Where crybabies cry
In the united states
Bright white on both sides
Like a plate
Nobody listens
Nobody should
It'd be a waste of attention

Not enough money
To buy a PC
So I come in this weekend
Asleep on my feet
And if I forget you
Ill have nobody left to forget
I guess thats what assholes get

Traded my day light
For a career

But I need you to disprove
My theory of the crows

Pouring my fingers across the keys
Will someone review my salary please?
Im selling my time to the man who sells style
That time should be mine to waste on you

Ill suck off investors
Ill suck off VCs

Im losing my posture from time on my knees
They treat me so well
Cause I'll do anything
Its in my nature of service

But ill need you to disprove
My theory of the crows

Kids of the wealthy are raised by the poor
You send daughters to los angelos and new york
I need mine to see me
When I wake up
I need mine to know
That im what they come to

When they come home


Lyrics submitted by SMUSER17022566

Theory of the Crows Lyrics as written by Matthew D. Berninger Aaron Dessner

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management

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Theory of the Crows song meanings
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8 Comments

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  • +3
    General Comment

    Members of the national, before they were a band spent some time in the trenches of the first dot com wave. This is a song about that experience.

    Smokleron April 03, 2008   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    Is this about selling out? I thought it was about prostitution first... But then I thought... Sex isn't the only thing you sell. You sell your integrity as well.

    Trolletteon February 03, 2013   Link
  • +2
    My Interpretation

    The Theory of the crows is a bleak view of humanity, one subservient, self-serving, with all the potential to soar but caught in an endless system of feeding from trash cans and flattened carrion. The singer is in need of escape from this life, one that is recognizably killing him slowly and severing him from everything that really matters and is vital. Like a beautiful caged bird, his song is a lament for the state he finds himself surrounded by, yet feels unable to escape from: one that causes him to have self-recrimination, to doubt his own value and worth in this world. The aspirational dream-factory meccas of New York and Los Angeles become the symbolic geographies of the haves and have nots, where the crows gather to feed from the trash of those have, or have not. This is what crows have become to the singer, and this is his theory of their life, one where he is trying to reconcile the crow as a bird of nature, and the crow as a product of its man-made environment. But like all fucked up theories, it’s in need of something, or somebody, to prove it wrong.

    ihijinxon October 18, 2014   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    What actually is the "theory of the crows"? Does anyone know? That being said, last stanza is beautiful. The whole song is, really.

    mister care-too-muchon April 01, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    "I'm losing my posture from time on my knees"

    love it.

    ohnoodleson August 17, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I've had this record for ages, but just really discovered this song. so great. Its pretty self explanatory.

    commiekisson January 03, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    is the line "traded my day light for a career" found in any other songs?

    DJPantson November 29, 2009   Link
  • -2
    General Comment

    Traded my daylight for savings time would make this more meaningful by far...even if the hour hand changes, it doesn't change a thing!

    driftingdreameron April 01, 2012   Link

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