Lyrics for Keep the Car Running as interpreted by jmb2440

Keep the Car Running Lyrics
Every night my dream's the same
Same old city with a different name
They're not coming to take me away
I don't know why but I know I can't stay

There's a weight that's pressing down
Late at night you can hear the sound
Even the noise you make when you sleep
Can't swim across a river so deep

They know my name because I told it to them
But they don't know where and they don't know when
It's coming
When it's coming

There's this fear I keep so deep
Knew its name since before I could speak
Oh, oh, oh, oh

They know my name because I told it to them
But they don't know where and they don't know when
It's coming or when
But it's coming, keep the car running

If some night I don't come home
Please don't think I've left you alone
The same place animals go when they die
You can't climb across a mountain so high
The same city where I go when I sleep
Can't swim across a river so deep

They know my name because I told it to them
But they don't know where and they don't know when
It's coming or when
Is it coming?
Keep the car running
Keep the car running
Keep the car running

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King of Some Island
02-07-2007

Rated 0 
Wow no comments!? this is prolly my favourite song off Neon Bible. I think its about doing what you want and just going away and not being tied down to the same things(same old city w/ a different name). Reminds me of Rebellion (Lies) quite abit.

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hoboghost
02-10-2007

Rated 0 
"They know my name 'cause I told it to them / But they don't know where and they don't know when / It's coming"
The second coming??

"can't swim across a river so deep" sounds like an allusion to the River Styx, the boundary between life and the afterlife. So maybe the "it" that is coming is simply "death." This seems more likely, since he fears the "it" whose name he "knew . . . before [he] could speak." Of course, "fearing God" is also possible here. A little ambiguity makes for great lyrics.

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uncletross
02-12-2007

Rated 0 
There a lot of illusion to death and the afterlife on Neon Bible. It kind of makes a bridge between it and Funeral. this album is way more upbeat sounding though. I agree though that it's kind of about freedom and doing what you want. At least that's what I think of when I listen to it. It's so good though.

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woekitten
02-13-2007

Rated 0 
I sort of get a vision of a guy fleeing the Draft. Given the themes of Neon Bible, it's not far-fetched to believe that might be what the song's about.

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geoffk
02-21-2007

Rated 0 
definitely this album's version of Rebellion (Lies). this and Neon Bible are my favorite songs on the cd.

i haven't read too deeply into the lyrics yet but on the surface it sort of reads like someone metaphorically trying to flee death.

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wombatK
02-25-2007

Rated 0 
Absolutely love the tune and absolutely baffled by the lyrics. Woekitten's idea of someone fleeing the draft and the suggestions are all plausible connections. But I'm not sure that the song is about running away from this. In a draft, you wouldn't have told them your name maybe the subject is a volunteer who told them his name.

The title Keep the Car Running makes a connection to me to someone sitting outside a bank ready to make a fast getaway. So I start thinking about someone waiting for his turn to be called up to fight for the spoils in Iraq - the same place he must go when enough others die. He doesn't know when and he doesn't know why. (the lot of the common soldier as well as the getaway car driver in the average bank heist !).

And perhaps training of new recruits involves lots of hectic transfers around different but same military cities - same old city with a different name.

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ieatseeds
02-25-2007

Rated 0 
the theme of 'keep the car running' makes me think of not staying in one place too long. it's like why settle down... you can try but you're always gonna keep the car running, your exit route always planned.

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sarahczynski
02-25-2007

Rated 0 
definately my new favorite song, though i'm not sure why. it fits for someone who is lost in life and can't settle. maybe that's why i like it so much.

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duster
02-25-2007

Rated 0 
A lot of people are leaning towards the idea that the album "Neon Bible" is an anti-bush CD, infused with a strong message against Iraq. Well I think this is relatively partially true that it in some songs it does conjure up this feeling. Yet i feel a lot of people are missing the broad notion that "Neon Bible" is an album that has to do also with religion in the twenty-first century how atheists, Christians and every other religion mingle and fight among themselves.

In this song i get the feeling that it has more to do with a religious man trying to explain to an atheist that some day, one which no one knows the world will end. He is trying to explain that it doesn't matter what city/nation you live in because it's all the same the rapture will happen and the religious will leave the earth. The line "keep the car running" is a warning about being prepared.

Some of the lyrics above are wrong go to the arcade fire website to get the real ones.

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ieatseeds
02-26-2007

Rated -1 
i wonder if the arcade fire hate religion as much as i do????

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tdamcbigity
02-27-2007

Rated 0 
Global warming?

