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Pray for content
Settle for free rent
The tenements recall Rome
High five
Look up, look alive
As the scions of history
Guess another mystery wrong
Recite your lines
And I'll quote scriptures
Everything was fine
Until membership lost its privileges
Everyone in town
Wanted to be around you
This went on for a while
Until they finally found you
Ever so careful
On the strip
We cruise
Crippled in
Someone else's shoes
Who knew?
Mind you
I never had to stand in line
You did
For the ballad of a comeback kid
Watch your step
As you step down
From the podium
Returned from the war
To a hero's welcome
What's more
You just had to win
Blazing new trails
Waving goodbye
To the audience
Held captive
The crowd was inactive
It made such perfect sense
But you won't
Kelly says she could have
Like a bat out of hell
Time has come for you
Settle for free rent
The tenements recall Rome
High five
Look up, look alive
As the scions of history
Guess another mystery wrong
Recite your lines
And I'll quote scriptures
Everything was fine
Until membership lost its privileges
Everyone in town
Wanted to be around you
This went on for a while
Until they finally found you
Ever so careful
On the strip
We cruise
Crippled in
Someone else's shoes
Who knew?
Mind you
I never had to stand in line
You did
For the ballad of a comeback kid
Watch your step
As you step down
From the podium
Returned from the war
To a hero's welcome
What's more
You just had to win
Blazing new trails
Waving goodbye
To the audience
Held captive
The crowd was inactive
It made such perfect sense
But you won't
Kelly says she could have
Like a bat out of hell
Time has come for you
Lyrics submitted by Statbucksbabe28
Track duration: 03:51
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Seems like it's just talking about how civilization has outgrown the old, middle-eastern religions. "Like a bat out of hell time has come for you." Lot of people don't believe in that shit anymore, and even if they do, they tend to cherry-pick the things they like. Most of us have updated our views on the place of women, gays, birth control, and the role of sex in a relationship. The Bible is no longer the authoritative book it once was, and we're less superstitious about the happenings of everyday life. We no longer believe that disease is a hex put on you by evil spirits, for example. "Everyone in town wanted to be around you. This went on for awhile until they finally found you."
Bejar is one hell of a songwriter.
This is one of my favourite np songs. Along with The Bleeding Heart Show.
Anyway, I think this song might be about high school and trying to fit in, pretending, and being a little fake. "recite your lines and i'll quote scriptures".
The chorus to me sounds like it's about trying to look cool, but being uncomfortable in the situation. The idea of being "crippled in someone else's shoes" sounds to me like pretending to be someone you're not.
"watch your step as you step down from the podium returned from the war to a hero's welcome what's more you just had to win" sounds like a sports superstar to me.
"blazing new trails waving goodbye to the audience held captive the crowd was inactive it made such perfect sense" sounds like a graduation and having to sit through speeches that you don't care about.
Everyone else's awards and plans don't matter to you, just like yours don't matter to anyone else.
I think that's it. Anyone else?
The New Pornographers spend a lot of time touring in the USA. Neko isn't Canadian.