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One gonna heal my body another gonna heal my pain
One gonna settle me down then bring me back up again
I'm gonna put my family back together again
One gonna hold my woman another gonna hold my job
One gonna help me get up, another gonna help me stop
One gonna help me talk right, one gonna lay me down to sleep
(Humming)
One gonna hold my thoughts and another gonna hold my bones
One gonna keep me warm and another gonna keep me cold
One gonna bring religion, right from a Coleman stove
One gonna help me keep, and another gonna help me take.
One gonna run me down, a hail of bullets in my wake.
You're gonna keep my soul it was yours to have long ago
(humming)
I'm gonna buckle my belt around the ceiling pipe
I'm gonna buckle my knees and I'm gonna lock em up tight
I'm gonna hold a pen while you drag my arm across the page
One gonna hold my memories another gonna close the door
One gonna leave me restless another wanting more
You're gonna keep my soul it was yours to have long ago
One gonna settle me down then bring me back up again
I'm gonna put my family back together again
One gonna hold my woman another gonna hold my job
One gonna help me get up, another gonna help me stop
One gonna help me talk right, one gonna lay me down to sleep
(Humming)
One gonna hold my thoughts and another gonna hold my bones
One gonna keep me warm and another gonna keep me cold
One gonna bring religion, right from a Coleman stove
One gonna help me keep, and another gonna help me take.
One gonna run me down, a hail of bullets in my wake.
You're gonna keep my soul it was yours to have long ago
(humming)
I'm gonna buckle my belt around the ceiling pipe
I'm gonna buckle my knees and I'm gonna lock em up tight
I'm gonna hold a pen while you drag my arm across the page
One gonna hold my memories another gonna close the door
One gonna leave me restless another wanting more
You're gonna keep my soul it was yours to have long ago
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Can't start a day without a drink/pill
***One gonna settle me down then bring me back up again
Calm the nerves, yet allows me to feel good enough to participate in life.
***Im gonna put my family back together again
Confidence that I can make it work with the family that has obviously left me (due to use)
***One gonna hold my woman another gonna hold my job
every drink/drug I feel more confident that my shitty life will ot be so bad...as I drink/use more.
***One gonna help me get up, another gonna help me stop
Need a drink/drug to start the day or get courage up and a true drinker/druggie quits every day.
***One gonna help me talk right, one gonna lay me down to sleep
Head never right until you get your drug/drink and true drinker /druggie needs one b4 bed.
***One gonna bring religon, right from a Coleman stove
This is a common metaphor used in recovery worlds. If you are cooking on a Coleman stove you have lost everything i.e. house or your power has been cut off.The fact that religion could be found would be the irony of still feeling there is hope although the kneeling is cooking over your portable stove rather than a higher power.
Is there really any need to further prove this songs true meaning?
In my mind, he's writing in the point of view as a soldier returning from home and his struggle coping and adapting back to a normal life. I think this for two reasons, the biggest because he has two songs that are clearly anti-war or talk about the struggles of war (The General and Camillo) and you could possibly interpret others correctly to fall into one of those categories so it's not far off to think that that's what this could be about.
I think this also because of my personal experiences coming from war. I can picture a soldier sitting at a table thinking or talking out loud either to himself or nobody at all, explaining and going over all the pills he has to take to make him normal now. In my mind it's the pills themselves that are keepsakes. The song also sounds like it is a progression. At first he's looking at a couple of pills he needs to take and that's going to help him put his family back together again. And then more pills are added to the point of hyperbole to emphasize the overwhelmingly helpless feeling he might be struggling with to the point that he wants to die but even needs help with that.
Just my thoughts.
This song definitely sounds like he is having an intense internal debate, and I think he is in his home, and he is remembering his wife, and how everything reminds him of her. I think the fact that he chose a female voice to do the harmony in this song is another implication of that. I think the woman's voice is supposed to be like a voice in his head. I noticed in other romantic songs by State Radio he talks about his woman like a religious person talks about god, it almost seems that no doubt could he handle being without her.
