Lyrics for If the Brakeman Turns My Way as interpreted by benjam326

If the Brakeman Turns My Way Lyrics
When panic grips your body
And your heart's a hummingbird
Raven thoughts blacken your mind
'Til you're breathing in reverse
All your friends and sedatives mean well
But make it worse
Every reassurance just magnifies the doubt
Better find yourself a place to level out

Got a cricket for a conscience
Always looks the other way
A cocaine soul starts seeming like
An empty cabaret
Hey, where have all the dancers gone?
Now the music doesn't play
Tried to listen to the river
But you couldn't shut your mouth
Better take a little time to level out

I never thought of running
My feet just led the way

Mixed-up signals
Bullet train
Cars are switched out in the crazy rain
I could meet you any place
If the brakeman turns my way

All this automatic writing
I have tried to understand
From a psychedelic angel
Who was tugging on my hand
It's an infinite coincidence
But it doesn't form a plan
So I'm headed for New England
Or the Paris of the South
Gonna find myself somewhere to level out

Are your brothels full, oh Babylon
With merry middlemen?
Never peer out of their periscopes
From those deep opium dens
All this death must need a counterweight
Always someone born again
First a mother bathes her child
Then the other way around
The scales always find a way to level out

I tried to pass for nothing
But my dreams gave me away

Mixed-up signals
Bullet train
People snuffed out in the brutal rain
I could live to any age
If the brakeman turns my way

It is an old world, it's hard to remember
Like a dime store mystery
I'm a repeat first-time offender
Who has rewritten history

Mixed-up tea leaves
Phantom pain
Fuzzy logic in the the crazy rain
Getting better every day
If the brakeman turns my way

Mixed-up signals
Bullet train
Cars are switched out in the blinding rain
He'll be smiling as he seals my fate
When the brakeman turns my way

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  • 74 Comments
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ihaveyourkid
03-29-2007

Rated -1 
Wow you guys are quick this song is amazing.....i guess everyone downloaded the leaked album last night. it has a very dylan sound to it but its good.

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mariahcantswim
03-29-2007

Rated 0 
I just got the LP in the mail today. Kickass.

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fireplace
03-29-2007

Rated 0 
this song is reallyyy good

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mixedtape
03-29-2007

Rated 0 
This is a great song. I love hte lines: All your friends and sedatives mean well but make it worse / Every reassurance just magnifies the doubt

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TylerZZ
03-29-2007

Rated 0 
this album has been leaked? can someone please put up a link to where i can get it? i cant find it anywhere..

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benjam326
03-29-2007

Rated 0 
I don't think it's leaked. I pre-ordered the vinyl version and got it in the mail yesterday; that's how I have the lyrics early.

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megafoo
03-29-2007

Rated 0 
Cassadaga, itt has leaked. It's pretty good but not my favorite.

My favorite lines in this song are:
"I tried to pass for nothing
But my dreams gave me away"

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megafoo
03-29-2007

Rated 0 
Cassadaga, itt has leaked. It's pretty good but not my favorite.

My favorite lines in this song are:
"I tried to pass for nothing
But my dreams gave me away"

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triple07
03-29-2007

Rated 0 
well it hasn't really "leaked", saddle creek sent out the pre-orders and some people got it early. So you can download it, but it's not like it leaked early before saddle creek released it.

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tjwells
03-29-2007

Rated 0 
Am I the only one who thinks this could easily be a Springsteen song? It's got that kind of vibe to it in my opinion.

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Tfil7
03-30-2007

Rated 0 
"I tried to pass for nothing, but my dreams gave me away"........such a telling line about what kind of person conor really is

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everswap
04-02-2007

Rated 0 
I love this song. Does anyone know who's singing background?

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myslumberingheart
04-02-2007

Rated 0 
Liner notes say Jason Boesel, from Rilo Kiley.

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Cool Coz
04-03-2007

Rated 0 
This song is an amazing thing. It mingles singing and music so well when it goes all out into the chorusy "Mixing signals". 100% Pure music magic.

