Lost my shape
Trying to act casual
Can't stop
I might end up in the hospital
Changing my shape
I feel like an accident
They're back
To explain their experience

Isn't it weird?
Looks too obscure to me
Wasting away
And that was their policy

I'm ready to leave
I push the fact in front of me
Facts lost
Facts are never what they seem to be
Nothing there
No information left of any kind
Lifting my head
Looking for the danger signs

There was a line
There was a formula
Sharp as a knife
Facts cut a hole in us
There was a line
There was a formula
Sharp as a knife
Facts cut a hole in us

Still waiting, still waiting, still waiting, still waiting
Still waiting, still waiting, still waiting, still waiting

The feeling returns
Whenever we close our eyes
Lifting my head
Looking around inside

The island of doubt
Is like the taste of medicine
Working by hindsight
Got the message from the oxygen
Making a list
Find the cost of opportunity
Doing it right
Facts are useless in emergencies

The feeling returns
Whenever we close our eyes
Lifting my head
Looking around inside

Facts are simple and facts are straight
Facts are lazy and facts are late
Facts all come with points of view
Facts don't do what I want them to
Facts just twist the truth around
Facts are living turned inside out
Facts are getting the best of them
Facts are nothing on the face of things

Still waiting, still waiting, still waiting, still waiting
Still waiting, still waiting, still waiting, still waiting
Still waiting, still waiting, still waiting, still waiting


Lyrics submitted by exact

Crosseyed and Painless Lyrics as written by Chris Frantz David Byrne

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

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Crosseyed and Painless song meanings
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22 Comments

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  • +5
    General Comment

    I think this is an argument about the nature of human beings. Humans tend to shape things in order to fill holes. They label, the examine, they change. We have removed ourselves from evolution in this way.

    Byrne I think is arguing that our need and obsession with doing this is actually doing the opposite. Its making us lose ourself, and making our understanding less complete. The whole album I think is about this to a degree.

    istareatthesunon January 06, 2005   Link
  • +3
    General Comment

    Byrne likes to play with abstract ideas, and art images. He commented in a NY Times interview that he liked to do things like collect photos of hands, blow them up and then arrange them on a wall “until they make sense to me”.

    That said, I think he was playing with the idea of actually becoming formless, being disembodied; the intellect would have no physical clues, and start deconstructing and obsessing about “Facts.” Just my feeling, I´m probably way off the mark…

    Chazspainon August 28, 2007   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    I imagine this is a snapshot of hectic life in the NY party circa 1980, at least from David Byrne's neurotic personae. He can't relax, and is trying to take refuge in intellectualizing the situation.

    I also agree with istareatthesun's more general point, this song is about the inadequacy of the abstraction to deal with the physicality of the body in crisis mode. Culture can't catch up -- I'm still waiting.

    DevastatorJr.on January 10, 2006   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    well there is definitely a difference between fact and interpretation

    floating_eyeon January 09, 2007   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    This is one of my favorite Talking Heads songs, and I can't explain why. Well, it sounds great! But do I understand what it means? Hell no.

    Its meaning is like an amorphous blob. Try to hold onto it, and you discover it's an impossible task. The harder you work at grasping it, the more it slips through your hands! Almost as if it has a rudimentary sort of intelligence...an instinct to escape from being pinned down.

    I wonder whether (metaphorically?) that's what this song is about. The harder you think about something, the more inexplicable it seems. There are facts, and there's truth. Is it possible to close the gap separating what's factual from what is truthful? Is there any point in trying?

    foreverdroneon January 23, 2011   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Going into conniptions from overanalysing one or any situation.

    Cynothoglyson March 25, 2008   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation

    It is my opinion that David Byrne, in this song and others on the album, is expressing his distrust of 'facts' and the resulting desperation for truth and paranoia of being lied to (the album title Remain in Light speaks for itself here). Facts that have been twisted, fogged, or even outright fabricated, and then fed as truths to the society/flock of sheep that are all too happy to eat them up without once questioning them.

    mockingbird5on March 17, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    The music video proves this to be a badass dance song.

    blackled222on June 16, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Well judging by the multiple references to medical related situations, and the opening two lines, I'd say he was facing a medical crisis, and in denial.

    WeeKnighTon September 09, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    i love everyones interpretations. currently listening to this amazing album.

    Italion November 27, 2009   Link

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