This may be nitpicking, but I believe he says "I listened to a lecture"--past tense. If it were present tense, then he'd probably say "he says" rather than "he said" in the following line.

In the version I have, which is from the Four Winds EP, he says "Now my days are distractions, sit wringing my hands," not "they brim in my hands." I'm not sure whether you misheard him or if you transcribed the lyrics from a live version.

Also, I think it may be "In time we'll win the world," but this one I'm less sure about, as it doesn't make much sense to me. Win the world like a failed revolution? What's that mean?

By the way, how'd you figure out the line "which one's your good ear"? I must've listened to that lyric a dozen times to no avail. The closest I got was something along the lines of "with one jokered ear".

Thanks a lot for posting this song. It's one of the best on the new EP.

1 Reply

you're right about 'sit wringing my hands': for some reason i just couldn't make sense of that line!

i can only hear 'listen', not 'listened', but i think you're right that logically it can only be the second one. damn you conor oberst and your swallowed syllables!

i'm genuinely not sure whether it's 'in time we'll' or 'and time will'. i think it's fairly ambiguous. if only conor would enunciate :( (oh, and 'which one's your good ear' was the only thing i could think of that made any sort of sense for that line)

cheers for helping with the lyrics :D


i think this song is probably my favourite on the ep. i especially enjoy the reference to padraic my prince.

You were very quick to respond. You deserve a hearty round of applause for that; it’s no small thing, mind you. Sadly, I’ve seen lyrics languish in neglect and inattention for months, even years on end; they wait, lost and alone in the vastness that is cyberspace, always faithful and intrepid, never imploring, though riddled with typos and misheard lines they may be—errors that are often made out of carelessness, but that are sometimes simply the result of the listener not using his or her “good ear.” So, on behalf of all the pock-marked refrains, the wart-strewn verses, the boil-littered bridges, and, above all, those wretched long-suffering songs whose entire bodies are ravaged with open sores, I extend a sincere thank you.

With that said, back to the lyrics we go. Although I too am frequently peeved when trying to interpret the “swallowed syllables” and poor enunciation of some singers (this is doubly frustrating when listening to a song in a language (French, Spanish) one has little experience with), I’ve come to appreciate these little quirks, these idiosyncrasies of the spoken word. After all, what would some singers be without their southern drawl or their trademark slur? Notice that, inexplicably, Conor Oberst says, almost beyond a shadow of a doubt, “So I sleep with the fan on to drowned (to drowned!? An infinitive with a past tense ending! Oh, Lord!) out the street.” These odd little mistakes, whether intentional or completely unplanned, used to grate my ears in the extreme, but they now make me love the songs and the lines in which they occur all the more (this line in particular, because I myself do the very same thing every night for roughly the same reason).

Another example: I fell in love with the wonderful “If You Rescue Me (Chansons des chats)” from the Science of Sleep soundtrack (It’s a remake of “After Hours” by the Velvet Underground, which is equally charming) upon first listening, but after a second and third listening, I noticed that, once again, unexplainably, Linda Serbu, who after watching a video of her on YouTube one might be inclined to think is slightly insane (Adopt a cat…it’s better than crack.) (she means well, she really does), speaking from the point of view of a cat down on its luck, says “Oh, the cars drive so fast, and the people are mean, and sometimes it’s so hard to find foon” (whereas any native English speaker worth his or her weight in salt would’ve said “food” with a nice crisp click of the tongue, or at least a half-hearted effort to produce something resembling the sound of a “d”).

Well, I’ve begun to digress again, so I’ll try to wrap this up. Upon a second reading, I noticed a couple more mistakes in your post—don’t worry, they’re only minor errors. “So I asked like a child, “May I be exCused”—you’re missing the C. Also, I believe “tumour” is spelled “tumor,” without the U, unless that’s some sort of British or alternate spelling(?) (Now that I come to think of it, I believe it is a British spelling. Are you British? Is this site British? If so, let's allow it to remain). Regarding the “and time will win the world/in time we’ll win the world” line, either of us could be right, so let’s let it be until we can get our hands on an official copy of the lyrics.

I also enjoyed the “Padraic My Prince” reference; “Padraic My Prince is underrated, no? There’s so much raw emotion in it, fiction thought it is. I’m torn between this song and “Four Winds” as to which is my favorite. It’s been fun helping out. Until next time.

favourite of the new ep. this is more like the old stuff- very fast even though very different.yea i got that patraic my prince reference too. :)

has anyone heard "what people are made of" by modest mouse. the last lyric in the song is

well, the one thing you're taught 'bout human beings is this
they ain't made of nothin' but water and shit

that's the first thing i thought about when i heard this song

Four Winds has much more depth than this song, historically and philosophically, but it's marvelous nonetheless.

is it possible that "pop" is "pot", just thought it might make more sense.

yeah, i have the cd sitting in front of me, and the line is
"and the pop turned to powder"
is "and the POT turned to powder"

which makes that whole part make more sense.
to me then, it feels like the powder is cocaine, and the people he was with don't condone that sort of behaviour. but by him asking to be excused he's using cocaine, which is disobeying them.

