Lyrics for I Bleed as interpreted by ROBRAM89

I Bleed Lyrics
As loud as hell
A ringing bell
Behind my smile
It shakes my teeth
And all the while
As vampires feed

I bleed

Prithee my dear
Why are we here
Nobody knows
We go to sleep
As breathing flows
My mind secedes

I bleed

There’s a place
In the buried west
In a cave
With a house in it
In the clay
The holes of hands
You can place
A hand in hand

Interaction
Mail to a friend Send Lyrics to a Friend
Share on Facebook

Stumble It
Add to Del.icio.us Add to Del.icio.us




  • 25 Comments
  • Printer Friendly Lyrics
oldest first     Expand All
ROBRAM89
12-09-2005

Rated -1 
If we're gonna talk about songs Nirvana sotle from the Pixies, I think "In Bloom" sounds WAY too much like "I Bleed."

Log in to reply
1 Reply
bone_machine
12-30-2005

Rated 0 
^never noticed that, but yes...maybe! what to say about this one? i just love it. hm, thisis my first entry so don't expect too much, but I always thought this was about vampires, couldn't that be?

Log in to reply
bone_machine
12-30-2005

Rated 0 
i mean sure, the word even is in the text, but the whole lyrics are about it, aren't they?

Log in to reply
YoungxForxEternity
03-21-2006

Rated 0 
I Bleed sounds nothing like In Bloom...

Log in to reply
CosmicWolfy
05-17-2006

Rated 0 
Well, I don't think the whole song is about vampires. In fact, the last verse sounds like it's about the Anasazi cliff dwellings in the southwest US.

Log in to reply
The Machinist
05-19-2006

Rated 0 
God damnit! This used to be called "Bleed" and I wrote a HUGE description about it, but it disappeared! So, now, I shall try to remember what I said!

The song Bleed, to me, is about bullies or whatever in school, they are the vampires feeding off of misery. The "as loud as hell, a ringing bell" could be a school bell? The sound to the vitcim is hell. The victim tries to seem happy "behind my smile, it shakes my teeth" but as the vampires feed, the vitcim will "bleed", perhaps attempted suicide or crying or something.

The victim asks a sister or a friend in the same position "Why are we here?". The victim's only way to escape it's horrible life is to sleep and dream, "As breathing flows, My mind secedes"

I'm not too sure of the last part... Maybe it's a fantasy where things are nice?

Anyhoo, this is my idea of the meaning of this AMAZIN song! (and in case you were wondering I'm not depressed or EMo or anything)

Log in to reply
tinaverde
07-20-2006

Rated 0 
I always say "brittaney my dear, why are we here?" because that's my best friend's name and we both love the pixies. I've never told her that the real lyrics say "prithee my dear," because it makes her so happy.

Log in to reply
Radio Saturday
08-02-2006

Rated 0 
I'm not sure waht it's about, but I love the use of archaic language in a good rock song. Prithee, my dear.

Also, for the record, I always thought the line was "There's a phallus / In the way out west," which suggests a host of other meanings, but it looks like I was wrong. (Radio sits at the computer, blushing like mad.)

Log in to reply
axemrangers
10-13-2006

Rated 0 
"If we're gonna talk about songs Nirvana sotle from the Pixies, I think "In Bloom" sounds WAY too much like "I Bleed.""

It's not like that should suprise anyone. Cobain loved The Pixies. He said in an interview once that Smells Like Teen Spirit was basically him trying to write a Pixes song. (Notice, for example, the laid-back verse and then the exploding loud and emotional chorus, which was always a Pixes staple.) =)

Log in to reply
Wrong Way
12-14-2006

Rated 0 
I haven’t seen a satisfactory explanation for this song. I would have never figured out that lyrics ‘slicing up eyeballs’ made up a song that made sense. Or that so much thought and information went into a song called ‘Alec Eiffel’. Anyway, it’s with that in mind that I make a first attempt to dissect poetry.

The first verse (or is it a stanza?) makes me think there is something behind his smile that is really loud and probably a bell, but the only thing I can think of directly behind a smile would be a brain. Maybe this guy’s thinking is hurting him. Now that I think about it, the uvula looks a little like a bell. It plays an important role in articulation. It can also contribute to snoring. Sleeping is mentioned in the second part, and the first part may be an allusion to yelling really loud. It may be one or the other, or neither.

