Around your knees that crackle into the dark
Like a walk in the park like a hole in your head
Like the feeling you get when you realize you're dead
This time we ride roller coasters into the ocean
We feel no emotion as we spiral down to the world
And I guess it's worth your time
Because there's some lives you live
And some you leave behind
It gets hard to explain
The gardenhead knows my name

Leave me alone, for you know this isn't the first time
In fact this is twice in a row
That the angels have slipped through our landslide
And filled up our garden with snow
And I don't wish to taste of your insides
Or to call out your name through my phone
For the glory boys at your bedside will love you
As long as you're something to own

Follow me through a city of frost covered angels
I swear I have nothing to prove
I just want to dance in your tangles
To give me some reason to move
But to take on the world at all angles
Requires a strength I can't use
So I'll meet you up high in your anger
Of all that is hoping and waiting for you



Lyrics submitted by PLANES, edited by Xeinix, lauraka

Track duration: 03:13

"Gardenhead/Leave Me Alone" as written by Jeff Mangum

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


Gardenhead/Leave Me Alone song meanings
Add your thoughts

39 Comments

sort form View by:
  • 0
    General Comment:On the "Beauty" version of this, can anyone make out what he says before he begins.

    It sounds like "Is that Scott on the phone? Tell him I don't want to talk to him" or "don't let anyone talk to him".

    Can anyone hear?

    This version is incredible, by-the-by.

    :D
    Flag occultfanon December 20, 2011   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:the gardenhead... knows his garden ...once he might have drunken a sip of a faery's dust and went deep into the wood knowing every tree every blade of grass as he walked on moor feeling so free... next night he awoke in the womb
    what he remebered: he was near a tomb
    Flag Ribaudermuon April 30, 2011   Link
  • +3
    My Interpretation:This song gets me every time, and I wanna share what I think the song is about.

    There are beads that wrap around your knees
    That crackle into the dark
    Like a walk in the park, like a hole in your head
    Like the feeling you get when you realize you're dead
    This time we ride rollercoasters into the ocean
    We feel no emotion as we spiral down to the world
    And I guess it's worth your time
    Because there's some lives you live
    And some you leave behind
    It gets hard to explain
    The gardenhead knows my name

    This part seems to obviously be about someone that he did drugs with. He would watch the Gardenhead come home at night, and so on. I've also heard that the Gardenhead was the guy that lived across from Jeff Mangum's house, so yeah. This part is just describing getting high (The effects of drugs, and afterwards). I also think he's called the Gardenhead because it's kind of like "Pothead", except he does a variety of drugs, making him a Gardenhead.


    Leave me alone, for you know this isn't the first time
    In fact, this is twice in a row


    The narrator wants his Ex-girlfirend to leave him alone. She keeps trying to get back together with him, but this has already happened twice in a row. It's not working out.


    That the angels have slipped through our landslide
    And filled up our garden with snow


    This means that their relationship was stopped. The landslide represents their rough and rocky relationship. And what happens to a garden when it gets snowed on? It stops growing, meaning the angels managed to get through and stopped their love from growing and getting any further.


    And I don't wish to taste of your insides
    Or to call out your name through my phone


    I don't want to have get with you, have sex with you (oral sex obviously), or call you.


    For the glory boys at your bedside will love you
    As long as you're something to own


    The guys that you're having sex with (one night stands and what-not) only want you for sex. Nothing else. They don't want a relationship.


    Follow me through a city of frost-covered angels
    I swear I have nothing to prove


    Again, he's referring to the Angels preventing them from having a relationship, and he's trying to prove to her that he hasn't been seeing anyone else. Perhaps his ex is accusing him of seeing other people, even though they're broken up now.


    I just want to dance in your tangles
    To give me some reason to move


    I only want to see you, or have sex with you, just because I can. Just so I can go out.


    But to take on the world at all angles
    Requires a strength I can't use


    But to do something that we both know won't work out is hard, because I just can't do it. I can't make this relationship work.


    So I'll meet you up high in your anger
    Of all that is hoping and waiting for you


    I'm coming over now. This isn't working out, but you continue to think and hope that it will.


    So yeah, that's my interpretation :)
    Flag MattDohertyon April 07, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Wouldn't it be nice if artists would sometimes explain what they meant? I mean, I do love the mystery of songs and the way you can crawl into and get lost in lyrics, as if they were made for you... but seriously- I would love to know what "There are beads that wrap around your knees
    That crackle into the dark" means.

    Anyways, I feel like
    "Leave me alone, for you know this isn't the first time
    In fact, this is twice in a row
    That the angels have slipped through our landslide
    And filled up our garden with snow"
    He is refering to the"Garden" as being the girl and guys sexual relationship and the physical sharing of intimacies, as he also does in Oh Comely (All of them milking with green fleshy flowers,While powerful pistons were sugary sweet machines, Smelling of semen all under the garden), and the angels might be those that are physically tempting... And that the "garden" is filled up with cold, meaningless "snow" which could mean another word for semen that he also possibly uses in Two headed boy "The world that you need is wrapped in gold silver sleeves, Left beneath Christmas trees in the snow, And I will take you and leave you alone, Watching spirals of white softly flow"

    I also think that "Follow me through a city of frost-covered angels
    I swear I have nothing to prove
    I just want to dance in your tangles
    To give me some reason to move
    But to take on the world at all angles
    Requires a strength I can't use"
    He is trying to get her to forget about the tempters/temptresses and to prove that he truly doesn't love the "angels", and therefore has nothing to prove because it shouldn't need proving... But to take on every hint of jealousy she may feel from the entire world is more than he can handle, so he will "meet her up high in her anger".

    But of course, I could be wrong =]
    And I certainly do not mean to start an online uproar from this interpretation, hah.
    Any thoughts?
    Flag Naomi24on February 09, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:the last verse makes me melt.
    that part seems like a love song, but the rest talks about death/the descent into it...
    i don't really get how all the verses connect :/
    Flag elec_trickon February 01, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i totally agree with Thosepipehanes
    Flag hypecityishereon October 25, 2009   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:The Gardenhead knows my NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE




    that word lasts for 15 seconds. I highly doubt that is his natural voice, and it was probably artificially lengthened.

    But it might be, and if it is, Jeff Mangum is definitely a demigod of sorts. Either way, it's the coolest vocal phrasing I've heard in any song.
    Flag chickenpiggieson October 16, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:It's angels* not angles.
    Flag love_is_freeon August 02, 2009   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:I agree with fuzziwig that there may be more than just a breakup song here. but more so than depression I get a sense of frustration
    "you ride rollercoasters into the ocean, you feel no emotion as you spiral down..there are some lives you live and some you leave behind"
    maybe hinting at an unfulfilled destiny, going through life's motions without any gusto or passion. "like the feeling you get when you realize your dead." maybe he means not really "dead" but utterly bored, living life without meaning....
    that's the sense I get from the "gardenhead" portion of the lyrics anyway..
    Flag avecraincoaton February 06, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:a great song on a great album by a great band
    Flag whiterosesinhereyeson February 03, 2009   Link

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!

Back to top
explain