Lyrics for Hey as interpreted by riffic

Hey Lyrics
hey
been trying to meet you
hey
must be a devil between us
or whores in my head
whores at my door
whores in my bed
but hey
where
have you
been if you go i will surely die
we're chained

uh said the man to the lady
uh said the lady to the man she adored
and the whores like a choir
go uh all night
and mary ain't you tired of this
uh
is
the
sound
that the mother makes when the baby breaks
we're chained

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precipitate
07-03-2008

Rated 0 
this song is unbelievable.

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igotfakeid
06-11-2008

Rated 0 
Beautiful and minimalistic - gripping and passionate- everything is perfect - the drums - the solo - and the singing. Regarding Black's playing - could it be that the bass marks the chord "change" and that he plays the same sequence over and over again (except for the F#). Looks that way when you see him play it.

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igotfakeid
06-11-2008

Rated 0 
Beautiful and minimalistic - gripping and passionate- everything is perfect - the drums - the solo - and the singing. Regarding Black's playing - could it be that the bass marks the chord "change" and that he plays the same sequence over and over again (except for the F#). Looks that way when you see him play it.

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igotfakeid
06-11-2008

Rated 0 
Beautiful and minimalistic - gripping and passionate- everything is perfect - the drums - the solo - and the singing. Regarding Black's playing - could it be that the bass marks the chord "change" and that he plays the same sequence over and over again (except for the F#). Looks that way when you see him play it.

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escape_aid
05-21-2008

Rated 0 
I think this song is beautiful but also heartbrakingly tragic... i do this the song deals with infidelity but not it the sens discussed above.. i beleive the song is about a couple in which the woman is unfaithful and the man knows but is so deeply in love that he just desperately wants her to be with him and be satisfied by him. Seeing as how she wanders for sex with others he tries to seduce her in hopes of attaining her and connecting to her so that they can be the whole they once were. I find the song to be very erotic but its sort of like a desperate passion. ''Whores in my head'' is a reference to the constant image of his girlfirends infidelity circulating in his mind... its burdening him and he sees it everywhere... (''Whores in my head, whores in my bed...'') And then naturally the ''devil between us'' is his knowledge of what shes doing behind his back... but its not making him angry because hes just so in love with her he just aches to have her be satisfied with him and with him only... ''if you go i will surely die'' and the ''chained'' remarks are him trying to make her realise that they are supposed to be linked to each other unconditionally. ''uh said the man to the lady uh said the lady to the man she adored'' thats him again trying to remind her of the passion they shared in the past. But then when he ties in ''the whores like a choir go uh in my head'' proves that it becomes unbearable for him to live with the fact that she cheats on him and it just kills him. At hs lowest when he says ''mary aint you tired of this'' i think its a biblical refernce but to mary Magdalene as opposed to the virgin mary because Magdalene was a prostitute.. the ''uh'' that follows is no longer sexual but him actually taking the life of his lover because shes pregnant and he is ''breaking the baby'' that was the fruit of the wifes infidelity.

Does that work?
Actually one of my favorite songs of all time... i have like this whole movie that plays out in my head everytime i hear it. i love the '''mmmmmmmmm'' part after he says ''been trying to meet you'' reall sensual.

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blann
02-01-2008

Rated 0 
yeah he's in love with the girl - 'if you go i will surely die' and 'we're chained', but theres almost a crazy obsessive lust as well the rest of the song is just sex, sex, sex.

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eleventy
01-04-2008

Rated 0 
first off, I only read the first page as a result of my attention span. so sorry if this has already been said. but, THAT said...

the emphasis of Black Francis on the "we're chained" and the sore/anguished sear of the guitar lead me to believe the aim is more at a deeper pain than just sex.

one aspect of it is that people, in a way that's more instinct and nature than simply choice, are pulled towards sex. there's the obvious tone of tiredness of the process-- whores and routine "uh"s and the continual stream of "heys" as the narrator goes for another. but of course, tug against it as much as we may, we're chained.

then it takes sex, that natural tendency of man, and goes on to say that it fuels on the next step of man, which both are met by a grunt of either pleasure or pain or boredom. the next time "we're chained" is sung, it still means the same as the first one, with us being chained by our natural instincts, but it adds the chain of our connection/obligation to the rest of mankind and the chain (from the child's perspective) of being born out of and into the "uh" all over again.

so I'd go as far as summing the point as- Man is forever bound to his instincts and to the people around him, so too bad, go ahead and keep to it.