..and is it possible that from turning from a cartoon back into a man, he's coming off the drugs, and by coming off the drugs, he is starting to realize his surroundings and become aware of the 'human smell', and everything around it.

and the cover also says that it's not 'drowned' it actually lis
'so i sleep with the fan on to drown out the street'
he just doesn't enunciate.
:)

man i love that first bit.
about plagiary poet with dark glasses on.
to me i think its all those inthe songwriting community
who've accussed him of copying like bob dylan
(famous for the glasses)
and he's simply saying
look everyone owes something to him.
this is me
this is why i write songs.
"the constant, the blues"
though of course no one will know
but i love it so much

No offense HIR but that can't be right. He would be referring to Bob Dylan as the "plagiary poet", plagiary is the adjective for of plagiarize. So that would be hypocritical. It sounds like he has had too many questions about what Padraic my Prince is about. He explains that people are made up of water and fear. Meaning people are simple and emotional. And he simply wrote that song to appeal to human emotion. The part about women may just clarify the simple part of our existence, but I can't figure anything else out of it.

In the next verse it sounds like he was smoking pot with perhaps friends and people came and broke out cocaine. He tryed to say no and leave, but ended up walking to a bathroom. He is confused by his addiction and blames it on life.

Furthermore he blames it on time, which claims all. But cocaine softens this fact for him. "an old friend", something he can always count on. "The blue": Bob Dylan has a song called "Cocaine Blues".

Now i don't have time to interpret the rest of the song. The first part may very well be wrong but it is a start. He definitely brought up pot and cocaine for a reason.

good song.

BOD you misinterperet.
From all the reviews ive read that are negative
they all seem to share a theme that conor
is somewhat himself just copying the likes of dylan.
I think the "plagiary poet"
is the people, maybe a specific artist who has also
said similar. but is equally as guilty of plagiary that his sporting the glasses, which are somewhat of a trademark of dylan, cause lets face it
everyone in someway is
though.
That was initial feeling the dark glasses.
i aslo feel its somewhat of a symbol for this poets
lack of insight,
the term plagiary means as you know to copy,
more specifically art.
The song to me seems to have this theme of why
he writes songs...using padraic as an example.
perhaps hes saying we're all plagiarists in the sense we're trying to see something we cannot.
trying to understand "the constants"
times passing.
but our own mortality/lack of experience
holds us back (dark glasses)
....
tbh like i said we'll never know
conor is great though

he says "Time ruined the world, Like a failed Revolution"--which makes sense because a failed revolution couldn't "win" the world, it would be contradictory

"if there weren't women present we wouldn't be here
so let's make like we're friends."

If this is the best Conor can come up with regarding feminism and the women's movement, I'd just as soon he not bother. It's so far from profound, and he thinks it's some great secret?

2 Replies

It's blatantly obvious, but "the song where the baby dies" is a reference to Padraic, My Prince

It's blatantly obvious, but "the song where the baby dies" is a reference to Padraic My Prince

mellow harsher, i got something different from that line.

i figured it was a much more recent reference to Ship In A Bottle, where there's that interlude with a crying baby with what sounds like guitar sounds distorted by water.
the line immediately after about how "people are made up of water and fear" confirmed that for me.
i don't know, could be both.

Right when I heard this song, I immediately thought 'Padraic My Prince.' I can also see how it could be 'Ship In a Bottle' but i'm still thinking, 'Padraic My Prince.'

love the reference to Padraic
love the melody
love the line, "Why do I envy the ending right from the start"

this song would go great on Casadagga before Cleanse Song. this is Conor seeing the hole he had dug himself into with his drug use. Its not a fun subject but this is just one more example of how his song writing has matured a whole lot. Four Winds EP and Casadagga are soaked with reminders like this that the sad eyed kid with the acoustic guitar has grown.

I'm over 99% sure he's refering to Padric My Prince because basically that entire song is about a baby dying. Also even the water part 'cause in the song Padric drowned.

Anyway, good song, I took the cartoon part to mean that people don't see him as a real person or something, but I could understand the drug references. I don't think he meant pot as in weed though because Conor just doesn't write like that, he alludes to drugs but I don't think he ever really blatantly says the names besides with alcohol, I saw it as more of the conversation ending or something, I honestly have no idea.

I love that line too onethinwallaway, it's my msn name right now lol
To me it suggests that maybe Conor wants the reward or happy ending straight away, and to not have to go through the pain or whatever it takes to get there? What do other people think?

Yeah, it's definately referring to Padriac...
What I got from this song was he's trying to just grow up (hence the "cartoon" in the title, seeing as cartoons are mainly directed towards kids) The lyrics seem to chronicle him doing childish things ("So I asked like a child/'May I be excused?'") I think a lot of the new songs by Bright Eyes are about growing up and leaving some bad things behind.

I'm pretty sure the beginning isn't supposed to be sybolic at all, just a straight folward explaination of a situation.

Also, a.) I'm pretty sure he meant pot as in the drug. and b.) I don't think he refrencing coke when he says "powder", although god knows the boy is constantly singing about coke. It just means that they smoked all their weed, and that soured the mood.

Favorite line ever:
"I tried walking backwards to get less confused
Working off the theory I could never prove
That it was life itself to blame"

how does he do it?

1 Reply