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dorareever
04-04-2007

Rated 0 
this seems to be about the cycle of death, life and maybe reincarnation. the brakeman=death I guess.

anyway probably one of the best songs out of cassadaga.

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mariahcantswim
04-04-2007

Rated 0 
Conor said in an interview that this song compares life a lot of the time to stowing away on a train--where you're heading is left up to the brakeman (the person operating the switches).

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lovenothing__
04-04-2007

Rated -1 
conor ALSO said this song is about hobos.
and the train.
and how they have no control over where they go, because the brakeman controls that.

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oscarsimao
04-05-2007

Rated 0 
Amazing song, one of the best Bright Eyes songs and the bets off this new album.

'I tried to pass for nothing
But my dreams gave me away' - that bit sounds well like Liam Gallagher on early Oasis records.

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oscarsimao
04-05-2007

Rated 0 
Amazing song, one of the best Bright Eyes songs and the bets off this new album.

'I tried to pass for nothing
But my dreams gave me away'

that bit sounds well like Liam Gallagher on early Oasis records.

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JACKIE THE HOBO
04-10-2007

Rated 0 
yeah, i also heard this song was abous hobos,
which excited me becuase thats my nickname. :)

but i kind of think he was just saying that and that the song is a big metaphor about fate and how we habe no control, just as the hobos have no control.

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esoteric_rubbish
04-13-2007

Rated 0 
this is so beautiful, my favorite off Cassadaga, along with I Must Belong Somewhere. and it's conor playing piano... i never knew he could do that. but then maybe i'm just clueless.
the lyrics have such a feeling of helplessness, but at the same time acceptance of that. i actually find it a lot more hopeful than a lot of his songs; it's like, we can't control our fate, but we should find peace with that. so pretty!
and i know everyone's going to hate me for saying this, and that it's totally cliche to compare them, but to me conor's vocals sound sort of dylan-ish on this song.

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melonata
04-16-2007

Rated 0 
did conor actually use the word 'hobos' ????? :S


this is my favourite song off cassadaga. i love it.

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pmhswrestle_07
04-17-2007

Rated 0 
possibly my favorite song on the album.
interesting how he blends obvious drug references with equally obvious religious conotations.

any idea what the paris of the south is referring to?

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musicalchairs
04-18-2007

Rated 0 
ahh i love the scales part.
reminds me of fevers n mirrors.

but yeah, this was the one obvious song i liked when i first listened to the cd.

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JohnnyB3
04-19-2007

Rated 0 
This is certainly my favorite Bright Eyes song, possibly the best written song I've ever heard (because it is so ambiguous). The points ya'll have made make sense, but I don't think they're totally right. The hobo thing thing is entirely possible, but for me this song is clearly about wanting to overcome a bad stimulant (coke, crack, meth, whatever) addiction and finally start living the life you dreamed of. If anyone has ever nearly overdosed on any of those drugs, didn't die, came down, and then realized how fucking stupid you were, the first two paragraphs of this song would give you chills. To give my little thesis some validity... when you do way too much of an upper (even something tame sounding, like adderall) your heart starts beating totally out of tune, or the wild paranoia make you think it does, at least...you honestly feel like you are going to die, and it is terrifying. When this happens, sedatives (downers) are the only thing that can help calm you.
I guess I'll quit rambling now, but read the whole song and think about it. "Leveling Out" means coming down and staying down, for good. A real brakeman is the guy who switches the path of train tracks. This "brakeman" is a new, drug free path of life. With all the obvious referances to uppers (coke/crack) on Digital Ash (Gold Mine Gutted, Down in a Rabbit Hole), perhaps Conor has realized his need to "level out."

by the way, the Paris of the South is a nickname given to Beunos Aires, Argentina...perhaps him saying he wants to go somewhere new, get away from his drug dealers and old life or whatnot. If you think I'm nuts, it's fine...but that is what this song will always mean to me.

(:

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