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Your hand on his arm
The hay stack charm around your neck
Strung out and thin
Calling some friend trying to cash some check
He's acting dumb
That's what you've come to expect
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
He's wearing yr clothes
Head down to toes a reaction to you
You say you know what he did
But you idiot kid
You don't have a clue
Sometimes they just get caught in the eye
You're pulling him through
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Now on the bus
Nearly touching this dirty retreat
Falling out 6th and Powell a dead sweat in my teeth
Gonna walk walk walk
Four more blocks plus one in my break
Down downstairs to the man
He's gonna make it all ok
I can't beat myself
I can't beat myself
And I don't want to talk
I'm taking the cure so I can be quiet
Whenever I want
So leave me alone
You ought to be proud that I'm getting good marks
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
The hay stack charm around your neck
Strung out and thin
Calling some friend trying to cash some check
He's acting dumb
That's what you've come to expect
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
He's wearing yr clothes
Head down to toes a reaction to you
You say you know what he did
But you idiot kid
You don't have a clue
Sometimes they just get caught in the eye
You're pulling him through
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Now on the bus
Nearly touching this dirty retreat
Falling out 6th and Powell a dead sweat in my teeth
Gonna walk walk walk
Four more blocks plus one in my break
Down downstairs to the man
He's gonna make it all ok
I can't beat myself
I can't beat myself
And I don't want to talk
I'm taking the cure so I can be quiet
Whenever I want
So leave me alone
You ought to be proud that I'm getting good marks
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Needle in the hay
Lyrics submitted by EnjOy IncUbus
Track duration: 04:16
"Needle in the Hay" as written by Steven P. Smith
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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"Your hand on his arm"--heroin users will often use a belt or have someone grab their arm so they can find a vein and register.
"Calling some friend trying to cash some check"--either calling his dealer while cashing his check or getting a friend to cash a check for him because he doesn't have a bank account. Heroin users w/ bank accounts sometimes don't keep them for long because they will often overdraft to try and get money that doesn't exist.
"He's acting dumb
That's what you've come to expect"--he's using drugs, everyone already expects this of him because they view him as a junkie.
"Gonna walk walk walk
Four more blocks plus one in my break"--I actually thought the last word was "brain" not "break" which to me means that he's walking 4 blocks to his dealer and the one in his "brain" is the block that's trying to keep him from buying more H.
"Down downstairs to the man
He's gonna make it all ok"--going down the stairs to his dealer, to sell him H so he can feel better.
"I can't beat myself
I can't beat myself"--he can't beat his addiction
"And I don't want to talk
I'm taking the cure so I can be quiet
Whenever I want"--he doesn't want to talk about or admit he is addicted, so he uses the heroin so he can get his fix and not feel like he has to talk about his problem because when he is high he doesn't feel bad, and therefore keeps quiet about his addiction because he feels good for the time being
"So leave me alone
You ought to be proud that I'm getting good marks"--basically says "fuck off i'm going to get high. The getting good marks part is saying "hey i know I'm a fuck up, but at least I'm an experienced user that can easily find a vein", instead of inexperienced users who will have trouble registering in their veins which results in an unnecessary amount of track marks and permanent damage to their veins and limbs, which can lead to blood clots and amputations.
anyway, that's how I interpret the song.
I can see an alternate idea that would work a girl that includes other ideas presented by others here though... the author is the "he" referred to earlier. She is the "you" and his is scheming to get money, getting her friends to pass bad checks, while he play dumb. She pulls him through the eye of the needle (a third use of this word) and made him a junkie. The second half of the song is him looking to score with "the man" (oldschool term for dealer, ex: Velvet Underground's "I'm Waiting For The Man"). Cure usually means a treatment to kick the habit, so that's odd though, but a fix is a cure for the sickness for awhile, so perhaps thats as far ahead as he's looking.
TO me it means catching someone in the act of F"n you over. You find that needle in the hay and expose it. How long can you let a needle in the hay bother you?
You know it's there, but where!?
Of course a little resolve doesn't hurt anybody, or making amends. Or you could be a magnificent jerk to this problem of a person or situation.
Not "dirty retreat".
Could be wrong though! It just makes more sense.
That's why it's said in the way it is "marrkkkssssssssssss"
It's a nice bit of play on words. A massive self loathing 'screw you'
but man if u listen to the song, the mood it gives.. as someone who's been going through the same shit (not the drugs part fortunately) any sort of analysis would never give the song proper justice..
Your hand on his arm
The hay stack charm around your neck
Strung out and thin
Calling some friend trying to cash some check
He's acting dumb
That's what you've come to expect
This part is directed toward the dad...the dad strung out and trying to cash a check to get a fix for himself. His son is acting dumb, its what the dad has come to expect these days.
He's wearing your clothes
Head down to toes a reaction to you
You say you know what he did
But you idiot kid
You don't have a clue
Sometimes they just get caught in the eye
You're pulling him through
Once again directed toward the father--his son may literally be wearing his father's clothes (because money is tight due to the drug problem), or simply figuratively. Sons tend to look up to their fathers, even if they are messed up--he is a reaction to his father. The father says he knows what the son did. This part is up for interpretation (well all of it is, but in my version, it is moreso)...either the father literally knows what his son did (heroin) and just doesnt understand all of what is going on, or, my preferred interpretation, the father thinks his son stole his drugs and threw it away or something (like kids sometimes do with their parents who smoke)--realistically the son actually USED the drugs, hence the "you don't have a clue"--the father's guess was wrong. In the last line, the father is pulling his son, whether he realizes it or not, into a drug addiction.
Now on the bus
Nearly touching this dirty retreat
Falling out 6th and powell a dead sweat in my teeth
Gonna walk walk walk
Four more blocks plus the one in my break
Down downstairs to the man
He's gonna make it all OK
I can't beat myself
I can't beat myself
And i don't want to talk
I'm taking the cure so i can be quiet
Wherever i want
So leave me alone
You ought to be proud that i'm getting good marks
This last part is from the son's perspective...he is now dependent on the drug and can't just steal from his dad anymore, so he buys his own. His father is disappointed, the son doesn't want to hear it. He says to his father "you ought to be proud that im getting good marks"...the marks could be a sort of pun here, where it might be a reference to school, it could also be referencing the track marks from heroin use...I think it is supposed to refer to both, so whichever the son is actually talking about is irrelevant. He means both.