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Happiness, hit her like a train on a track
Coming towards her, stuck still no turning back
She hid around corners and she hid under beds
She killed it with kisses and from it she fled
With every bubble she sank with a drink
And washed it away down the kitchen sink
The dog days are over
The dog days are done
The horses are coming so you better run
Run fast for your mother run fast for your father
Run for your children for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your love and your longing behind you
Can't carry it with you if you want to survive
The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can't you hear the horses
'Cause here they come
And I never wanted anything from you
Except everything you had
And what was left after that too, oh.
Happiness hit her like a bullet in the back
Struck from a great height
By someone who should know better than that
The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses
'Cause here they come
Run fast for your mother and fast for your father
Run for your children for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your love and your loving behind you
Can't carry it with you if you want to survive
The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses
'Cause here they come
The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses
'Cause here they come
The dog days are over
The dog days are done
The horses are coming
So you better run
Coming towards her, stuck still no turning back
She hid around corners and she hid under beds
She killed it with kisses and from it she fled
With every bubble she sank with a drink
And washed it away down the kitchen sink
The dog days are over
The dog days are done
The horses are coming so you better run
Run fast for your mother run fast for your father
Run for your children for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your love and your longing behind you
Can't carry it with you if you want to survive
The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can't you hear the horses
'Cause here they come
And I never wanted anything from you
Except everything you had
And what was left after that too, oh.
Happiness hit her like a bullet in the back
Struck from a great height
By someone who should know better than that
The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses
'Cause here they come
Run fast for your mother and fast for your father
Run for your children for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your love and your loving behind you
Can't carry it with you if you want to survive
The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses
'Cause here they come
The dog days are over
The dog days are done
Can you hear the horses
'Cause here they come
The dog days are over
The dog days are done
The horses are coming
So you better run
Lyrics submitted by x-orange-x
Track duration: 04:12
"Dog Days Are Over" as written by Florence Leontine Mary Welch, Isabella Janet Florentina Summers
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The girl finally realizes how un-fulfilling her relationship is with that man and leaves. Happiness hit her like a train on a track, it came extremely fast after she left the man. He had treated her like a dog or a doormat and she was SICK OF IT. However life most abuse victims, they might feel a longing for company such as the abuser. Therefore, Florence is saying forget all your love and your longing, your days of being a door mat are over!
However, the man felt like he needed her so he goes hunting for her, the girl runs to her mother and father and family to help her heal her pain and suffering for protection and real, true love.
That's what I got xD
I'm a tween so I don't know much.
I recently overcame a lot of sadness and this song was perfect. Basically, it says that it's overwhelming and that you have to be really close to depression to understand it. You have to completely connect with it and it does a lot of bad things to you (first verse) but then you run away from it.
You run and run until it can't find you anymore (the horses) and in order to do that, you have to leave certain things behind. You can't focus on love and longing because if you do, the sadness can catch up to you.
"Happiness hit her like a train on a track" could be refering to when the Allies bombed the train terminals to stop transportation to concentration camps or when the Nazi first started sending the jews and ohter minorites to the camps
hiding could refer to all the Jews who hid so they wouldn't die or get sent to labor camps
'the dog days are over' could signify the fall of Hitler and the next part 'the horses are coming' could be refering to the Allies
the running part would be about reuniting with families
the "leave you love behind" could be refering to how family might get you killed. Mothers with small children were both killed and children who wouldn't leave their families died
the next part could be refering to Hitler's need to exterminate 'inferior races' as he thought they were and make room for white, blue eyed, blonde haired people
'bullet in the back' was another way to mass exterminate minorites Hitler considered inferior
Can't you hear the horses coming, you better run
In the Bible, in the book of revelation
It talks about three horses:
The black horsethat will bring famine and inflation...the red horse which will bring war and the pale horse ....Behind the pale horse...hell will follow. behind the pale horse...the last of the three to arrive
so when she says cant you hear the horses coming? you better run...Thats what popped into my head
She then adds you cant carry love with you if you want to survive
I love my entire family and friends but shes says what is to come our way ...there will be no room for love not if you want to survive whatever is coming our way...
