Lyrics for Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying as interpreted by ReActor

Get Me Away from Here, I'm Dying Lyrics
Ooh! Get me away from here I'm dying
Play me a song to set me free
Nobody writes them like they used to
So it may as well be me
Here on my own now after hours
Here on my own now on a bus
Think of it this way
You could either be successful or be us
With our winning smiles, and us
With our catchy tunes, and us
Now we're photogenic
You know, we don't stand a chance
Oh, I'll settle down with some old story
About a boy who's just like me
Thought there was love in everything and everyone
You're so naive!
After a while they always get it
They always reach a sorry end
Still it was worth it as I turned the pages solemnly, and then
With a winning smile, the boy
With naivety succeeds
At the final moment, I cried
I always cry at endings

Oh, that wasn't what I meant to say at all
From where I'm sitting, rain
Washing against the lonely tenement
Has set my mind to wander
Into the windows of my lovers
They never know unless I write
"This is no declaration, I just thought I'd let you know goodbye"
Said the hero in the story
"It is mightier than swords
I could kill you sure
But I could only make you cry with these words"

Oh, get me away, I'm dying...

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errigan
10-14-2004

Rated 0 
It's about death, right? And yet the tune is so upbeat.

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MalFunkt
11-07-2004

Rated 0 
donno actually errigan, I thought it might have been about a guy who is just a little too nice and idealistic about life and always gets squashed by the nasty people...just a guess really

I agree though, it's also very upbeat and happy, like so many B&S songs

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ladylizzie
11-14-2004

Rated 0 
ahh, maybe it has to do with the power of imagination (and the power of the pen) that can be stronger than the dreariness of real life,. but how does this tie in with the endings and dying themes? i don't quite know....

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tigerlily83
11-23-2004

Rated 0 
"They always reach a sorry ending
They always get it in the end"- close guess though.

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ReActor
12-01-2004

Rated 0 
Fixed. Sorry, trusting the official band site far too much.

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I Heart Indie
12-09-2004

Rated 0 
I think this is a lovely Song. Belle and Sebastian have definatly come to be my favorite band. I'm not exactly sure what its supposed to infer exactly but i do agree somewhat with MalFunkt's comments about a guy just a little too nice and idealistic about live

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PunchDrunkLover
01-30-2005

Rated 0 
If Your Feeling Sinister is my favorite record of theirs. I could listen to it forever.

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caitsith01
05-03-2005

Rated 0 
This song is entirely brilliant lyrically, it has several layers of meaning.

1. The songwriter sitting looking out his window, thinking about what to write

2. The songwriter imagining himself in a fairy-tale type story in a book he's reading, as the naive hero

3. The songwriter thinking about his actual mundane life and the band he's in

4. The songwriter speaking to his ex-lovers, who he abandons and doesn't always contact

At the end 1-4 are brought together perfectly by the last few lines.

I would go so far as to say that:

Oh, that wasn't what I meant to say at all
From where I'm sitting, rain
Washing against the lonely tenement
Has set my mind to wander

And the rest of that verse are the best lyrics I can think of outside a Bob Dylan song, and from me that's very high praise indeed.

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meathoof
05-24-2005

Rated 0 
i tend to think it's about someone who has out grown the town that they live in. They want something new in come and take them away. 'Here on my own now after hours,
Here on my own now on a bus'. And this is a daydream the person is having...

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dreadhead69
08-22-2005

Rated 0 
I completely aggree with caitsit01. this is a song about him writing the song. he takes his experiences as a musician in a band and writes a song about how it's hard to get ahead in the music buisiness, and how it looks like things are down at this point and how could they ever get ahead. like they're stuck in the same thing and it's breaking the band apart "get me away i'm dying...". everything ends.

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laurayanguas01
12-10-2005

Rated 0 
this song is simply spectacular .. i love the way b$s make these simple totally beautiful mind blowing songs

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Schizima
01-10-2006

Rated 0 
It's about a person who naively does his best whenever he can. He's innocent and he means well, and he's dying because of it.

He knows he doesn't stand a chance, but he still tries, because if there's any genuine sentiment left in the world, the underdog will somehow succeed in the end.

Everyone roots for the underdog in the movies and books. Not so much in real life, sadly.

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TFFMO
02-03-2006

Rated 0 
I didn't think it was about dying, I thought the "get me away from here, I'm dying" was about how he's fed up with his mundane life, and is only 'dying' metaphorically.

