Warren wanted a Beach Boys thing for this one, and Carl Wilson and Billy Hinsche came in, with Carl arranging the vocal parts. The other harmony vocalists (credited as the "Gentlemen Boys") were Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, Zevon's longtime backers Waddy Wachtel and Jorge Calderon, and Linda Rondstadt/Stone Poneys guitarist Kenny Edwards.
Shut down the gospel singers and
Turn up the old heartbreakers
I’m dying to tell you that I’m dying here
Throw up the sickly joy and I’ll
Swallow the sweet self-loathing I’m
Just dying to be unhappy again
Oh where love won’t grow
Oh I’ll build my home
And if happiness won’t come to me
Hand me the nitrous gas
Leave the acute warm heartedness
Go where the joyless bastard lives
He’s dying to bring you down with him
Suck in the bright red major key
Spit out the blue minor misery
I’m dying to bring you down with me
Oh, oh, oh, oh
But if happiness won’t come to me
Hand me the nitrous gas
You can keep all of your oxygen
Hand me the nitrous gas
If happiness won’t live with me
I think I can live with that
Keep all of your oxygen
Hand me the nitrous gas
Turn up the old heartbreakers
I’m dying to tell you that I’m dying here
Throw up the sickly joy and I’ll
Swallow the sweet self-loathing I’m
Just dying to be unhappy again
Oh where love won’t grow
Oh I’ll build my home
And if happiness won’t come to me
Hand me the nitrous gas
Leave the acute warm heartedness
Go where the joyless bastard lives
He’s dying to bring you down with him
Suck in the bright red major key
Spit out the blue minor misery
I’m dying to bring you down with me
Oh, oh, oh, oh
But if happiness won’t come to me
Hand me the nitrous gas
You can keep all of your oxygen
Hand me the nitrous gas
If happiness won’t live with me
I think I can live with that
Keep all of your oxygen
Hand me the nitrous gas
Lyrics submitted by ckd816, edited by eliot01, virtuallypainless
Nitrous Gas Lyrics as written by David William Lawrence Kennedy Andy Monaghan
Lyrics © DOMINO PUBLISHING COMPANY
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Spirit Within
Bertoldi Brothers
Bertoldi Brothers
Corpse I Fell In Love With
Gadjits, The
Gadjits, The
He reuses the verse melody from the previous album's "Dirty Little Religion", the topics of the verses are all over the place, and he packs too many words into one line (goes to show...) and too few in another (it's pretty hard to find), and rhymes "Henley Regatta" with "Persona non grata", but gets away with it all as only he could.
Step
Ministry
Ministry
Both as a standalone and as part of the DSOTS album, you can take this lyric as read. As a matter of public record, Jourgensen's drug intake was legendary even in the 1980s. By the late 90s, in his own words, he was grappling with massive addiction issues and had lost almost everything: friends, spouse, money and had nearly died more than once. "Dark Side of the Spoon" is a both funny & sad title for an album made by a musical genius who was losing the plot; and this song is a message to his fans & friends saying he knows it. It's painful to listen to so I'm glad the "Keith Richards of industrial metals" wised up and cleaned up. Well done sir.
Techno Ted
Audioslave
Audioslave
Techno Ted may be a person who caused Chris incredible emotional pain & trepidation as well as moments of peace & happiness but now is removed and awaiting his fate. Darling may be a different person who is also free of him and can live her life free of Ted's tyranny. "In between all the laughing, and daydreams ... lies: a desert of truth" Lies are like a desert or the omission of Truth: Where there were Lies then Truth was absent. The song, "Techno Ted", may be a cathartic celebration of the downfall of this person.
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Love this song. Nitrous gas is laughing gas, so since the dude isn't happy, he'll just breathe in some laughing gas instead and that'll be the closest thing he has to happiness.