The symbolic meaning to me is pretty simple. It is just a call to never give up, in no matter what situation you are in. Think about anyone who has ever supported you and how the will to be free is stronger than the will to give in.
in some languages ,for example spanish a dog day (=día de perros) means a bad day, it may refer to the weather or the events in that day, so it might be about a girl who is through a bad period of her life. She might have been unhappy or even depressive during that period. But then , suddenly the truth hits her.(eg. Happiness, hit her like a train on a track)
Saw saw that she had to leave everything she knew / loved behind to start over and be happy . she had to turn into a different person .
(The horses are coming so you better run
Run fast for your mother run fast for your father
Run for your children for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your love and your longing behind you
Can't carry it with you if you want to survive)
I believe the lyrics are actually a bit sad , but they give you the power to go on and they encourage you to make a change in your life.
Ps. I think Florence and the Machine is an great band , they´re pure art.
Soetmelodie
but thanks to the show I discovered the beautiful wonderful world of Florence and the machine.
Anyway, when I first heard Dog Days, I thought it was this happy giddy freedom song.
You see in the Visayas Region of the Philippines (we are a 3rd World country), we have a saying "ting bitay og iro" which means "[it's the time of the year] to hang dogs"... Because a long time ago, when families literally had nothing left to eat, they'd kill stray dogs and have them as a meal.
That's a long time ago, but the expression stuck with everyone. Business people here use it to refer to the slower and harder days (or months) of the year when small enterprises (and even large ones) barely earn any income. So when I first heard of the song, I thought it was about the bad days being over. I thought about how happiness was here and the horses brought with them something new. I thought that the first line "Happiness hit her like a train on a track" was about how strong happiness is coming for her.
That was before I dissected the lyrics (I'm a beat and sound kind of girl).
Now that I've read and reread the lyrics to the song. My interpretation has changed. Considering most of the band's songs are about abuse, violence and empowerment, I now think this song is about domestic violence (or battering).
My new perspective about Dog Days changed when I read that universally, 'dog days' are referred to as happy days. So if you put that to the context of the song its easy to see how its about abuse.
The first stanza:
"Happiness, hit her like a train on a track
Coming towards her, stuck still no turning back
She hid around corners and she hid under beds
She killed it with kisses and from it she fled
With every bubble she sank with a drink
And washed it away down the kitchen sink"
Technically, one looks for a lover to find happiness. When you're in a relationship with someone, he or she stands as your happiness. In the song, Her happiness hurts her- he hits her. But she can't leave him (stuck still no turning back). She's afraid of him so she hides and she repays his aggression with kisses... To forget the pain, she starts drinking...
The next line which is the chorus just means that her happy days are over, it's gone now and you should run away and leave him (horses are coming) or else...
This line:
"Run fast for your mother run fast for your father
Run for your children for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your love and your longing behind you
Can't carry it with you if you want to survive"
For me this line means that if you can't leave him because you love him, then do it for your parents who raised you will.. do it for your children, do it for your family...
That part about "leave all your love and longing behind you, can't carry it with you if you want to survive" - is why I realized this song is about domestic violence. The victims of domestic violence, most of them women, can't leave their husbands or partners because of this belief that if she stays he will get better or that she loves him too much etc. or she has this irrational fear that she'll be nothing or nobody without him. This song tells us to leave those thoughts behind, leave this guy you 'love', whatever 'longing' you have, leave it too. Leave it all if you want to survive.
And the last line that cements my new interpretation:
"Happiness hit her like a bullet in the back
Struck from a great height
By someone who should know better than that"
The writers want to clearly tell us that this girl never expected to be hurt or beaten (bullet in the back). This guy (the batterer) is probably someone you wouldn't expect to do any harm (someone who should know better than that).
So there, my new perspective! Now that I see this song this way, I love it even more and I appreciate Florence & The Machine so much more.