Lyrics for Someone Great as interpreted by someonegreat

Someone Great Lyrics
I wish that we could talk about it,
But there, that's the problem.
With someone new I couldn't start it,
Too late, for beginnings.
The little things that made me nervous,
Are gone, in a moment.
I miss the way we used to argue,
Locked, in your basement.

I wake up and the phone is ringing,
Surprised, as it's early.
And that should be the perfect warning,
That something's, a problem.
To tell the truth I saw it coming,
The way, you were breathing.
But nothing can prepare you for it,
The voice, on the other, end.

The worst is all the lovely weather,
I'm stunned, it's not raining.
The coffee isn't even bitter,
Because, what's the difference?
There's all the work that needs to be done,
It's late, for revision.
There's all the time and all the planning,
And songs, to be finished.

And it keeps coming,
And it keeps coming,
And it keeps coming,
Till the day it stops
(Repeat x3)
And it keeps coming,
(Repeat x7)
Till the day it stops.

I wish that we could talk about it,
But there, that's the problem.
With someone new I could have started,
Too late, for beginnings.
You're smaller than my wife imagined,
Surprised, you were human.
There shouldn't be this ring of silence,
But what, are the options?

When someone great is gone.
(Repeat x8)

We're safe, for the moment.
Saved,
For the moment.

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




  • 63 Comments
  • Printer Friendly Lyrics
bobby the dolt
03-18-2007

Rated 0 
its about how fast a relationship can come to an end. how it was unseen to one and how it affects him. everything has changed and he doesnt welcome it really, and even its against his low mood, as in the weather being nice and the coffee tasting well.

Log in to reply
tjwells
03-19-2007

Rated 0 
Huh.

I always thought it was about someone dying.

Log in to reply
someonegreat
03-19-2007

Rated 0 
Yeah I thought it was about someone dying too. Perhaps a newborn considering the line 'you're smaller than my wife imagined, surprised you were human'.

Log in to reply
tjwells
03-21-2007

Rated 0 
wow yeah, never even noticed that.

Log in to reply
roboclone
03-21-2007

Rated 0 
I saw it as the singer being involved in an affair, I interpreted the 'you're smaller than my wife imagined, surprised you were human' metaphorically, as in the woman he had an affair with was even more debased than she had envisioned her to be, but it's more than likely about a death.
Considering the possible death aspect of the song I attributed the lovely weather part as irony--because he's saying worst of all is the lovely weather, it's kind of ironic if someone died and it's such a beautiful day outside because most people connote gloomy weather with the lugubrious issue of death. Then he continue by saying the coffee doesn't even taste bitter to him because he's so numb from hearing the news from this early morning phone call which, based on it being early, was a sign of negativity.

Log in to reply
asa5000
03-29-2007

Rated 0 
Guess, "someone great" rather means father or mother dying, not a newborn one. It tells about argueing with them "locked in a basement" until it's too late to change things until suddenly they are going..

Log in to reply
asa5000
03-29-2007

Rated 0 
Guess, "someone great" rather means father or mother dying, not a newborn one. It tells about argueing with them "locked in a basement" until it's too late to change things until suddenly they are going..

Log in to reply
tuko
04-07-2007

Rated -1 
I has to be a break-up.

"To tell the truth I saw it coming,
The way, you were breathing.
But nothing can prepare you for it,
The voice, on the other, end."

theres no way anyone would anticipate someones death. but you can deffinitely anticipate a break-up.

Log in to reply
1 Reply
tuko
04-07-2007

Rated 0 
actually, I just re-read those lines and it could relate to death in a totally different way... yikes.

Log in to reply
voodoodolly
04-18-2007

Rated +1 
This song is about a loved one dying. You argue with loved ones & they drive you crazy, and then they die & you miss even the dumb things like that. You suddenly think of all these things you wish you could have said to him/her.
It seems in this case, there was an unresolved argument that kept them apart & now that the loved one has died he is regretting never resolving it with that person, but now it's too late to start over with him/her. It's late for "revision".

The person was ill for a little while, ("To tell the truth I saw it coming, The way, you were breathing.") and that sort of was a warning, but you still can never be ready to lose a loved one. It's always a shock. Also, that kind of news often comes at odd times, like early in the morning when you don't normally get a phone call.

It's weird to him that weather is nice & that coffee tastes good because when something tragic happens you almost expect everything else to reflect it. Like, how can the world go on like nothing happened when this amazing person has just died? The weather should be grieving also.

