Massive Attack – Future Proof

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  Lyric Correction:It is so strange that noone realised this whole album's lyrics are so wrongly written here. I suggest reading them while listening to the song. The wrong ones are heard very obviously. Some songs like "Future Proof" is nearly completely wrong. Here is the correct lyrics:
  
  Borderline case
  Reinforced glass
  Absent friends
  Passport photos
  An elastic past
  
  Empty pocket
  They think it is all
  They think it's all
  It's all wrapped up on a swollen lip
  He draws the warm pipe
  
  Chemicals
  Chemicals captured in winter's grip
  Turn us on
  Seperate the leper
  Hungry ghosts
  Hungry ghosts
  
  Another imprint
  In borrowed clothes
  We can be numb
  We can be numb
  Passing through
  
  Blow blow blow blow...
  
  Borderline case
  Future proof
  Real thin air
  Real thin air
  Real thin air
  
  

  Flag grossindecencyon December 19, 2011   Link

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    I have copied "we can be numb" by mistake, it is "I could be numb". Why can't I edit my comment? It is strange.

    Flag grossindecencyon December 19, 2011  
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  General Comment:yeah. everyone is pretty spot on in my opinion. fairly literal, as poett illustrates. not much else to say about the lyrics.
  
  my favorite part of this song however, is the guitars. i know, i know, but i'm a sucker for a good guitar sound. it's like 2:30 - 3:35, and yeah you have to turn it up - like you don't have it way up already...
  
  probably my favorite track off of the album even though i love everything on this album..

  Flag Wimmachineon August 05, 2010   Link

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    yeah! the guitar bit is the best man :)

    Flag alterEgoon October 25, 2010  
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  Song Meaning:most of you got it right,some are dead off...
  
  the song is about a drug addict yes, and drugs... and most of the lyrics are literal...
  
  'Borderline case' = a person on the edge, someone with problems shut out from the rest of their world, with no one to turn to and no where to go, a person on the borderline of life.........
  
  'reinforced glass' = crack pipes are reinforced so they can be smoked out of.... look it up, this lyric is to the point......
  
  'absent friends' = another literal lyric, can be taken in many directions, but mainly again this person has no people in their life........
  
  'Passport photos, An elastic past, empty pockets' = this person has nothing to their name but their ID, no money, no anything;
  
  'They think it is all... They think it's soul' = they=the addict, regard the drugs as what they actually feel, what they think the drugs make them feel, like they have a soul, like its everything they feel........
  
  'All wrapped up on a swollen lip, He draws the warm pipe' = very literal here, all wrapped up on a swollen lip, the pipe is in 'his' mouth being smoked....
  
  .....the rest later.... if i get any responses from this...... if not, the truth is too hard to bare, cause you just cant see....
  
  
  

  Flag poetton May 31, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:Borderline case can be a bit metaphoric. It could be about crossing moral borders. For me it's a description of a technocratic, dehumanized institution or society, which is crossing a border of human dignity armed with scientific authority nobody can defy.

  Flag ScannerDarklyon May 27, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:I'm sure this song is about a drug addict.
  
  Alot of their work alludes to drugs.

  Flag midnightparadeon March 19, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:First verse is about being at a border checkpoint. passport photos, reinforced glass, etc.
  'Elastic past, empty pockets' = somebody with a flexible history i.e. fake passports, no luggage, etc.
  
  Then we get the reference to drugs.
  
  Then what I interpret as police checking for drugs. Maybe not so clear-cut here, but I read it as:
  "seperate the leper" = seperate the drug trafficker from the rest of the passengers
  "hungry ghosts" = police searching hungrily for a drug bust? maybe?
  "another imprint, in borrowed clothes" = borrowed clothes definitely evinces the whole falsified past thing mentioned before, presumably this would be the one with drugs. imprint = drugs, or concealed drugs?
  
  then more drug references.

  Flag energyandwaveson January 15, 2009   Link

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  General Comment:In some passages it sounds like it´s about people who do drugs in order to prevent from having feelings of anxiety, fear, pain, sickness, sexual impotency and, what somehow sticks a little more in my head by listening to the song, aging.
  
  Just impressions...

  Flag albotrindadeon January 06, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:Perhaps institutions?
  Namely mental ones?
  Borderline cases- A patient who is one the line of sanity? Whose actions would push the limits of whatever is socially acceptable.
  Reenforced glass - easy one
  etc...

  Flag agent_hunton November 20, 2006   Link

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  General Comment:Drugs are futureproof. mankind has been using substances to alter they mind scince the dawn of civilization, and we will only continue to create strong more powerful drugs that only kill us faster.Hence, drugs are futureproof.
  
  ("Reinforced glass
  Absent friends
  Passport photos ") sounds like he is being detained somewhere for drugs.

  Flag FreeDemonon August 16, 2006   Link

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  General Comment:The song seems to be mostly about drugs. "He draws the warm pipe" and "Blow blow blow blow" seem to be about either crack or meth.
  I'm not sure if there's a connection, but "Hungry Ghosts" is an important Chinese festival near Halloween where paper effogies of money, cars, houses, etc. are burned so that the ancestral spirits will have these items to make their after-lives more comfortable. Hindus have a similar festival at about the same time.

  Flag bocmaximaon May 03, 2006   Link

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