"They don’t know when
It’s coming or when
But it’s coming, keep the car running"

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musicforants
03-03-2007

Rated 0 
The lyrics in this song have religious connotations to me and it the Rapture is definitely part of that. duster was right on when he said that "keep the car running" is a warning and no one knows when the rapture will come to "take us away". Saying that though, I think the song seems to focus mainly on the fear that comes with Christian belief and loving someone who isn't a Christian. Take this verse:

"If some night I don’t come home
Please don’t think I’ve left you alone
The same place that I must go when they die
You can’t climb across a mountain so high
The same city where I go when I sleep
Can’t swim across a river so deep"

I interpret this as saying as a Christian explaining to a Non-christian spouse or lover that if he doesn't come home some day, that it's because the Rapture has occurred and God has taken him. He's saying that he's going to the same place that "they" (christians) go when they die - heaven. I think the river so deep is the gateway between earth and heaven and he's telling the person that even when you're the most innocent you still won't be able to make it to heaven. another metaphor he uses is that heaven is like a mountain that it's impossible for a non-christian to climb.

"they know my name because I gave it to them" could refer to the church he's a part of or the Lamb's book of life which is a book mentioned in Revelations that has every Christian's name on it. The fear that he has when he sleeps is that he knows he'll be leaving his loved ones behind - so the "it's coming, keep the car running" is a warning for them but also for himself. I think this also makes sense with the line from Intervention "working for the church while my family dies". It's about the hypocrisy of being a Christian and believing in heaven but not telling anyone else or caring about their eternal fate. Damn that was long.

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mad_world87
03-05-2007

Rated 0 
"If some night I don’t come home
Please don’t think I’ve left you alone
The same place that I must go when they die
You can’t climb across a mountain so high
The same city where I go when I sleep
Can’t swim across a river so deep"

There is a line here that is incorrect...

"The same place that I must go when they die..."

This line should be

"The same place animals go when they die"

It's on www.neonbible.com.

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bobfrombob
03-07-2007

Rated 0 
I think it's written from the perspective of a car bomber

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phersh2
03-07-2007

Rated 0 
I think this song is about impending Armeggeddon caused by irrational beliefs in faith and religion.

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phersh2
03-07-2007

Rated 0 
I think this song is about impending Armeggeddon caused by irrational beliefs in faith and religion.

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musicforants
03-13-2007

Rated 0 
you can't believe in faith, belief and faith are almost the same thing. and faith is always irrational, that's the definition of it - believing in something you can't see... just sayin'

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despero
03-18-2007

Rated 0 
Just as people were talking about life and death before, I really think that the title of this song, "Keep the Car Running" is definitely another way of saying "stay alive." I guess I think it's meant kind of as a struggle to keep living.

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Mattzillaman
03-24-2007

Rated 0 
bobfrombob is right, its from the perspective of a suicide bomber. He's dreaming of his vision of paradise, the place where he goes in his sleep but thinks that he can't get there in this world the way he's going now, he 'can't swim across that river so deep.'

I mean i'm definitely wrong but the chorus makes much more sense as a threat from a terrorist than it does as a warning that the worlds about to end.

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utterlypointless
03-30-2007

Rated 0 
first off, the second line is wrong. it should read:
"men are coming to take me away."


i think that it's about the fear of the afterlife.

i think the "men [that] are coming to take me away" could be the horsemen of the apocalypse. "they know my name cuz i told it to them" could be a reference to someone who has been a christian at some point in their life but now has turned their back on it- they opened themselves up to having this fear of the end of the world.

i think this could be a part of the allusions to the afterlife and the journey there, like hoboghost said, the river styx- "never could cross a river so deep".

i think it is about fear of death, but even more than that, fear of what happens after death, and trying to live life as much as possible by always being on the move, trying to elude death, running from the inevitable.

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aaron_graham
04-01-2007

Rated 0 
A song from the Eddie and the Cruisers rip-off. Prove me wrong.
p.s I love this song but still. I would go on about the sounds but I cannot translate them to text. Find the movie/Soundtrack and prove that you hear nothing similar.

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aaron_graham
04-02-2007

Rated 0 
This song is about life and finding ground to stand on. ^(period)^

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andrewc989
04-13-2007

Rated 0 
Although quite vague, the lyrics seem to speak about an inevitable apocalypse.

The line "they don’t know when it’s coming/When it’s coming" certainly seems to denote some sort of major event.

Furthermore, the line "There’s this fear I keep so deep" leads us to believe that the speaker is fearing this event, or life after death itself.

As for the title "Keep The Car Running", I can only imagine, in accordance with my interpretation, that it conveys mans perpetual efforts to escape death.

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plug1
04-15-2007

Rated 0 
first time I heard this, I thought it was U2.

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tehnggl
04-28-2007

Rated 0 
i think he sounds like david byrne from talking heads especially in this song.

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