The line about his wife being surprised at how small this person is & that he/she is human is describing how he thought so much of this person & probably talked so highly of him/her (hence the title of the song & line "when someone great is gone.") that people who had never met this person before would expect them to be almost more than human.
I think it is a really sad & sweet song at the same time. It really hits on some feelings you have when someone you love dies.

Log in to reply
indie-YYY
05-01-2007

Rated 0 
This is defeintely my favourite song on the album, and probably my favourite LCD song ever.
But who is "someone great"?
I kind of beleive the mistress interpretation, "you're smaller than my wife imagined / surprise you were human"
But the death aspect makes a lot of sense too, the part with the phone call:
"I wake up and the phone is ringing,
Surprised, as it's early.
And that should be the perfect warning,
That something's, a problem.
To tell the truth I saw it coming,
The way, you were breathing.
But nothing can prepare you for it,
The voice, on the other, end."

That could be someone calling James Murphy, telling him his friend died, he should've expected it becuase his friend was sick (the way he was breathing). Then the weather part is about how perverse it is to have nice weather at a funeral.

Also, in the CD liner notes he dedicates the CD to Dr. George Kamen, 1942 - 2006.
So yeah, I change my mind. He is talking about this guy who died. Sweet song.

Log in to reply
1 Reply
slinkstersars
05-14-2007

Rated 0 
i get the impression it is about death...it is such a great song!!!

Log in to reply
prouss
05-27-2007

Rated 0 
i actually think it is about a child who dies before he's born. maybe abortion, maybe just dies. "i wish that we could talk about it, but there, that's the problem" he'd maybe like to talk to the baby who just died, or to his wife but he can't talk about it "there shouldn't be this ring of silence" because he's been prohibited to talk about this. then the phone, "that should be the perfect warning...to tell the truth i saw it coming" he maybe recieved a call saying that she had an abortion, or that she lost the baby...well and it goes on. that's what i think though, everyone can have a different interpretation.

Log in to reply
prouss
05-27-2007

Rated 0 
by the way, i thought it was about a child's death because he sings "you're smaller than my wife imagined" and "surprised you were human" the baby is maybe not even a fetus.

Log in to reply
agent_apathy
06-04-2007

Rated 0 
i noticed the line "you're smaller than my wife imagined..." before i looked at all of the references to death and loss. i still think that the line about his wife must refer to a baby, but given some of the other lyrics ("there's all the work...songs to be finished") it seems like he's talking about the hectic state of his life -- his work and his family life fighting for his time and his emotions. all of that makes me think that maybe he's trying to convey being sorry and upset that this person who died didn't have a chance to meet his newborn child. there's obviously a death involved because of the liner notes, so maybe a birth and a death happening near the same time have really affected his life.

Log in to reply
xiggle
06-08-2007

Rated 0 
i think it's about an abortion, or a late-term miscarraige - it's a subject they don't want to talk about but they feel that they have to go through with it; they used to be able to argue, but not about this; "with someone new i could have started" he could have left her and not seen her through this, but he's dedicated to his wife; he was nervous about being a father, but all that's gone in a moment; life is somehow continuing, but work and planning has to be done, maybe for a funeral or a hospital or disassembling a babies room; their child was going to be the light of their life, and now their gone.

Log in to reply
TheSoundOfCarpet
07-03-2007

Rated +1 
Dr. George Kamen - noted psychiatrist who invented group therapy. Bulgarian born, moved to the United States in 1980 to avoid persecution. I don't see it being about him. I think this is clearly about a past love.

"I wish that we could talk about it, But there, that's the problem. With someone new I couldn't start it, Too late, for beginnings."
- Their relationship has communication issues. He doesn't want to leave her, it's "too late for beginnings" and wants to just work it out with her.
He knows they have had their differences, so he has seen it coming when she does call him early in the morning to break up with him. I think he is expressing how ok he is with the ending when he makes the comments about the weather and the coffee "because what's the difference". He knows they have been on life support for quite some time and isn't shocked or too upset, it's an amicable breakup. Now he has to get on with his life "There's all the work that needs to be done". This is the love of his life but sometimes love isn't enough.
He just had this huge earthquake in his private life but life "keeps coming til the day it stops" and he must carry on. He later meets another girl and gets married and has told his wife of his previous love and talked her up quite a bit and that is why the wife sees her as someone more than human. Simple a myth to her.
The "ring of silence" is the awkwardness when he introduces his wife to the love of his life. What do you say in that situation?

