9 minutes and 55 seconds.

I don't think I've ever skipped through a second of it.

kevin drew said that playing this song saved him money he wouldve spent on therapy.

fucked me in the ass... lol

The whole song is fantastic. To me, its about how people think music can be our savior, can inspire us, etc. (just as this one does!) but it's, in the end, just music, made by humans, so its nothing special, or at least it's only as special as you want it to be.

The brass at the end?? Brilliant.
I love how when the singer screams (gonna BREAK!) he does it so that its ACTUALLY IN TUNE! It sounds amazing. I love those parts. It's awesome. New fave BSS song.

This song live... amazing.

greatest ending to any CD I have ever heard.

best BSS song imo

one of the best songs ever

live.. it is actually incredible..
memories of the island show, toronto, summer of '06 i think it was... outside, under the stars, dancing our asses off and letting it all out.

and it doesn't really matter what it all means, or if it even has meaning - it's fucking gorgeous either way.

This song changed my life. I had a breakdown one weekend. I was in bad shape. Then, I listened to this song for 3 hours straight. I cried, I empathized. It's about music, religion, and love, amazingly, all at once. The most powerful song I have ever heard. I hol;d it dear, and always will. (It also contains a mere 4 chords...my god...this song, is just, wow.)

Thank you Kevin Drew And the B.S.S.

i never was a fan of this song, but now i love. it moves you. it's really about life. and everyone should listen to all 10 (or so) minutes of it.

Too beautiful. Helped me through a rough time.

I wouldn't be embarassed if people knew I listened to this song. Most of my friends are BSS fans and are fully aware that they don't have the greatest lyrics. While this is true, I find this song to be very moving both lyrically and musically and it's by far my favourite BSS song, perhaps one of my all-time favourites. And the fact that I get to hang out with Kevin Drew every now and again makes me love the band even more.

I'll give a first attempt at dissecting this, please help me a bit :)

"when i was a kid, you fucked me in the ass
but i took my pen to paper and i passed"

From the start this song sounds to me like it's taking a very real-life situation as some metaphorical lesson in life. The picture this bit gives me is very vivid, as someone being raped as a child, but overcoming his trauma and achieving greatness.

"you know i love the shit cause the shit it tastes so good,
i got pastures waiting in the woods........."

Drugs? Probably as a support to exit his trauma, the pastures in the woods meaning a quiet place he goes to (even if in his mind), my guess these two lines are about escape.

"treat me like a sign, sounds like so/oh well
i know times like these are the hell"

This I don't understand, probably relating to something more intimate, but my guess is, following the above lines, it's about exclusion (let's say - hypothetically - he's the bad boy druggie that is rejected).

"and when you do the tricks, the tricks look so good
i got buried rumors waiting in the woods,"

Again I miss the point, but he refers the woods again. My guess is that the woods represent the trauma he endured.

"and they try to climb awake
and call me over,
skies they rape and skies are sober."

Now this is very intense, and it returns to the first lines. Other people, maybe friends, try to make the person recover from his addiction. there's another reference to the rape, wich is associated with the rapist being drunk when he does it, wich more strongly leads me to interpret this story as that of an abused child.

"minds they fake and minds rolled over
it's good, it's good, it's good."

This sounds to me as a process of self-delusion into thinking that everything is OK. Probably a part of tunring over a new leaf.

"i know your dying
i know it's true
i know theirs seven thousand things you rather be and rather do,
and i know........that you fuck what you love
and you love what you fuck."

Again and I think for the final time he adresses his rapist, and again we have a reference on him being a family member, that's why I interpret as the father. "You fuck what you love and you love what you fuck" is pretty self-explanatory.

"i'll keep them out girl, i'll keep it true
i'll do anything inside the skin of you
cause i know that the sound of your heart
is a god i can trust,"

Now the song shifts to a different part of his life, that's centered on a relation with a certain girl. "I'll keep them out" I believe refers to his demons, his memories, that probably still haunt him and he's still trying to get over them.

"like a man ,
not a boy
i don't love i just fight with the violence in ourselves"

Still adressing the trauma? It sounds like he's still refering to his youth, maybe his crush on a girl hapens during adolescence? I can't really make out the last sentence.

and you all want the lovely music to save your lives
and you all want the lovely music to save your lives

Self-explanatory.

keep it coming
there is no lie to save your life
keep it coming
this is the lie to save your life

The subject here sounds the same as above, that is, to look for something (above: music) in a place that you know you can't find it. He realizes that the music, though soothing, isn't clearing his mind from his past.

why are you always fucking ghosts
why are you always fucking ghosts
why.........

His violence turned towards an enemy untouchable. Memories?

"it's been such a long
life that we trust
your heart is a whore
and love is just lust."

Like the lost person that he is, he seeks comfort in short-term relations, trying to find some love but getting nowhere.

"you want what you can't
and you can't cus of fear
we've got to get
out of here"

He wants to get rid of his ghosts, but doesn't have the courage to face them. Desperately he tries to escape from himself.

"why are you always.........
its been and it settles down and fights to love."

Again, he continues to struggle with himself, trying to settle down with someone that he can hold onto, and not his one-night stands that make him feel like a whore (see above).

"its all gonna break."

This follows through the entire song, and you can see it makes sense now: he keeps telling us that one day, it's all going down, someday - it's all gonna break!


Anyway, this is my interpretation. I tried to make a story out of it, and that's how I read it, and I see it following a line of fighting with your inner frustrations, trying to achieve your goals and overcoming trauma.

I love this song.

Cheers!

Great song, however horrendous they're/their you're/your confusion in the lyrics. Haha.

i really love bss.. ive seen them live a couple times.. and i really love kevin drew's lyrics.. i think that he always writes lyrics vaguely to inspire listeners to create their own interpretations. it's almost as if he's deliberately hiding things to force the listener to find something meaningful and incredibly personal. it's funny that the vagueness has such a psychological impact. the epic nature of the music (and many other bss tunes) seem to make it even more cinematic and animated.

It doesn't get much more honest than this song. God bless Broken Social Scene!

i recently acquired this album
and
i cant stop listening to it, i tried listening to something else, but i got bored.
and, though i love all of broken social scene, this album, for me, beats of you forgot it in people.

this and superconnected and major label debut are my favorites

and i dont think its disgusting, and i dont care if people hear me listening to it, cause its fucking amazing.

definitely my new favorite song :)

I just listened to this song (the version on "Broken Social Scene" while my 4-year-old was pushing the buttons on a Dora the Explorer van (French version) and the resulting melodic combination took me out into the most sublime level of ecstaspace! I highly recommend you try this.