Lyrics for The Dead Flag Blues as interpreted by d_lacy

The Dead Flag Blues Lyrics
The car is on fire, and there's no driver at the wheel
And the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides
And a dark wind blows

The government is corrupt
And we're on so many drugs
With the radio on and the curtains drawn

We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine
And the machine is bleeding to death

The sun has fallen down
And the billboards are all leering
And the flags are all dead at the top of their poles

It went like this:

The buildings tumbled in on themselves
Mothers clutching babies
Picked through the rubble
And pulled out their hair

The skyline was beautiful on fire
All twisted metal stretching upwards
Everything washed in a thin orange haze

I said, "Kiss me, you're beautiful -
These are truly the last days"

You grabbed my hand
And we fell into it
Like a daydream
Or a fever

We woke up one morning and fell a little further down
For sure it's the valley of death

I open up my wallet
And it's full of blood

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  • 76 Comments
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peachsnowfalling
05-26-2002

Rated 0 
one of my favorite monologues.

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RemyKilledElvis
09-06-2002

Rated 0 
Exactly. So beautiful. Gives me the fucking creeps.

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IndeeRyan
03-29-2003

Rated 0 
This is one of the greatest songs i've ever heard. Although it was kind of creepy the first time i heard it. i believe this song is talking about how the world has gone/is going to shit. But this Truely is great.

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emotion_is_dead
04-28-2003

Rated 0 
amazing. just truely fucking amazing.

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wristmeetsrazor
06-05-2003

Rated 0 
i do agree with you. this song is magnificent. ***

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Jonnymacd
06-25-2003

Rated 0 
creepy.

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Jonnymacd
06-25-2003

Rated 0 
This song is odd.

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SlapsterMcFlash
04-12-2004

Rated 0 
I remember listening to this song on DXM trips, completely fucking incredible. I sware that I haven't had any better musical experiences with drugs before, except for maybe "The Shape of Punk to Come" by Refused, listened to on DXM. But still, I was at my girlfriends after sneaking over around midnight, and we'd done a fair amount of dxm, and it was great. Absolutely great.

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Selling Absolutions
04-14-2004

Rated +1 
your drug storys are unimpressive...why do you with we care?
the song is haunting...leave it at that.

no one wants to read about how you snorted sea monkeys while masterbating to a britney spears song anymore than they wish to read your "dxm" storys...cut the s--t already

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seventyfour
04-20-2004

Rated 0 
I have an extremely vivid picture in my mind every time I hear this song, and it's a fucking amazing scene. Creepily enough, it's the same every time. Other GYBE songs create pictures, but with other songs the pictures vary. I've gotten at least three hallucinogenic-quality images out of 'Moya'. If only I could draw...

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Leatherface1023
04-26-2004

Rated 0 
Fuckin awesome!

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leafsmack0
05-31-2004

Rated 0 
Selling Absoultions why don't you calm down. I want to hear if the song was really good on DXM because one day I might listen to it when I am on DXM.

The monologue is actually by Efrim, one of the guitarists. He has been working on a movie script for five years or something like that.

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_autonomy
06-15-2004

Rated 0 
"i said: "kiss me, you're beautiful -
these are truly the last days"

you grabbed my hand and we fell into it
like a daydream or a fever "


that's so fuckin beautiful..

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A-jax
09-16-2004

Rated 0 
"I have an extremely vivid picture in my mind every time I hear this song, and it's a fucking amazing scene. Creepily enough, it's the same every time."

that is the same with every song.

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ElectricPinkPanther
10-16-2004

Rated 0 
Well--- I have an extremely interesting story to go along with this song. I was listening to it before bed the other night, not thinking much about it, and had a dream that night, living out the end of the world. I had no idea what brought this dream on, and it creeped me out magnificantly.

So I wrote a paper over my dream, and put all the details into writing--- and then re-listened to this song and thought--- "WOW. this song WAS my dream"

If anyone wants to read the essay--- email me.

andy@jasonsweeney.com

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Nonny
11-03-2004

Rated 0 
I probably should not be listening to this song right now, given the outcome of the election ... *sigh*

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DarkerShadeofWinter
12-07-2004

Rated 0 
this is one of my favorite songs of all time. the lyrics are so beautiful.. i have a fascination with the end of the world, ive written many songs/poems/stories about it. a lot of concepts in writing is the apocalypse. and this song reminds me a lot of the stand, i dont know if anyone her has read it or seen the movie, but you should.

but yea i have a few questions.
one- did godspeed actaully write these lyrics, or did they borrow them from someone else?
two- who is the guy reading the lyrics?

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cdconn
12-23-2004

Rated 0 
I still think its "and we're all so many drunks with the radio on and the curtains drawn "

From what I understand, this is a narrative from a film that Efrim was making, but never finished. It's not him speaking, it's the actor in the film. I love the guy's voice...really haunting.

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acmezero
01-25-2005

Rated 0 
Do you guys know the name of the film(s) that efrim made?

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The*Tyler
02-27-2005

Rated 0 
It's not neccessarily about the end of the world as much as it is about the demise of Native Americans and Native American culture. The narration in the beginning symbolizes the time when U.S. settlers came and pillaged indian camps. The train sounds symbolize when people came to settle on the indian territory. the second wave of narration represents when the indians were moved to other lands. The "wallet full of blood" represents the lives lost by both indians and pioneers. After the narrator stops speaking, you see a change in the style of music, from more slow and monotonous to a more western style. the last two minutes of the song is happy and cheerful, symbolizing our own apathy towards the struggles of Native Americans.

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colourblind
04-10-2005

Rated 0 
I dont think its at all about the native americans... it cant be... i mean "the buildings tumbled in on themselves"... there wouldnt be buildings... and "the skyline was beautiful on fire
all twisted metal stretching upwards" all the twisted metal? hmm. If it is about the end of the world... well, the picture it painted in my mind was of September 11th 2001. and the sights i saw on tv. Now this was realeased a couple of months after and i dont think it could be entirely coincidental that these lyrics paint me a picture of that day. what a fantastic song!

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proxima
04-14-2005

Rated 0 
colourblind, the record was actually recorded and released in 1997 so it's definetly not about september 11th.
the theory about the native americans is quite good, but myself i'm more on the side of the apocalypse. btw, the vinyl version has a small piece played on a banjo (i think) after the last happy part with violin and glockenspiel. it also has one of the member saying stuff like "what am i supposed to do" "what am i doing" "where's my motivation" i could transcribe the later if there's need for it.

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somethingvelvet
04-17-2005

Rated 0 
Personally I think it's metaphorical for the world slowly falling apart and going to shit. Although the apocalypse description and especially the Native American idea sound like they could be correct as well.

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Glome
04-22-2005

Rated 0 
I think moreseo than the end of the world, this is about the end of government

\"the flags were all dead at the top of their poles\" suggests perhaps borders being removed and the like.

The end of the world will, I think, only be the end of the world as we KNOW IT. I don\'t think we\'re important enough to have the entire planet vanish just to get rid of us. I think that\'s what this song is trying to say, in a way. And it\'ll probably end in a vicious war.

Incredible song, the last two minutes at the end are really... something. Hard to describe, but absolutely wonderful

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B-line
05-30-2005

Rated 0 
When i listen to the song in my head i see it as a war and hes describing the aftermath of it.

the buildings tumbled in on themselves
mothers clutching babies picked through the rubble
and pulled out their hair

sounds like he's rolling through a war-torn town and all the aftermath of it, mothers and their babys on the sides of the road.

we're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine
and the machine is bleeding to death

the belly of the beast could be the army, and men are slowly dieing off.

Just my take on it atleast

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