That's how it starts
We go back to your house
We check the charts
And start to figure it out

And if it's crowded, all the better
Because we know we're gonna be up late
But if you're worried about the weather
Then you picked the wrong place to stay
That's how it starts

And so it starts
You switch the engine on
We set controls for the heart of the sun
One of the ways we show our age

And if the sun comes up, if the sun comes up, if the sun comes up
And I still don't wanna stagger home
Then it's the memory of our betters
That are keeping us on our feet

You spent the first five years trying to get with the plan
And the next five years trying to be with your friends again

You're talking 45 turns just as fast as you can
Teah, I know it gets tired, but it's better when we pretend

It comes apart
The way it does in bad films
Except in parts
When the moral kicks in

Though when we're running out of the drugs
And the conversation's winding away
I wouldn't trade one stupid decision
For another five years of life

You drop the first ten years just as fast as you can
And the next ten people who are trying to be polite
When you're blowing eighty-five days in the middle of France
Yeah, I know it gets tired only where are your friends tonight?

And to tell the truth
Oh, this could be the last time
So here we go
Like a sales force into the night

And if I made a fool, if I made a fool, if I made a fool
On the road, there's always this
And if I'm sewn into submission
I can still come home to this

And with a face like a dad and a laughable stand
You can sleep on the plane or review what you said
When you're drunk and the kids leave impossible tasks
You think over and over, "hey, I'm finally dead."

Oh, if the trip and the plan come apart in your hand
Tou look contorted on yourself your ridiculous prop
You forgot what you meant when you read what you said
And you always knew you were tired, but then
Where are your friends tonight?

Where are your friends tonight?
Where are your friends tonight?

If I could see all my friends tonight
If I could see all my friends tonight
If I could see all my friends tonight
If I could see all my friends tonight



Lyrics submitted by tesla3396

Track duration: 07:37

"All My Friends" as written by James Jeremiah Murphy

Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


All My Friends song meanings
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72 Comments

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  • 0
    My Interpretation:The song's set at a party, I'm sure. It sounds like it's about people that've wasted their life with parties and shallow shots of happiness, tiring themselves out. And it ends with "If I could see all of my friends tonight," implying that the people with him aren't his friends. The narrator sounds bittersweet about his life, thinking in some way it was worth it (and the song itself sounds bittersweet. It kind of make me want to dance and cry at the same time).

    At the party, the narrator has an epiphany (It comes apart/The way it does in bad films/Except in parts/When the moral kicks in), and the epiphany contrasts with the party, where I'm sure everyone else is oblivious to the change in the narrator.

    Instead of being depressed like some people feel when they realized they've wasted away, the narrator seems empowered and ready to change his life. I think whenever the narrator talks in second-person, he might be talking to himself.

    It's an empowering song, really. It's the most inspiring and motivating song about despair and depression I've ever heard
    Flag bobbydeeon February 09, 2013   Link
  • +2
    General Comment:everyone looks way too much into this song. The concept is simple. James Murphy has obviously written this song whilst on tour and it follows a night he spends with all his friends and he talks about how much he misses it. Throughout the entire song it is described that James and his friends have a bender (an all-nighter on drugs). read the lyrics, its very simple.
    Flagged esbon1on September 12, 2012   Link
  • 0
    Song Comparison:Here's remix version...

    That's how it starts:
    We go back to your house
    you check the charts
    and start to figure it out

    And if it's crowded, all the better
    because we know we're gonna be up late
    But if you're worried about the weather
    then you picked the wrong place to stay

    You spent the first five years trying to get with the plan
    and the next five years trying to be with your friends again
    You're talking 45 turns just as fast as you can
    Yeah, I know it gets tired, only where are your friends tonight?

    Where are your friends tonight?

    And so it starts
    you switch the engine on
    We set controls for the heart of the sun
    one of the ways we show our age

    And if the sun comes up, if the sun comes up
    And if the sun comes up, and I still don't wanna stagger home
    then it's the memory of our betters
    that's keeping us on our feet

    You spent the first five years trying to get with the plan
    and the next five years trying to be with your friends again
    You're talking 45 turns just as fast as you can
    Yeah, I know it gets tired, only where are your friends tonight?

