Lyrics for Dig For Fire as interpreted by riffic

Dig For Fire Lyrics
there is this old woman
she lives down the road
you can often find her
kneeling inside of her hole
and i often ask her
"are you looking for the mother lode?"
huh?
no.
no my child, this is not my desire
and then she said

i'm digging for fire [4x]

there is this old man
who spent so much of his life sleeping
that he is able to keep awake for the rest of his years
he resides
on a beach
in a town
where i am going to live
and i often ask him
"are you looking for the mother lode?"
huh?
no.
no my child, this is not my desire
and then he said

i'm digging for fire [4x]

Interaction
Mail to a friend Send Lyrics to a Friend
Share on Facebook

Stumble It
Add to Del.icio.us Add to Del.icio.us




  • 40 Comments
  • Printer Friendly Lyrics
oldest first     Expand All
zim182
04-16-2002

Rated 0 
another perfect example of how francis black leaves it to the listener to decide what they want the lyrics to mean... one of the best Pixies songs

Log in to reply
onafriday
04-30-2002

Rated 0 
i believe that this song is more or less about how most people believe that if a person is doing something the reason they are doing it is to prosper themselves, when actually they're doing it just for the hell of it or to do something people aren't expecting, something origional. Basically why do the same old thing?

Log in to reply
destinationnowhere
03-30-2003

Rated 0 
I have no clue and the part that this is not my desire does not help at all but this song it's really cool

Log in to reply
destinationnowhere
03-30-2003

Rated 0 
I have no clue and the part that this is not my desire does not help at all but this song it's really cool

Log in to reply
paranoidandroid83
04-14-2003

Rated 0 
what a great song. very hard to interpret, as are most pixies song(which is one of their traits that makes them so great to begin with). personally, i think it's just about senility, and how the characters depicted in the song have grown old but still find enjoyment in their own delusions. who knows...

Log in to reply
Dreamlandscape
06-12-2003

Rated 0 
I think it's like
"Are you looking for treasures?"
"No, I'm looking for destruction."
Digging for fire...fire has always been something we've depended on, yet so dangerous. Isn't digging for it a way of saying that you desire your own destruction? And enjoy it.

I love this song.

Log in to reply
Dreamlandscape
06-12-2003

Rated 0 
I think it's like
"Are you looking for treasures?"
"No, I'm looking for destruction."
Digging for fire...fire has always been something we've depended on, yet so dangerous. Isn't digging for it a way of saying that you desire your own destruction? And enjoy it.

I love this song.

Log in to reply
Dreamlandscape
06-12-2003

Rated -1 
It's like:
"Are you looking for gold and treasures?"
"No, I'm looking for destruction".
Fire has always been something we've depended on, yet so dangerous and never all tame. Isn't "digging for fire" a way of saying that you desire something that might be your own destruction? Fire is so beautiful, but it'll burn you if you come to close, you know..

anyway, i love this song.

Log in to reply
Dreamlandscape
06-13-2003

Rated 0 
is there any way I acn erase these last messages? something went wrong..

Log in to reply
crash0814
07-07-2003

Rated -2 
In my opinion, one of the worst missteps the Pixies ever made. I don't know why, but I just really, REALLY hate this song. Still love the Pixies, though.

Log in to reply
WantedMan
05-06-2004

Rated 0 
I think this song is fairly easy to interpret. It is about purpose. Fire is usually associated with desire and passion. The old people in this song are realizing their end may be near and they want to have lived for something because material possesions don't mean anything in the end. Thus they are not looking for the "mother lode" as the naive singer assumes, but fire.

Log in to reply
ultraglideinblack
05-21-2004

Rated 0 
I think this song is about female masturbation.
"kneeling inside of her hole"
"digging for fire"

Has to be!

Log in to reply
Goukuh
05-31-2004

Rated 0 
I always felt that this song was about futility.
How long will it take for you to find fire in the Earth?
Forever. So there's no real point in digging for it.
It's about older people trying to figure out if life was really worth it.

Log in to reply
kellyinavalon
11-30-2004

Rated 0 
Oh my. I had a thought. I was thinking the same as WantedMan. But I thought it may be too simple and too white for the Pixies. The Pixies like gray area. Not good, nor bad. Good is just as bad in extremes as Bad. Too shallow for them. I'm wondering if maybe, just maybe these people, are digging the same way others tried to build a ladder. They just had "opposite" goals in mind. I mean, really, if I was asleep for most of my life, then suddenly can't sleep at all? The awakening may not be so glorified..I'm gonna feel like siding with my anger. The old lady is often "kneeling" inside of her hole. I think she must have been lonely for quite some time, thus Frank's interjection of a startled "huh?" It makes me think of an estranged catholic. Kneeling, to find the fire would be quite the opposite of why they do it in the churches, wouldn't it? As the Watchman said also, Fire+ passion and drive, lust and excitement, etc. I think these people felt (as alot of us do) we want more of that. Not satisfied until we get more than the time before. Maybe they feel cheated out of life. I tend to enjoy things other religons call "evil". If I had gone my whole life and then got a taste...like a nun deciding to leave when she's 92 to be sure she had not wasted her god given life...then first beer, first great sex, first wild dance.... I'd be wanting more fire too. I'd be pissed that I decided to hand my freethought and will over to something else that was never recognized nor appreciated all my life when the real task was on the lighted dancefloor....sorry..I got carried away. Apologies.

