Lyrics for Downer as interpreted by Sliver428

Downer Lyrics
Portray sincerity (Alt: Butcher sincerity)
Act out of loyalty
Defending your true country
Wish away the pain
Hand out lobotomies
To save little families
Surrealistic fantasy
Bad boy, Fight! (Alt: Flamboyant pain)

Hold me down in restitution
Living out your date with fusion
Is the whole fleece shun in master?
Don't feel guilty, master writing

Somebody said that they're not much like I am, I know I can
Make enough of the words for you to go along and sing your song

Slippery pessimist hypocrite master
Conservative communist apocalyptic bastard
Thank you dear God for putting me on this Earth
I feel very privileged in debt for my thirst! (Alt: Feeling very frivilous, death in mind. Nurse!)

Hold me down in restitution
Living out your date with fusion
Is the whole fleece shun in master?
Don't feel guilty, master writing

Somebody said that they're not much like I am, I know I can
Make enough of the words for you to go along and sing your song

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  • 42 Comments
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Stevierrw
06-03-2002

Rated 0 
Kurt Cobains Attempt at a Political Song.

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dnspiral9
07-23-2002

Rated -1 
i dont think kurt meant this as a "serious" political song. anyone who puts something like "apocalyptic bastard" in a song has to be sticking their tongue in their cheek

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floppy
08-24-2002

Rated 0 
I think these lyrics are incorrect. Bland, boring, plain - should be the last line of the first paragraph, there are probably more wrong lyrics,but im not goin to point them out. "bad boy, fight." i dont think so.

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RehersedInsanity
08-24-2002

Rated 0 
I agree on the lyrics. This was originally one of Kurt's "Fecal Matter" songs, it is the Bleach song with the longest history

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Lougolas
03-23-2003

Rated 0 
This is possibly my favourite Nirvana song, but some of the lyrics are definitely wrong. Of course, Kurt's lyrics are ofter hard to decipher. This is an example of his perfect genius.

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gimmie an f
05-10-2003

Rated 0 
i didnt even know the lyrics till i got the book.......good book....i read it in a day......yea the song kicks ass........the way he sings it kinda reminds me of what someone would think an acid trip would be like

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gimmie an f
05-10-2003

Rated 0 
i didnt even know the lyrics till i got the book.......good book....i read it in a day......yea the song kicks ass........the way he sings it kinda reminds me of what someone would think an acid trip would be like

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fuhgawz
06-27-2003

Rated 0 
yes, these lyrics are slightly off...
"bland boring plain" and
"make enough of the words for you to follow along, I sink and then some"
should be the right lyrics.

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Teen Spirit 87
07-07-2003

Rated 0 
Amen to fuhgawz...the lyrics are a bit off! Also, "defending your true country" should be "defend your true country." I don't think Kurt was trying to use big words at all as (it seems) some of you think. He actually said that he just wrote down a bunch of things he was thinking of in no particular order when reffering to this song. However you want to interpret those words is a different story.

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She
06-23-2004

Rated 0 
i think this song is about how all familys should be perfect, meaning they arnt aloud to have mental illnesses and must fight for their countries and how it was all just an unexpected fantasy also i think references were made to frances farmer who had a partial lobotomy and had to act perfectly towards her family for fear of being reinstitutionalised (yes ''frances farmer will have her revenge on seattle'' was based on the ame person)

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She
06-23-2004

Rated 0 
also frances farmer wrote an essay in school that won her a competition and made people think she was an aetheist and a communist you should read into her very intresting story.

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She
06-23-2004

Rated 0 
kurt related to frances she was from seattle and was rebelious and different (ok im done)

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Kurdt-Kobain
07-01-2004

Rated 0 
the lyrics are wrong the real lyrics are
Portray sincerity (Alt: Butcher sincerity)
Act out of loyalty
Defending your true country
Wish away the pain
Hand out lobotomies
To save little families
Surrealistic fantasy
bland boring plain!

Hold me down in restitution
Living out your date with fusion
Is the whole fleece shun in master?
Don't feel guilty, master writing

Somebody said that they're not much like I am, I know I can
Make enough of the words for you to go along and sing your song

Slippery pessimist hypocrite master
Conservative communist apocalyptic bastard
Thank you dear God for putting me on this Earth
I feel very privileged in debt for my thirst!