    Where are your friends tonight?
    Where are your friends tonight?
    Where are your friends tonight?
    Where are your friends tonight?
    Where are your friends tonight?
    Where are your friends tonight?
    Where are your friends tonight?

    It comes apart
    the way it does in bad films
    except in parts
    when the moral kicks in

    Though we're running out of the drugs
    and the conversation's winding away
    oh, I wouldn't trade one stupid decision
    for another five years of life

    You spent the first five years trying to get with the plan
    and the next five years trying to be with your friends again
    You're talking 45 turns just as fast as you can
    Yeah, I know it gets tired, only where are your friends tonight?

    Where are your friends tonight?
    Where are your friends tonight?
    Where are your friends tonight?

    If I could be with my friends tonight
    If I could be with my friends tonight
    If I could be with my friends tonight
    If I could be with my friends tonight

    If I could be with my friends tonight
    If I could be with my friends tonight
    If I could be with my friends tonight
    If I could be with my friends tonight
    Flag Contaminatoron June 08, 2012   Link
  • +1
    My Opinion:licensing restrictions damn that sucks

    That's how it starts:
    We go back to your house
    you check the charts
    and start to figure it out

    And if it's crowded, all the better
    because we know we're gonna be up late
    But if you're worried about the weather
    then you picked the wrong place to stay

    That's how it starts

    And so it starts:
    you switch the engine on
    we set controls for the heart of the sun
    one of the ways that we show our age

    And if the sun comes up, if the sun comes up
    if the sun comes up and I still don't wanna stagger home
    then it's the memory of our betters
    that are keeping us on our feet

    You spent the first five years trying to get with the plan
    and the next five years trying to be with your friends again
    Oh, you're talking 45 turns just as fast as you can
    Yeah, I know it gets tired, but it's better when we pretend

    It comes apart
    the way it does in bad films
    except the part
    where the moral kicks in

    And when we're running out of the drugs
    and the conversation's grinding away
    I wouldn't trade one stupid decision
    for another five years of life

    Oh, you drop the first ten years just as fast as you can
    and the next ten people who are trying to be polite
    when you're blowing 85 days in the middle of France
    Yeah, I know it gets tired - only, where are your friends tonight?

    And to tell the truth
    oh, this could be the last time
    So here we go
    like a sales force into the night

    And if I made a fool, if I made a fool
    if I made a fool on the road, there's always this
    And if I'm sued into submission
    I can still come home to this

    And with a face like a dad and a laughable stand
    you can sleep on the plane or review what you said
    When you're drunk and the kids look impossibly tanned
    you think over and over, "Hey, I'm finally dead"

    Oh, if the trip and the plan come apart in your hand
    you can turn it on yourself, your ridiculous prop
    You forgot what you meant when you read what you said
    and you knew you were tired, but then where are your friends tonight?

    Where are your friends tonight?
    Where are your friends tonight?

    If I could see all my friends tonight
    If I could see all my friends tonight
    If I could see all my friends tonight
    If I could see all my friends tonight
    Flag Contaminatoron May 02, 2012   Link
  • +3
    General Comment:I wonder if all the people in there mid thirties and up who are still in a scene that mingles with the twenty somethings see this song anything like I do? I feel like it's about growing up, feeling old, wanting change, and having to deal with the fact that you make a living off of people much younger and energetic... The people you started the journey with have moved on and you have nothing in common with them anyways, but you are fading from common ground with the people you are with now too. Maybe the old Peter Pan story.?.
    Flagged weallshouldknowon January 09, 2012   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:Living life to the full.

    "In just 2 days tomorrow will be yesterday"

    This song is about dancing with your tops off 402 times a year. X
    Flagged gregavcikon October 21, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Initially I thought it was about turning middle age, but it's more.

    "You spent the first five years trying to get with the plan
    And the next five years trying to be with your friends again"

    "And if the sun comes up, if the sun comes up, if the sun comes up
    And I still don't wanna stagger home
    Then it's the memory of our betters
    That are keeping us on our feet"

    "I wouldn't trade one stupid decision
    For another five years of life"
    (Love that line!)

