Lyrics for Slow Show as interpreted by lampada

Slow Show Lyrics
Standing at the punch table swallowing punch
can’t pay attention to the sound of anyone
a little more stupid, a little more scared
every minute more unprepared

I made a mistake in my life today
everything I love gets lost in drawers
I want to start over, I want to be winning
way out of sync from the beginning

I wanna hurry home to you
put on a slow, dumb show for you
and crack you up
so you can put a blue ribbon on my brain
god I’m very, very frightening
I’ll overdo it

Looking for somewhere to stand and stay
I leaned on the wall and the wall leaned away
Can I get a minute of not being nervous
and not thinking of my dick
My leg is sparkles, my leg is pins
I better get my shit together, better gather my shit in
You could drive a car through my head in five minutes
from one side of it to the other

I wanna hurry home to you
put on a slow, dumb show for you
and crack you up
so you can put a blue ribbon on my brain
god I’m very, very frightening
I’ll overdo it

You know I dreamed about you
for twenty-nine years before I saw you
You know I dreamed about you
I missed you for
for twenty-nine years

You know I dreamed about you
for twenty-nine years before I saw you
You know I dreamed about you
I missed you for
for twenty-nine years

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  • 54 Comments
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powderfinger01
04-10-2007

Rated 0 
beautiful, subtle...my favourite song on the album so far.

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lucasreddinger
04-11-2007

Rated 0 
beautiful with intensely meaningful lyrics.

but what does this mean:
i made a mistake in my life today
everything i love gets lost in drawers"

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2 Replies
jasono52
04-19-2007

Rated 0 
the national is so damn good

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tinerj
05-01-2007

Rated +1 
I love how he sings the part from "29 years" at the end

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powderfinger01
05-03-2007

Rated +2 
You know I dreamed about you
for twenty-nine years before I saw you

There just seems so much ache and half joy in this line I can't even catch my breath. I imagine him naked on the edge of his bed cock flailing writing this on the back of a cigarette pack.

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jasono52
05-08-2007

Rated 0 
This song is so good, Boxer is the album of the year so far.

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xdvr
05-17-2007

Rated 0 
It's fantastically self involving - he's generic enough that you can apply to yourself. He also manages to view things from both sides of arguments. Not many rock musicians are intelligent enough to have that sort of empathy.

It's fantastic.

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cutcopypaste
05-21-2007

Rated +1 
it's "god i'm very very frightened" .. not frightening, i'm pretty sure.
also i think it's "looking for somewhere to stand and stare" not 'stay'.

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artformsnow
06-01-2007

Rated 0 
"i leaned on the wall and the wall leaned away"

i know it's kind of lame just to quote what's already been quoted above...but jesus.

that line is GOOD. so funny and so humanly pathetic...what an album this is.

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3 Replies
lukewagoneer
06-03-2007

Rated 0 
I have yet to hear it, but the last verse is also in "29 years," off their debut album. Yet another cd to buy!!!!

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SageSoul
06-24-2007

Rated 0 
I listened to Guest Room first, which unfortunately didn't really grab me...maybe it will after another listen or two... but THIS song got me from the first note. Like others who have commented, I love the "twenty-nine years" lyric as well, and how the song fades out with that poignancy.

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schmiegelove
07-02-2007

Rated 0 
this song, and this album! I makes a cold sadness running down your spine, and after each hearing i feel a heavy lightness and incredibly melancoly joy. These lyrics, his voice, these drums, this compilation, these melodies. Thank you. It is now worthwhile.

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lukewagoneer
07-08-2007

Rated 0 
GET THEIR DEBUT ALBUM! I got it 2 weeks ago, 29 years acutally is really good, and So is Beautiful Head and American Mary!!!!!! The rest is OK too.
What could "You could drive a car through my head in 5 minutes" mean? Maybe he's in a fog/drunk?

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zeitgeist77
07-12-2007

Rated 0 
still trying to capture the general image/ meanings of this song. so far this is one of my favorite bands of the year.

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frankie47
07-26-2007

Rated 0 
i think the "you could drive a car through my head in five minutes" is him commenting on the way people just have small talk conversations and do not really communicate with eachother that benefits those who come off as different/nervous/frightened. i think he's trying to say that nobody stops to think and look beyond the point blank impression we get of people.

what i really cant grab is the "everything i love gets lost in drawers" lyrics. i think it has something to do with being nervous and feeling like the person you want to come off as is somewhere lost inside of you. being nervous can ruin some people and i think he's using a metaphor to decribe how he feels scared and unprepared to socialize.

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adamdwitt
08-08-2007

Rated 0 
I think this song is about being disconnected. About wanting to take your life, rip it apart by the lung tissue, and start over, be winning.

The 'everything I love gets lost in drawers' lyric, I think is exactly what it sounds like--drawers get messy, so does love. I think it's just about losing your connection with love, life and self.

--Adam

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bhughes
08-17-2007

Rated 0 
i think that it's about feeling overwhelmed (and inadequate) with respect to adult responsibilites and pressures (work obligations, bills, etc.) and wanting to escape it and just go home and be with your significant other for validation of your self-worth (the blue ribbon on my head) and to just hang out with someone you love and trust and forget about the pressures of your professional life. What a great song. "I leaned on the wall and the wall leaned away" - fantastic lyric.

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kumokasumi
09-08-2007

Rated 0 
I think this song is a reference to the "dumb show" that Hamlet staged for Claudius. I think the love that he's depended on, the love he thought he was waiting on for those 29 years, started to be a second priority in his life ("lost in drawers") and has failed ("and the wall leaned away"). Maybe he's discovered infidelities? I don't think it's a happy song.

