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Everybody cares, everybody understands
Yes everybody cares about you
Yeah and whether or not you want them to
It's a chemical embrace that kicks you in the head
To a pure synthetic sympathy that infuriates you totally
And a quiet lie that makes you want to scream and shout
So here I lay dreaming looking at the brilliant sun
Raining it's guiding light upon everyone
For a moment's rest you can lean against the banister
After running upstairs again and again from wherever they came to fix
You in but always fear the city's finest follow right behind
You got a pretty vision in your head
A pencil full of poison lead
And a sickened smoke illegal in every town
So here I lay dreaming looking at the brilliant sun
Raining its guiding light upon everyone
Here I lay dreaming looking at the brilliant sun
Raining its guiding light upon everyone
You say you mean well, you don't know what you mean
Fucking ought to stay the hell away from things you know nothing about
Yes everybody cares about you
Yeah and whether or not you want them to
It's a chemical embrace that kicks you in the head
To a pure synthetic sympathy that infuriates you totally
And a quiet lie that makes you want to scream and shout
So here I lay dreaming looking at the brilliant sun
Raining it's guiding light upon everyone
For a moment's rest you can lean against the banister
After running upstairs again and again from wherever they came to fix
You in but always fear the city's finest follow right behind
You got a pretty vision in your head
A pencil full of poison lead
And a sickened smoke illegal in every town
So here I lay dreaming looking at the brilliant sun
Raining its guiding light upon everyone
Here I lay dreaming looking at the brilliant sun
Raining its guiding light upon everyone
You say you mean well, you don't know what you mean
Fucking ought to stay the hell away from things you know nothing about
Lyrics submitted by EnjOy IncUbus
Track duration: 04:25
"Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands" as written by Steven P. Smith
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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''you fucking aught to stay the hell away...''
and
''always fear city's finest follow...''
Lines which may sound as if they're referring to drugs--such as "It's a chemical embrace that kicks you in the head/To a pure synthetic sympathy that infuriates you totally"--aren't always literal. Elliott may have been referencing drugs/intoxication only metaphorically.
The rehab clinic (where he was coerced into treatment by his so-called friends) was in Arizona. You can imagine how oppressive the heat must have been, for someone accustomed to living in Oregon's usually-mild climate. So the "guiding light" of the "brilliant sun"--which, on its face, sounds as if it might be an image of healing, natural beauty--in this instance represents feeling trapped after having been "helped" by people misguided at best, manipulative at worst.
This is exactly what Elliott was saying in,
"Fucking ought to stay the hell away from things you know nothing about."
How are you going to make a connection to drugs when you have not let them into your life?
(Note: I'm not trying to glamorize substance abuse or anything, but once you've been there, you start connecting the dots in his music. I didn't use when I started listening to ES, and couldn't pick up the references until I did.)
Emotions are caused by chemicals within the brain. He could be railing against emotion as just an empty chemical reaction with no meaning, which fits with the idea that he wants people to stop feeling obligated to be sympathetic.
I suppose the same meaning could be applied to, "To a pure synthetic sympathy that infuriates you totally." But the word synthetic makes my mind jump to drugs (whether heroin or the meds administered to him I have no idea) but that interpretation seems a little less kosher to me.
But you've gotten to the point where you don't even care about yourself any longer.
This could easily apply to a mental institution.
I think the "chemical embrace that kicks you in the head" is talking about psychiatric drugs that make you feel calm, but not right... And the "pencil full of poison lead" (and the lines that come before it about being chased upstairs)... I picture a nurse chasing him with a syringe. They want to see him happy, but the way they're going about it would just make him sedated, stupid... a "sickened smile"...
I think even "here I lay dreaming, looking at the brilliant sun, raining its guiding light upon everyone" may be him sarcastically talking about lying in a hospital bed staring up at the bright fluorescent lights.
I definitely don't think it's about heroin, heh.