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thundercat
12-28-2007

Rated 0 
gcortes has it.

It is a about religion, Mary and Josef and their religion.

The theory about tarot card is interesting!

It's great how this song resonates with so many peoples hearts, look at the abundance of comments! :)

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tef
12-27-2007

Rated 0 
sundog32: ur in terpretation rocks! its amazing how pixies can have so many philosophical lyrics...

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tef
12-27-2007

Rated 0 
ink kiss your perspective of this song is amazing!!! so is this song about abortion somehow??? i've thought of it before... that's strong for such a goofy tune! i love it still! i love to sing it top voice! like : HEY!!!! hehehe

the guitar of this song is amazing!
UHUH!

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dedgrrlsdance
12-22-2007

Rated 0 
sex and/or giving birth?

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Sundog32
09-21-2007

Rated 0 
This is a fantastic song about the human race. This song is about ALL of us. We are all chained (connected); we are all basically the same in the fact that we all experience sexual lust and love and that we are all the product of this. Everyone is the product of their parents’ lust or love and we are all born of our mother.

The song starts out with a human lusting after another of the opposite sex.
“Hey been trying to meet you”
As humans we have the ability to mix our primal lusts with emotional love. Our initial physical attraction of our mate often turns to deeper emotional feelings of love.
“If you go I will surely die”
Everyone experiences these feelings of sexual lust and love. We can connect through our common experience.
“We’re chained”

The next verse zooms up from the individual to the general.
All over the earth and throughout time men and women are now, have been and will forever be having sex and mating.
“uh said the man to the lady
uh said the lady to the man she adored
and the whores like a choir
go uh all night”

After a while we all begin to realize this and ‘making love’ turns to boring, routine sex or just basic mating.
“and mary ain't you tired of this”
Finally, the next link of the chain is formed by “Uh”, the birth of another child who will repeat the song.
“uh is the sound that the mother makes when the baby breaks”
The human family tree is a chain. We are all links in a chain.
“We’re chained”

To me the most clever bit of songwriting by Black was the use of the grunt “Uh” to transition from the physical sex act to the birth of the next child…and then the cycle repeats.

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ginadoll187
08-29-2007

Rated 0 
it sounds to me like he can't make up his mind. does he want the whores? or does he want something real? "hey, been trying to meet you, hey must be a devil between us.." is just an excuse as to why he broke a date or why he won't just settle down. but whatever he decides he wants the girl to be there just in case cuz he can't let a good thing go, so he says if she goes he will surely die and they're chained, to give her hope so she'll stick around and continue giving him love and affection. meanwhile he's screwin her AND his "choir" of bitches, doing whatever he wants. mary ain't you tired of being fucked over by this guy? do you want to have his baby and really be chained to him?

that's my interpretation, it sounds just like my ex. we are NOT chained thank goodness.

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caurus
08-01-2007

Rated 0 
i think alot of what the first guy wrote wasnt that insightful some of it seemed pretty ok but i think its a little deeper than what you think, about sex and stuff yeah but not how youve said no way

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yousuck0505
04-21-2007

Rated 0 
"hey
been trying to meet you
hey
must be a devil between us
or whores in my head
whores at my door
whores in my bed
but hey
where
have you
been if you go i will surely die
we're chained"
(s)he's been cheated on, his(her) lover keeps running off with someone else (been trying to meet you/whores in my bed) he/she knows about it, but is so in love with his/her lover that no matter how bad she treats him, he feels he can't live without her.


"uh said the man to the lady
uh said the lady to the man she adored
and the whores like a choir
go uh all night"
this is where it makes me think that a GIRL is being cheated on.. and that her man keeps running off with other women, she loves him, she ADORES him, and he doesnt really remain faithful to her.
and mary ain't you tired of this
"uh
is
the
sound
that the mother makes when the baby breaks"
as for that part, i get confused, maybe it has something to do with getting pregnant, and like someone else on here said, a baby chaining the couple together, or maybe the "baby breaking" is like.. growing up.. no longer being an innocent child.. but a WHORE MONSTER!! haha
"we're chained"
she/he can't let his/her lover go, and the one he/she loves, cant stop coming back for more.

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heypono
04-14-2007

Rated 0 
i think the line where he says "been trying to me you" means that hes trying to know who the girl he is having sex is really is. most be a devil between us could mean the trouble they have verbally communicating with each other, but no trouble having sex. "whores in my head... means that he is not very trusting of the girl, and thinks that she could possibly be sleeping around and being a "whore" . but he thinks he loves her, but it could possibly just be a sexual attachment with her, that refering to the were chained, but he feels like the girl will leave him at anytime so he tells her that if she goes he will surley die.... who knows....