Log in to reply
1 Reply
devilgirl
07-16-2007

Rated 0 
I agree with TheSoundOfCarpet that this song is about a previous love. For me, it describes a situation where he is currently married, with a busy, successful life, but that still on some days he thinks of a previous love with sadness, and wishes that he could talk with her again, but, of course, that's just not possible. Even though years have passed, he still remembers the moment of the breakup as if it just happened. He's probably talked with his wife about this previous relationship, so much so that she thinks this person is larger than life, but she's just a person after all. "And it keeps coming till the day it stops," to me means that even though you've moved on in your life, you can still be brought low by thoughts of a previous love. And maybe you never truly get over some things... What an incredible look at an inner life that I'm sure many of us have experienced.

Log in to reply
shorshee
07-24-2007

Rated 0 
This is definitely a song that will be seen differently by everyone based on very personal experiences. It reminds me of death of a friend. From the "you're smaller than my wife imagined" I got the idea it was someone who had passed a long time ago, before his wife was part of his life, so to his wife the person would always be a legend. Legends always seem larger than life. However this is due to my losing a friend to a drug overdose. To anyone I meet from here on out in my life, if I mention him I can imagine it would be weird to imagine him as a person since he only lives now in pictures and memories.

This for me also fit with the line about "To tell the truth I saw it coming," because with my experience we knew he had a problem and he went to rehab several times but he never seemed to completely kick the habit and I always had an awful feeling it would kill him.

Log in to reply
shorshee
07-24-2007

Rated 0 
This is definitely a song that will be seen differently by everyone based on very personal experiences. It reminds me of death of a friend. From the "you're smaller than my wife imagined" I got the idea it was someone who had passed a long time ago, before his wife was part of his life, so to his wife the person would always be a legend. Legends always seem larger than life. However this is due to my losing a friend to a drug overdose. To anyone I meet from here on out in my life, if I mention him I can imagine it would be weird to imagine him as a person since he only lives now in pictures and memories.

This for me also fit with the line about "To tell the truth I saw it coming," because with my experience we knew he had a problem and he went to rehab several times but he never seemed to completely kick the habit and I always had an awful feeling it would kill him.

Log in to reply
TheSoundOfCarpet
07-25-2007

Rated 0 
To some it might mean that, but how exactly would his wife meet a dead person?

Log in to reply
yourtinyhands
08-16-2007

Rated 0 
if it's about death, the 'with someone new i couldn't start it' line doesn't make sense. at all.
what, his mother died and he couldn't find a new one?or a friend?or, umm, a newborn?

Log in to reply
2 Replies
l.42
08-16-2007

Rated 0 
i think that we're all on the right track here. i think the song is about a few different instances of love and loss, whether it be a falling out, breakup, or death.

"i miss the way we used to argue locked in the basement" - this particular line makes me think of the way i used to be forced to sort out an issue with my siblings, we argue until were tired of arguing and mom lets us out of the basement. this was fairly common practice in my area.

"you're smaller than my wife imagined, surprised you were human" - this could be any one of the aforementioned scenarios, some talked up person in his life, or perhaps a newborn.

if you want to stretch it, he could also be talking about a loved pet.

i think the brilliance of this song is its level of ambiguity because it creates such a discourse around it because, lets face it, we all want inside james murphy's head. i think the title "someone great" was chosen carefully because he is describing many situations in his life that seem to overlap and there is a consistency of love and loss... comprende?

Log in to reply
notthedestroyer
09-03-2007

Rated 0 
I love the lines about how everything else continues uninhibited by the person's death. The speaker (James Murphy) seems not to want to let this person go immediately, but everything else in his life is urging him forward. There's this cruel indifference of time marching forward, and leaving his mourning behind. It's a very good observation by him.

Log in to reply
commodore_awesome
10-26-2007

Rated 0 
This song is not about an abortion. Are you kidding? It seems to me that it's about the death of a friend, who isn't necessarily a female, as most posters assumed. The "smaller than my wife imagined" line isn't literal, as in a fetus, it's about how highly he talked of his friend to his wife, and how his wife was invisioning, like, a god, but it's really just a normal person. It's almost definitely about the death of a friend or sibling, whom I believe to be a man.

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