Talking Heads – Crosseyed and Painless

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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 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 forula
Sharp as a knife
Facts cut a hole in us

Still waiting (repeat)

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

The island of doubt
It's 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
Facts don't stain the furniture
Facts go out and slam the door
Facts are written all over your face
Facts continue to change their shape

[Repeats]
I'm still waiting

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Lyrics submitted by exact

Track duration: 04:46

"Crosseyed and Painless [DVD]" as written by David/frantz Byrne

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

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Crosseyed and Painless song meanings
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16 Comments

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  • 0
    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.
    Flag cami1leon March 16, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I always say people who smoke meth are crosseyed and painless. Mainly because in comparison to me a "shooter" of dope, people who smoke it are always crosseyed while looking down to the end of the pipe, and painless because they are not using a needle. Then I started to read into the lyrics and I guess I'm just able to convince myself its about drugs..
    Flag whatupkneegrowon March 28, 2012   Link
    • 1 Reply
  • +1
    General Comment:I guess none of the above posters are opiate addicts, because seeing it through that lens makes it readily apparent what this song is about.

    Just look at the title for starters. A really heavy dose of opiates will make you cross eyed, and of course feeling no pain.

    Wasting away as a policy? Ending up in the hospital, from an OD? Still waiting, on the dope man?

    I'm not saying any of the members were opiate addicts, but NYC in the 80s was full of heroin.
    Flag trainwreckeron October 22, 2011   Link
  • 0
    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?
    Flag foreverdroneon January 22, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i love everyones interpretations. currently listening to this amazing album.
    Flag Italion November 27, 2009   Link
  • +1
    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.
    Flag WeeKnighTon September 09, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Going into conniptions from overanalysing one or any situation.
    Flag Cynothoglyson March 25, 2008   Link
  • 0
    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…
    Flag Chazspainon August 28, 2007   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:It seems that this song makes more sense today than ever before. "Facts just twist the truth around." Look at all the facts Dick Cheney pulled out during the 2004 debates. He had more facts than Edwards, but Truth lies in the interpretation of the facts.
    Flag humancorporationon May 02, 2007   Link
  • +2
    General Comment:well there is definitely a difference between fact and interpretation
    Flag floating_eyeon January 09, 2007   Link

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