The second verse mentions the philosophical question that all cultures, societies, and religions ask. Even though sleep is mentioned it might be a reference to death. I notice the calm of it in contrast to the first. Maybe his heart, and adrenaline is pumping, next “I bleed”, then he calmly ‘goes to sleep’.

The third verse is the one that made me think we could find the perfect bit of information that would prove the whole song made sense. I started doing google searches to find clay caves buried in the West. I didn’t go so well. I figured this was a reference to old civilizations, and I know they loved to get they mutilation on so I looked more towards blood rituals.

Clay caves blood rituals—http://www.cas.usf.edu/geography/faculty/v62n1-Colas.pdf

This is an article about Central American Mayan caves in Belize. Here are some fragments of sentences that may pertain to this song: Through bloodletting visions were sought. These experiences allow you to communicate with ancestors and supernaturals. These events were undertaken in connection with childbirth, marriage, death of parents, etc.

http://www.authenticmaya.com/peten_caves.htm
In 1980, the Naj Tunich caves were re-discovered in Peten, Guatemala. Naj Tunich has dozens of hieroglyphic texts and figures, as well as some handprints and about a half dozen incised petroglyphs. Naj Tunich is the Maya term for cave and literally means "stone house". Handprints and footprints are also found there along with pottery.

The Mayan civilization comes as close or closer to any for this song. The Aztecs didn’t have what I’d call blood rituals so much as human sacrifice. CosmicWolfy mentioned the Anasazi and that fits with a house in the West made of clay that you could place your hand in someone else’s. The closest thing they came to bloodletting is recent findings that they engaged in cannibalism to scare the crap out of other tribes. But I didn't look into them all that much.

So anyway, I haven’t figured it out. Not too sure what to make of the feeding vampires. Maybe the vampires aren't literally people drinking blood, but people who enjoy a good bloodletting (I know I do). Maybe a Mayan is happy to get married. He and his bride cut themselves, and lose consciousness. Maybe I’ve gone way down the wrong path.

Log in to reply
la_muneca
01-01-2007

Rated 0 
I don't really have a decisive take on the rest of the song, but I have a minor take on the last stanza ("In the clay, the holes of hands", etc...)
I think it implies that in a far off place, in a distant world, hidden, there's a patch of clay with holes where someone placed the impressions of their hands. If you can find that place, you can put your hands in the memory of someone else's, see what they see, be someone else, be a little less alone.

Log in to reply
xkessb182x
02-28-2007

Rated 0 
Wrong way, i think you're looking wayy too much into it. I think he's talking about school, hence "a ringing bell" and how he pretends to be happy (behind my smile), but still he is tormented (as vampires feed, i bleed). Then he's saying "why are we here" b/c he wants to leave. then he's saying he escapes in his mind (my mind secedes).

that's my take on the song.

Log in to reply
outcesticide121
05-18-2007

Rated 0 
In Bloom sounds nothing like I Bleed.

I love both Pixies and Nirvana.

And I hear no similarities at all.

Log in to reply
1 Reply
scrappy123
06-03-2007

Rated 0 
This song is about a meaningless life. The last verse refers to a civil war burial ground-but make what you want of it. I'm not going as far as to call the civil war deaths meaningless.

Log in to reply
asdf123asdf
06-20-2007

Rated 0 
I think this song is about Jesus. It really is. The vampires are people feeding off of his sacrifice. The cave is his burial tomb. The holes in hands are the holes in his hands from the nails.

Log in to reply
finechild
11-04-2007

Rated 0 
oh, wow. i thought that second verse went like this:
prithee my dear
why all the year
nobody knows
we go to sleep
as breathe in flows
my mind's a sea

i. feel. stupid.

Log in to reply
twocent
01-10-2008

Rated 0 
In high school I did a watercolor for an art exhibit based on this song. In the painting there's an adobe hut in a small dim cave below one of the bases of the golden gate bridge, writhing on the ground is a pale naked figure positioned as if imploring the viewer (cribbed from one of those bhutto dancers that slowly descend hanging upside down from a great height as a rope coiled around their ankles unravels.) His hands are bound together at the wrist and blood drips from his palms like a stigmata.