Log in to reply
arfarf
01-30-2005

Rated 0 
Well, you are only 1/2 right. If you look at the whole song, he goes and talks to a toiling woman, and he talks to a lonely, tired man. Both are lonely and alone, and "digging for fire". The implication, perhaps, is that they are both seeking the same passion, seperately, and alone, when perhaps, they could find it in each other. We are all "digging for fire", or sleeping our lives away (telling ourselves we have no interest or time), or toiling at digging a hole (tending to our commitments/job/family).

Beautiful metaphore.

Log in to reply
s7rugg1e
03-12-2005

Rated 0 
My father smelled my baby daughter's head and said, "Smell that youth!"

He's digging for fire too.

Log in to reply
mojo_pin
07-12-2005

Rated 0 
people talk way too much shit on these sites

Log in to reply
samhall555
10-23-2005

Rated 0 
No idea what it means. But I like to think that it means to stop worrying and when you’re broken, cold and alone on the freezing floor, you remember your worth, and start digging for fire.

I persist in this existence because I choose to. I choose to keep digging for fire.

I’ll keep digging for fire

Log in to reply
Drugsarebad
12-08-2005

Rated 0 
This song kinda of reminds me off Dylan Thomas's poem "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night" which is about not just letting death take you but rage against the dying of the light and maybe Black was saying don't let death take you but live life until your dead..................And i'm not saying Black got the idea for the song after reading the poem i am just comparing the two.

Log in to reply
IhavegoodTaste
02-26-2006

Rated 0 
This song is a tribute to Talking Heads...
Look them up. Good stuff.

Log in to reply
EliWho
03-09-2006

Rated 0 
I'm inclined to think that, given Black's lyrical tendencies, this song is much simpler than anything we've hit on here. Probably something like "I thought it was a good verse."

That said, here's one slightly poetic interpretation. We have to see that here, the song contrasts "the mother lode" with "fire." The expression "mother lode" usually connotes someone looking for something already created, e.g. gold, buried treasure, etc. Juxtaposed with this, "fire" here may symbolize inspiration, as in a spark. So, the people in the song are saying, "I'm not just trying to gorge myself on what already exists; I'm trying to make something new."

Just my $0.02. Thoughts?

Log in to reply
PsycodelicMuffin
03-10-2006

Rated 0 
:)

Elders understand what is really important in life.
The material possestions aren't going to make you happy.
That finding the fire...
...and fire as the driving force for all things.
Destruction breeds creation.

So they not only want to find passion, but new ideas to fuel that "fire"

I also think that the old woman is kneelign in prayer, trying to find life within religon.
And the old man is troubled deeply..

like after being troubled you can not sleep..

and he is going to end up in that place.

................heh.

Log in to reply
Audaciousmoose
04-15-2006

Rated +1 
Ok, pretty much both verses are the same, so I'll just quote the second verse.

"there is this old man
who spent so much of his life sleeping
that he is able to keep awake for the rest of his years"

So the old man wasted a good portion of his life not taking action and doing the things he wanted to do. So now he's making up for it.

"and i often ask him
"are you looking for the mother lode?"
huh?
no.
no my child, this is not my desire
and then he said

i'm digging for fire [4x]"

So the young man asks him if he's digging for money and gold and riches. And the old man tells him that he's looking for passion in his life that he's never had.

Log in to reply
SwimPisces
06-01-2006

Rated 0 
"Old woman" and "old man" convey fear (aging, weakness, incapacity, insanity). The elderly are limited in all aspects of waking life, and are left with no where to go and nothing to do ("often find her kneeling inside of her hole") ("this old man who spent so much of his life sleeping..."). When asked "are you looking for the mother load?" by a young person who can't relate to their situation, they reply with sarcasm, "I'm digging for fire". If this apparent metaphor were taken literally, it would convey the sadness of the elderly (as digging would never yield fire)

Log in to reply
lathyrus
06-18-2006

Rated 0 
bingo dreamlandscape!!
i think so too!

Log in to reply
1 Reply




  • Add Your Comments
What does this song mean to you?

You must be logged in to post your comments.

Feel free to create an account with us, or log in with your existing account, to start adding your comments to songs.





Popular
Top:   Lyrics, Artists, Albums
Random:   Lyric, Artist, Album

Your Ad Here