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airwolf queen
02-09-2007

Rated 0 
Francis' vocal work on the line "If you go, I will surely die" is beautiful.

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Pixiestar
12-08-2006

Rated 0 
one of my favorites-

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gcortes
09-25-2006

Rated 0 
I think the song is about a relation between Mary and Jose (parents of Jesus in Christianity). He can't fuck with her because she has to be the mother of Christ, so God is the only that can "intimate" (or whatever the way He create Jesus). So Jose (I don't know how he is called in english) has to fuck with whores-prostitutes. But he is chained with her wife, Mary, although they can't have sex. But they have a common fate: take care of the son of God and rear him, the one who is going to redeem the whole humanity. They also love each other, but they have a espiritual mission that avoid a simple relationship between two lovers.

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ELECTRIKave
08-28-2006

Rated 0 
I FUCKING LOVE THIS SONG!!

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**puns
08-06-2006

Rated 0 
..::my deffinition of this song::..
k so to me this song is about a guy who is with this girl[marry] but is cheating on her..he cant fully commit to her but he still wants her.she adored him but shes sick of being miss treated...i dont really get the ''uhh is the sound that the mother makes as the baby brakes'' part but i think thats either marry or one of his whores getting pregnant or maybe its just bringing emphasis on the 'uhh'.the ''were chained'' might be how marry feels because they have a baby and even though she knows hes cheating..she stays....or something like that..

i might be completly wrong but thats just what i get from all of this...

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quercusalba
06-29-2006

Rated 0 
I think this song is more about the general connection to our sexual urges. The line "the sound that the mother makes when the baby breaks" suggests that the pained sounds of love, or orgasm are our first experiences upon entering the world. We're tied to the urge to experience this same sort of pain. There's a fine line between pleasure and pain, and this song seems to be getting at the painful aspects of sex and love.

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jermstead
06-23-2006

Rated 0 
antisoap for knowing so much whores you should really be for soap...don't you know they are dirty. Ha I'm just being silly.

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lathyrus
06-18-2006

Rated 0 
yea, it sounds more like he is talking about the past sex life...and now he's sleeping with different whores..but still he's chained to this girl he loves!

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The Distorted
05-18-2006

Rated +1 
It's about sex to me - and the absurdity of it, when you think about it. It's so primitive, yet still ties us down through our instincts, despite the fact that we like to think we our above that now (as a race, we have always though this) - priding ourselves as being conscious sentient beings.

The "whores" act as a distraction for him getting to who he (apparently) really wants (or wants the most). And all these other women he's 'had' between meeting up with this particular woman represent the true nature of his desire - it is lust: they 'tided' him over until he got to his true conquest. Note how he words the lines,
"uh said the man to the lady
uh said the lady to the man she adored"
- to the man, she is just a lady, whereas the lady believes she sees more in him than just lustful passion. The "We're chained" line maybe shows how they both see their meeting as destiny, but in very different ways. The man might have even been manipulating the lady, letting her believe in their meeting having more of a 'romantic' tinge to it, then he wants, just to 'get into her pants'.
The lines:
"been trying to meet you
hey
must be a devil between us
or whores in my head
whores at my door
whores in my bed
but hey
where
have you
been if you go i will surely die"
...suggest this. He is making excuses, and lying to cover up his infidelity to her, claiming that he truely needs her, and has only done what he has done because of a misunderstanding between each other.
She willingly submits to his desires, believing that it will convince him to stay with her.
She might also be a virgin (as others have suggested), and that's why he desires her more-so than the "whores".

"and mary ain't you tired of this?"
- he's asking, aren't we fed up of this activity by now? It's been going on since the dawn of creation, and for humans, since we began. (The Mary referance connotates this SYMBOLICALLY - as a referencing point).

"uh
is
the
sound
that the mother makes when the baby breaks"
- This is what it's about, and comes down to, but we soon forget all this when the 'urge' kicks in, and see it as a form of pleasure (which our instincts are telling/trying to to trick us, with).

And finally,
"We're chained" also connotates how people are bound/drawn/attracted to each other through their desire to mate with one another, plus it's also a comical (and fucking funny IMO) way of describing the actual physical act of intercourse. It's a pun, and is a paradoxical symbol.

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