    It's also about being happy with who you are, being happy in the here and now, not longing for days past or pining for the future. Your life is here now, live it.



    Flag DonPageon July 18, 2011   Link
  • +2
    General Comment:I think that this song is a postmodernist cry for significance and meaning, because most of us now live in a world of hyperrealism. I would invite the reader to look at what they are doing right now, for instance: I wrote a comment on a website that I had just became a member of, and it could be that, subjectively, this song meant a lot to me at that moment in time. But, really, the fact that I was in my room at that moment in time (I, or anyone who will be reading this is, at this or that moment in time, having hyperreal perceptions) does not take away from the fact that the majority of my (now, your) perception was (is) made up of what I believed to be real (words appearing as I press buttons; you, either reading because you're interested, or clicking on something else because you have lost interest). In fact, what is occuring before me objectively is just a series of lights, which are reacting to an interconnected series of electronic curcuits.

    The second and third stanzas are, I think, a critique of the internet, and how social networks produce both inactivity and a gradual subjective degration of objective experience. We have replaced objective interaction with hyperreal objective/subjective interaction, thus creating an artificial environment, where uncomfortable (thus beneficial) experience is nonexistent. At the end of stanza 3, "Yeah, I know it gets tired, but it's better when we pretend," implies that this hyperreality seems better than reality itself. Thus, we spend so much time immersed in hyperreality that we don't realize our own fatigue (that which is a result of a lack of actual objective experience) and gradually degrade.

    Moral principles have no place in this subjective/objective hyperrealism, because there are no consequences for mannerisms/thoughts/words that would be considered unacceptable in actual objective conversations or observation or analyzation or whatever. We may proceed to be as pompous and asshole-ish as we please, with no reprecussions.

    All of our "friends" are mostly seen on a digital format. When actual interaction occurs, we come to the painful and unwitting realization that we haven't had any "real" interaction with them... only hyperreal interaction. So, it necessarily follows that a feeling of abandonment ensues in modern existence, because most of us are now at the whim of the screen.
    Flag Zavcaptainon April 27, 2011   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:I think that this song is a postmodernist cry for significance and meaning, because most of us now live in a world of hyperrealism. I would invite the reader to look at what they are doing right now, for instance: I wrote a comment on a website that I had just became a member of, and it could be that, subjectively, this song meant a lot to me at that moment in time. But, really, the fact that I was in my room at that moment in time (I, or anyone who will be reading this is, at this or that moment in time, having hyperreal perceptions) does not take away from the fact that the majority of my (now, your) perception was (is) made up of what I believed to be real (words appearing as I press buttons; you, either reading because you're interested, or clicking on something else because you have lost interest). In fact, what is occuring before me objectively is just a series of lights, which are reacting to an interconnected series of electronic curcuits.

    The second and third stanzas are, I think, a critique of the internet, and how social networks produce both inactivity and a gradual subjective degration of objective experience. We have replaced objective interaction with hyperreal objective/subjective interaction, thus creating an artificial environment, where uncomfortable (thus beneficial) experience is nonexistent. At the end of stanza 3, "Yeah, I know it gets tired, but it's better when we pretend," implies that this hyperreality seems better than reality itself. Thus, we spend so much time immersed in hyperreality that we don't realize our own fatigue (that which is a result of a lack of actual objective experience) and gradually degrade.

    Moral principles have no place in this subjective/objective hyperrealism, because there are no consequences for mannerisms/thoughts/words that would be considered unacceptable in actual objective conversations or observation or analyzation or whatever. We may proceed to be as pompous and asshole-ish as we please, with no reprecussions.

    All of our "friends" are mostly seen on a digital format. When actual interaction occurs, we come to the painful and unwitting realization that we haven't had any "real" interaction with them... only hyperreal interaction. So, it necessarily follows that a feeling of abandonment ensues in modern existence, because most of us are now at the whim of the screen.

    Anyways,
    Flag Zavcaptainon April 27, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song kicks me in the gut every time I hear it. It's just such a fantastic representation of old friends and memories. Looking back on them you realize they're the best moments of your life, but it's such a bittersweet feeling because the present is so different. My mood fluctuates every time someone plays this song.
    Flag elcheeserpuffon April 10, 2011   Link

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