I really don't want to find out that this is some theory of Black Francis' about Anasazi blood cults and extra-terrestrials. I wan't to cling to my own idiotic illusions.

Log in to reply
blann
02-01-2008

Rated 0 
And all the while As vampires feed? As breathing flows My mind secedes, it's about turning into something (maybe no metaphor just vampires?) to secede means to withdraw from old beliefs, religious beliefs in particular. the ending is just picturesque, pastoral about imagery rather than deep meanings.

Log in to reply
Eric2008
03-25-2008

Rated 0 
Hay! first post here, great fan of Cobain. Started listening to the Pixies about a month ago.
I think as some body said its about day to day life in general.

As loud as hell
A ringing bell
Behind my smile
It shakes my teeth
And all the while
As vampires feed

The bell could be some thing but I guess its just in his imagination. Maybe like `Hey wake up!` your walking around smiling while all this bad stuff is going on i.e `vampires` could be the government, rich buisness owners, oil barrons what evers wrong in the world or maybe the US.

Prithee my dear
Why are we here
Nobody knows
We go to sleep
As breathing flows
My mind secedes

`Prithee` is like `I`m trying to tell you some thing` , you whos like me, whos not interested in the bad things thats going on. When we sleep are minds withdraw from the world. We don`t care about any thing and usualy don`t worry about any thing thats going on where where asleep.
Maybe Francis him self is bleeding; not really but bleeding can also mean I`m really guilty.
Can`t find any meaning in the last part, maybe above La muneca had it on the head there.

Log in to reply
Eric2008
03-25-2008

Rated 0 
Hay! first post here, great fan of Cobain. Started listening to the Pixies about a month ago.
I think as some body said its about day to day life in general.

As loud as hell
A ringing bell
Behind my smile
It shakes my teeth
And all the while
As vampires feed

The bell could be some thing but I guess its just in his imagination. Maybe like `Hey wake up!` your walking around smiling while all this bad stuff is going on i.e `vampires` could be the government, rich buisness owners, oil barrons what evers wrong in the world or maybe the US.

Prithee my dear
Why are we here
Nobody knows
We go to sleep
As breathing flows
My mind secedes

`Prithee` is like `I`m trying to tell you some thing` , you whos like me, whos not interested in the bad things thats going on. When we sleep are minds withdraw from the world. We don`t care about any thing and usualy don`t worry about any thing thats going on where where asleep.
Maybe Francis him self is bleeding; not really but bleeding can also mean I`m really guilty.
Can`t find any meaning in the last part, maybe above La muneca had it on the head there.

Log in to reply
zombiesrafterme
09-15-2008

Rated 0 
a teacher of mine said this song is about a story in the old testament. i really haven't bothered to read much of the bible so i really can't back this with much info.

Log in to reply
alias11
12-17-2008

Rated 0 
cherry pop




think about it

Log in to reply
funnastyfun
07-22-2009

Rated 0 
"In the first two verses there's no topic whatsoever; all this is just a rhyme structured AABCBDD. It's all very automatic. The rest is about Arizona. There's a very famous cliff dwelling there, with two or three storey houses about a mile up inside these cliffs. It's about 900 years old and you can still see the handprints from the people who pressed the plaster onto the walls. And you can take your hand and place it in the print and it's very wooh." (Black Francis in the NME, April 1989)

Log in to reply
BlueLines
08-28-2009

Rated 0 
This album has slowly become an addiction. I can't stop listening to it with I Bleed being my favorite. I sometimes 2 or 3 times in a row. It's such an excellent rock n roll song.
I can hear in this one how Radiohead was influenced by The Pixies. The palm muted guitar parts before the second chorus reminds me of what Johnny does in Creep.
I don't know what the song is about, but it somehow makes sense.

Log in to reply
Psicosis1
09-27-2009

Rated 0 
The lyrics to this song very closely resemble the plot to Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1932 surrealist film "Vampyr".

Log in to reply




  • Add Your Comments
What does this song mean to you?

You must be logged in to post your comments.

Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.





Popular
Top:   Lyrics, Artists, Albums
Random:   Lyric, Artist, Album

Your Ad Here