Hold me down in restitution
Living out your date with fusion
Is the whole fleece shun in master?
Don't feel guilty, master writing

Somebody said that they're not much like I am, I know I can
Make enough of the words for you to go along and sing your song

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rokker_fairy
10-03-2004

Rated +1 
woooh this song rokks rather lots =)

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queenjane
11-18-2004

Rated 0 
a rela fucking upper ;)

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queenjane
03-06-2005

Rated 0 
sorry bout the shitty comment up there i was a bit uhh stoned...heh. not my favorite song by them but still good.

this has nothing to do w/ the song but i just wanted to mention that if u look at he back of the bleach case u can see that kurt had them put the name of his alter-ego on it: Kurdt Kobain......i love that.

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NirvanaTourettes
04-12-2005

Rated 0 
first of all... alter ego?? im almost certain that the d refers to his middle name donald, y do u think he used to write Kur-d-t Cobain, and second, downer probably has heaps of meaning but i dont think Kurt was realy trying to get the best possible lyrics for this song, itsw more just a few thoughts he had on his world, mixed with total random statements, and also, this song is awsome, and also, the lyrics are different depending on what version u hear, heres another

Put your sincerity
I've got a royalty
Defending your country
Wish away

I've had a lobotomy
Save your family
Surrealistic fantasy
Bad boy

Fight!

All we know is
Restitution
Living out your
Date of future
There's a hope
Please show me faster
Don't forget
To pass a riot

Somebody served a dinner
Much like I am
I know I can't
Make enough although
If you go along
I sing your song

Sickening pessimists
Picketing masses
Separated communists
Apocalyptic bastards
Rinkydink God
For putting me on this Earth
Being very frivolous
Death in mind

Nurse!

All we know is
Restitution
Living out your
Date of future
There's a hope
Please send it faster
Don't forget
To pass a riot

Somebody served a dinner
Much like I am
I know I can't
Make enough although
If you go along
I sing your song.

i personaly dont care but for those who like to argue about it there u go. i think this version was from an early live show they did for bleach

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my nothing
06-01-2005

Rated 0 
Conservative and communist are opposites. That's the only thing I can decipher from this.

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vakuumet
07-24-2005

Rated 0 
Nirvanatourettes, Kurt spelled his name Kurdt Kobain sometimes to confuse people. Well, thatīs atleast what iīve read.

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themuffinmankills
02-06-2006

Rated 0 
to me it sounds like hes singing about how pathetic life is and all the things that go on around us........... :) she says to herself coz no1s listenin
probably not
bi!

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Tim Dogg
03-01-2006

Rated 0 
I thought it went "hold me down in the institution,
living out the daily abusion"

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Drum_Head
03-22-2006

Rated 0 
It seems to me that he wrote about some thoughts he had, he puted them all together. In the line "conservative communist" i think he disagrees with both extreme political ideas.
In the alternative version (i dont know if its correct) that "Nirvanatourettes" pued, when he sings "Somebody served a dinner Much like I am" seems to be related with the line "animals trapped, all became my pets, and im living out of grass", as well as "yes i eat cow im not proud" from Mr.Moustache. It seems that he was thinking about vegetarianisim.

peace!
OM MANI PADME HUM

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Lumpp
05-14-2006

Rated 0 
I think in this song kurt is making fun of people interpreting the world into every song he's ever written.
I get the feeling he was writing lots of meaningful-sounding words that worked well together without actually meaning anything. "I know I can make enough of the words for you to go along and sing your song" pretty much proves my idea. "I'm just writing crap but I know you'll find your own deep meaning in it"
"Don't feel guilty master writing" sounds like a sarcastic message to all those people thinking "I don't understand the meaning in Kurts songs but I guess that doesn't matter - it's just cuz he was a genuis".
It seams to me that would be something Kurt would have done. But then again, I could be wrong. Anyway that's what this song means to me and it's an amazing song.

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Jack1234
05-27-2006

Rated 0 
I think this song is about someone having a rant about things in the world and their life which seem unfair/unjust. It has a very depressive tone hence the name of the song "Downer"

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Jack1234
05-27-2006

Rated 0 
I think that most if not all of Kurts songs have some sort of meaning. Look at In Bloom. That song accuses some 'fans' of not caring what his songs meant. It seems pretty unlikely for Kurt to write a song saying he can write anything and people will find meaning in it and then one accusing people of not finding meanings in his work.

Bleach wasn't a breakthrough album either so its not like people were analysing his lyrics at this point anyways.

Also the Lyrics are to well written (he uses complex vocab like restitution etc) to be just "crap".

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