I noticed someone also made a comment about the Coleman Stove being an implication of a suicide attempt, I think the coleman stove is another keepsake that reminds him of better days that he cannot go back to.
This song is such a masterpiece, very moving, and since I'm a wussy little girl, it makes me cry almost every time.
One gonna heal my body another gonna heal my pain
(no drugs his body will heal- with drugs he will not feel the pain of life)
One gonna settle me down then bring me back up again
(no drugs his life will settle down - with drugs he will be back up i.e. high)
One gonna help me talk right, one gonna lay me down to sleep
(no drugs he will be cognizant and coherent - with drugs he will be numb to world)
One gonna keep me warm and another gonna keep me cold
(no drugs he will find warmth in life - with drugs alone and possibly homeless -cold)
Im gonna buckle my belt around the ceiling pipe
(drugs possible suicide or reference to tighting belt around arm for heroin)
Im gonna buckle my knees and Im gonna lock em up tight
(no drugs possibly finding religion and praying)
Im gonna hold a pen while you drag my arm across the page
(this may be a stretch but I have watched drug addicts sign away their rights in hospitals when dieing and they could barely move their arms to write name)
One gonna leave me restless another wanting more
(stop drugs will be restless fighting addicting - with drugs always want more)
not sure how else you could interpret it
As i say that though it still feels very much like a song about the choice of suicide, and as others have said that he has dedicated to those who havee have had someone commit suicide in there life. kinda hard to argue when it comes from the band
This song is called keepsake which is something we keep of someone that holds sentimental value. He is saying "one gonna hold my"... so people are going to hold keepsakes of him which insinuates he will not be around anymore.
I also believe that divorce is involved because he says "i'm gonna put my family back together again"...."I'm gonna hold a pen while you drag my arm across the page"..... then "you're gonna keep my soul, it was yours to have long ago"...
Drugs may be involved as the parts he sings about "one gonna help me..." and the general areas that don't make sense such as the religion coming from the coleman stove.
I guess ignorance is bliss in the case of most of the people who replied to this forum.This song is about the juxtaposition between elated moments of physical and emotional peaks, along with the darkest depths of such feelings inherent to HEROIN ADDICTION!!!
The "One" he commonly refers to can be most obviously identified as a "hit" or heroin, most likely in introveneous form. The lines follow a pattern of explaining how usage temporari;y heals the painful withdrawal symptoms, yet perpetuates the overall agony that is his daily existence. Some examples of the pain of withdrawal symptoms include:
One gonna heal my body another gonna heal my pain
One gonna hold my woman another gonna hold my job
One gonna help me get up, another gonna help me stop -
an addict cannot funstion with the small things of everyday life without heroin throughout the day.
One gonna keep me warm and another gonna keep me cold-
Hot and cold flashes are among the most common and the most intense of withdrawal symptoms
One gonna help me talk right, one gonna lay me down to sleep-
sleep depravation is inherent to all opiate withdrawals
Furthermore, the reference to the "Coleman STove" depicts the process of melting down heroin into a shootable form. Many users cook the drug with water in a spoon over portable stoves because lighters are noy always hot enough or get too hot to hold after an extended period of time. The "pen" is a reference to a needle in street lingo.
Lastly, and most directly, he remarks that as soon as he takes one he wants another, an unyielding process plaguing most addicts, of any drug/One gonna leave me restless another wanting more/
Now what was correct in other responses was the fact that he refers to suicide as a possible way out of this life. This is definately an option given the painstaking process dealing woth overcoming addiction.
You're probably wondering what makes me such an expert. Well, I was a HEROIN ADDICT for all my years of college at UCSB and let me tell you that this is the most accurate depiction of the daily emotional and physical pain that comes with being addicted to heroin. its a great song and I hope in discovering its yrue meaning that people will not shy away from it/
P.S. If the song wasn't about drugs, why would it be staged in the finale of the show "Weeds" on showtime
sounds like a guy who uses pills to get threw his day, each pill helps him with each task.