Or else the "dumb" in dumb show is just "cute and silly" act and he's contrite about how his priorities shifted without him noticing, and now he's gonna go set it right as soon as he can get away from this miserable party without her. Which is a lot fuzzier.

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kumokasumi
09-08-2007

Rated +1 
Twenty-nine is also about right for Hamlet's age. See: http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=006ZHt

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oddlittlerara
09-14-2007

Rated 0 
Standing at the punch table swallowing punch.... : Im at a party listening to all the bullshti being said around me with empty conversations that mean nothing to me that are not of any interest to me and im stuck here putting up with it. (punch has several meaning of getting drunk; punched by all this conversations that are going over my head)

I made a mistake in my life today...: I got into a fight with youtoday and now im here at a party realizing how much i miss you and realizing that i dont and shouldnt be here and i shouldnt have foughten with you over it

I wanna hurry home to you..(my fav part of the whole song) Hes saying that while hes at this party hes stuck at the only thing he wishes he could do is repair the fight he had with you and go back to being with you to make you laugh instead of being at theis akward party that is making me more frightened with every minute i spend away from you and frightened that you are still mad at me.

I leaned on the wall adn the wall leaned away..: im looking for soem type of support but couldnt find it in any one of the people im surrounded by

You could drive a car through my head..: Imagine driving through a dark tunnel; you are in the dark and the only thing you can see is the light at the end of the tunnel that you are dying to get to (the light is the person you want to make laugh. you want to be back at that happy point int eh relationship with that significant person

You know I dremed about you for 29 years: You are everythign i ever desired and sought out in a person .


This song is beautiful it cna be taken in so many directions. It can be a testament of love and apology to a significant other or it can be viewed as a song talkign about an akwardness of feeling like you havent reached your goals in life and you cant be happy and calm and sure of yourself or think about anything else until you achieve this goal.

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brianh
10-07-2007

Rated 0 
First of all, these lyrics are amazing. Vague, but amazing.
I see this a bit differently than previously mentioned. I see as him having a girlfriend that he’s totally into and in love with, even though he just cheated on her. He’s going to have to put on this facade to save his relationship, but he acknowledges being a monster for it. Beautiful imagery and repetition at the end to reinforce how much he really does love his girl even though he just screwed up

“Standing at the punch table swallowing punch / can’t pay attention to the sound of anyone / a little more stupid, a little more scared / every minute more unprepared” - I see this the narrator painting an image of him hanging out at a party that he just not into. He’s completely lost in his thoughts. He’s in that place where he understands he may have just severely changed his life. He’s having trouble fathoming what he just did and he’s not quite sure how to deal with it.

“I made a mistake in my life today / everything I love gets lost in drawers / I want to start over, I want to be winning / way out of sync from the beginning” Beautiful admission of guilt with a self deprecating I always screw up and treat the important things in life the same as all the other clutter of life that you just shove in that junk drawer.

“I wanna hurry home to you / put on a slow, dumb show for you / and crack you up / so you can put a blue ribbon on my brain / god I’m very, very frightening / I’ll overdo it” God, the lyrics keep getting better as the song goes on. The narrator is excited to his girl. He’s in this daydream fantasy about what’s going to happen when he sees her again. He sees himself hanging a great time with his girl having; laughing and goofing around. He’s really trying to forget. Blue Ribbon line is him saying how damn smooth he is for working around it, but then acknowledging how much monster he is for being able to do this. He s

“Looking for somewhere to stand and stay / I leaned on the wall and the wall leaned away / Beautiful double meaning of the whole getting drunk and stumbling to deal with his problems (reoccurring theme from other songs and the opening line from this song) and him needing someone stable to help him.
”Can I get a minute of not being nervous / and not thinking of my dick” Anxiety and regret
”My leg is sparkles, my leg is pins / I better get my shit together, better gather my shit in / You could drive a car / through my head in five minutes / from one side of it to the other” More anxiety

Another image of him lying to his girl and laughing and overdoing the false happiness and sense that everything is ok.

Then finishes with the most beautiful imagery of how much he loves his girl with the 29 years thing. I love how repetitive and how it ends up consuming the song at the end. The narrator is the bad guy, but this ending really shows his admiration for his girl and you can really feel his sadness. His voice just resonates through you through this and you feel an incredible amount of empathy for the bad guy going to lie to his girl. Excellent reuse of a previous song idea

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iwasastone
10-13-2007

Rated 0 
This is the anthem for all awkward, maladjusted late 20s-early 30s folk who only mean so, so wel. One of the most perfect songs I've heard in a while.

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user#55
11-06-2007

Rated 0 
i don't know why but this song reminds me of t.s eliot's "the love song of j. alfred prufrock" where he has something important to say to this girl but for whatever reason he just gets too nervous/insecure and in the end can't do it

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ihatetea
12-05-2007

Rated 0 
"I wanna hurry home to you
put on a slow, dumb show for you
and crack you up
so you can put a blue ribbon on my brain
god I’m very, very frightening
I’ll overdo it"

The girl obviously values his intelligence. He is charming and witty and she admires him for it. I think the blue ribbon on his brain means her telling him how smart and wonderful he is..a blue ribbon is a reward in academics.

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beanbag01
01-21-2008

Rated +1 
I think Slow Show relates to the fact that the woman may be more educated than this man. The man, feeling very insecure, feels the constant need to clown his way into the heart of his girl, lest she become bored. And he is afraid afraid of over doing it and becoming the silly idiot he himself thinks he is. I think he is also so very in love with her, and afraid that she will find out he is the fraud he thinks he is...

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