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Will you put my hands away ?
Will you be my man ?
Serve it up, don't wait
Let's see about this ham
oh, what happened ?
oh, what happened ?
Home spun desperation's knowing
Inside your cover's always blown
Will you be my man ?
Serve it up, don't wait
Let's see about this ham
oh, what happened ?
oh, what happened ?
Home spun desperation's knowing
Inside your cover's always blown
Lyrics submitted by saturnine
Track duration: 03:06
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I doubt you understood the meaning of that song. It's so absurdist, it's an almost dreamy snapshot of a scenario that involves homosexuality, you know, like bondage and some weird sexual partnership which at the time I felt was very radical as a lyrical context for a rock song.
It's about a keen/astute woman and her experience with some naïve dude who thinks he's a big shot.
She says
"Will you put my hands away, will you be my man"
In a sarcastic way like, "Oh, YOU'RE gonna be the one to do it eh?"
She says
"Serve it up don't wait, let's see about this ham"
Continuing the sarcasm saying, "Okay then, big guy, let's see about you fucking me, let's see what this kid can do to me"
And then she says
"Oh, what happened" twice
Because she's mocking him, saying like, "Oh you're not all you thought yourself to be after all, huh? Tisk, tisk, what a shame."
And she's a desperate housewife or homemaker(Paul uses the "Serve it up don't wait, let's see about this ham" line ironically that way) so she says: "Homespun desperation's knowing" meaning her knowing, literally HER own knowledge
"Inside your cover's always blown"
"Well it's this desperate homemaker's knowledge, who's loneliness is homespun, that I can see right through you, you petty boy; your cover's blown." She says this in an ironic way to match the idea of him being an actor. Like an idiom almost. She takes the fact that he's an actor and jokes about it saying that his 'cover's always blown'.
The graveness of the music mirrors the depth of her observations and jaded emotions regarding naïve people(she probably views a lot of people as naïve due to how intelligent she is).
Haven't listened to the song a whole lot either but i get the picture its about a failed relationship, most likely a failed marriage.
Will you put my hands away ?
Will you be my man ?
Asking her to marry him, pretty self explanatory if you view it in that sense.
Serve it up, don't wait
Let's see about this ham
The first part of married life. Again, fairly self explanatory if you're taking the lyrics very literal. The fact that he says don't wait kind of means to me that he doesn't want/care about the relationship they have. He just wants to, in this case, eat. Obviously could be said for so many things about marriage but he's not going to list all of them.
oh, what happened ?
oh, what happened ?
The downfall of the marriage. From the previous lines i get the feeling he already knew what was wrong, he knew it was coming. Maybe almost sort of a sarcastic line? Either way the marriage is falling apart or has fallen apart.
Home spun desperation's knowing
Inside your cover's always blown
Like the a post above i think these lines are sort of an answer to the previous ones, but he's also just venting as well. I can't really get my head around the "Home spun desperation's knowing", think id have to listen to it alot more. The second line would refer to once they were married (inside), he couldn't hide his personality (should be a better word for it than personality but can't think of one) any longer, and that's why they had to break up.
Will you put my hands away ?
Will you be my man ?
The speaker is married, in a trapped relationship, and goes out at night meaninglessly reaching out to other gay men for affairs, groping in the dark. But, he falls in love with someone he didn't intend to. He's asking this man to "put his hands away," his hands that are always hungry to touch another man.
Serve it up, don't wait
Let's see about this ham
"Ham" is lesser used gay slang for "ass."
oh, what happened ?
oh, what happened ?
He still can't believe what he's doing after he's done it. He thinks every time will be his last. He feels that he can't control his cravings.
Home spun desperation's knowing
Inside your cover's always blown
To me, "home spun desperation" indicates the speaker's unhappily married status, where he sits at home but still fantasies desperately about other men, and "inside your cover's always blown" is his knowing that he's gay, and that he can't hide it from himself. He's also hiding the affair with the man he's asking to be his man.
Will you put my hands away ?
Will you be my man ?
Describes the girl giving permission to the man to commit the sexual act believing that she must in order for a relationship to bloom(which shouldn't):
Serve it up, don't wait
Let's see about this ham(funny name for it... ham, but still a very very sad song)
Eager for a relationship, she does it and then realizes what she had done was a mistake:
oh, what happened ?
oh, what happened ?
She finally comes into her senses and realizes her desperation made her naive(while the "ham" is "inside" of her probably humping away). She realizes what the guy really was after.
Home spun desperation's knowing
Inside your cover's always blown
They write good stuff
Nah. The song is great, but I tend not to read into the lyrics.
You Notice every single person. You look at every singles persons face, but you can tell they're not where they want to be. You are given the chance to do anything you want, with hands. Then you begin to ask them, "Oh, what happen?" Why didn't you do want you wanted to do in life? Why didn't you make yourself happy? What made you quit? I tell you, not to wait for the "perfect" time to come. Because that is only a delusion created by the human mind. There is no "perfect" timing in life. You do it yourself. At home you're in desperation for moving up and out, but never really did anything about it earlier. Now, your hands are put away. You're old. Time is running out on you.
hands away- be my man...... hands are her tools for cooking, cleaning etc. She wants him to see her as more than that and be her romantic lover again
I can almost imagine a scene in her mind where she's maybe doing the dishes and he comes over, pulls her hands out of the water and looks deep into her eyes and kisses her like he's seeing her for the first time again.
serve it up, see abt this ham..... trivialities of daily life
oh what happened- when did they lose the spark, when did she become so lifeless
cover's blown... they know they're living a sham.
Hey and i just had another idea.... mayyybe it's about a woman who is married to a man and she's realised he's gay and only married her as his cover and to be his housewife. Sounds far-fetched but thats what happened with my grandparents.