screaming into the microphone but the actual strength of his voice is masked by the surrounding instruments.
i hate to say it but lines like
'you can drive my tail'
and
'Euphoric rush', I'm sputtering
it really suggests sex
and then saying that we are just tools(Like cold machines) in reproduction when all that is going to happen to us is death
'And good strives for heart ache
Marked for the death ritual, ritual, ritual"
it seems purposely clear as mud
i don't think it is made for an easy or linear interpretation