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suclid003
02-13-2006

Rated 0 
i agree with Schizima and TFFMO. it isn't supposed to be taken literally that he's dying, he's just trying to keep him chin up even when he knows that he's stuck with words that maybe won't get him anywhere.

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suclid003
02-13-2006

Rated 0 
maybe the narrator is tired of feeling melancholy and clings to stories of heart and innocent heroes to remind him that there is still hope for hopeless romantics and dreamers.

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mali_djava
03-04-2006

Rated 0 
Play me a song to set me free
Nobody writes them like they used to
So it may as well be me

Ain't it obvious?
It's about music business and about dissapointment in doing what you like and not being payed for it and for people listening 'wrong' music and so on...
It's also about being aware of yout talents and being aware that noone else has to recognize them...
One of my favourite B&S songs...

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41firstletters
05-02-2006

Rated 0 
to me, right now, as i'm finishing high school and anticipating college, i disregard the lyrics and just focus on getting out of this shit town.

but really, i think it's a beautiful song, and B & S are amazing.

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treehousewizkid
05-05-2006

Rated 0 
I think it's about knowing that you're going to fail but continuing to live anyway, if not only for the story. The character in this song gains respite from his mundane existence through this romanticization - the only way he knows how to digest life.

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41firstletters
05-10-2006

Rated 0 
Well, it really does have to be about knowing you're set up for failure. He sings "You could either be successful or be us", and goes on to cite the book, how he's just like the boy in the story, and how "You're so naive! / They always reach a sorry ending". But, he keeps a "winning smile" about everything.

Eventually, he's finishing up the book and "With a winning smile, the boy / With naivety succeeds / At the final moment," so everything will turn out good, despite him not being succesful or anything.

I hope I made any sense.

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BoyWithTheArabStrap
05-21-2006

Rated 0 
I think it's about some good guy, the naive optimistic guy who does good all the time. Kinda like Paul McCartney. The line " Here on my own now after hours/here on my own now on a bus " describes his loneliness, and how he doesn't have money to afford a car.

In the end, the boy with optimism wins, and he does it with a smile. He wins with a simple " Goodbye ", which is mightier than killing someone.

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vlnp89
05-25-2006

Rated 0 
I thought this song was about someone who's too idealistic for life. When he sings "Get me away from here," I think he means "here" to be the world we live in, which isn't always cut out for idealistic people.
He likes himself alright -- he says he has "winning smiles" and "catchy tunes" -- but at the same time, he realizes that those aren't the things that the world appreciates ("we don't stand a chance"). He relates to the boy in the story (who also has a "winning smile", just like him), but understands that the boy is too naive to succeed or get what he wants. The only context where "naivete succeeds" is in a fairy tale.

As for the end of the song... I don't think the singer commits suicide so much as he just comes to the conclusion he's not really made for this world. Suicide -- his "goodbye" -- would be the ultimate revenge, making the world "cry" for him, but the singer decides to make "no declaration" and just accepts that he doesn't necessarily fit in with the jaded, realistic world.

I know that analysis sounds really depressing, but I find this to be an upbeat happy song (the lyrics as well as the music). I certainly relate to the speaker, and I love the conclusion he comes to: we're here on this world, and in the grand scheme of things we may not fit in, but screw it, we're here anyway. The least and best we can do is love life while we're here.

That message has gotten me through many a sleepless night. :)

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softasfire
10-16-2006

Rated 0 
I agree with TFFMO, I think this song is about boredom.

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planet_queen
10-29-2006

Rated 0 
He's definitely not actually dying. it's a metaphor. he feels trapped the way his life is going and wants someone to 'get him away'. The guy is sitting alone on a bus and starts to reflect - the song is like his stream of conciousness- all that stuff is going through his mind. he feels sad and then wants to listen to a song that will make him feel better, but he can't think of one so he starts to write his own. then he starts to read a book and compares the boy in the book to himself, but then it gets mixed up in the song but he didn't want ther book in the song "that wasb't what I meant to say at all" then he gets distracted by the rain and thinks about his lovers and then he goes back to the book again. it's a great song, and he does make me cry with those words!

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bakismaki
11-08-2006

Rated 0 
It is about an idealistic person feeling out of place in the real world. So much so that they look for ways to not deal with living in the real world.

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angel_wired
11-27-2006

Rated 0 
Most songs about being a musician and in a band are complete tripe, but this is one of the most fantastic B&S songs.

The final lines are stunning.

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