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We're in the building where they make us grow
And I'm frightened by the liquid engineers
Like you
My Mallory heart is sure to fail
I could crawl around the floor just like I'm real
Like you
The sound of metal I want to be you
I should learn to be a man
Like you
Plug me in and turn me on
Oh everything is moving
I need my treatment it's tomorrow they send me
Singing "I am an American"
Do you?
Picture this if I should make the change
I'd like to pull the wires from the wall
Did you?
And who are you and how can I try
Here inside I like the metal
Don't you?
All I know is no one dies
I'm still confusing love with need
And I'm frightened by the liquid engineers
Like you
My Mallory heart is sure to fail
I could crawl around the floor just like I'm real
Like you
The sound of metal I want to be you
I should learn to be a man
Like you
Plug me in and turn me on
Oh everything is moving
I need my treatment it's tomorrow they send me
Singing "I am an American"
Do you?
Picture this if I should make the change
I'd like to pull the wires from the wall
Did you?
And who are you and how can I try
Here inside I like the metal
Don't you?
All I know is no one dies
I'm still confusing love with need
Lyrics submitted by wickedfrown
Track duration: 07:05
"Metal" as written by Gary Anthony James Webb, Deborah Harry, Chris Stein
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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" My Mallory heart is sure to fail
I could crawl around the floor just like I'm real
Like you
"
He also has a heart (a battery) that can die/fail and thus he could be crawling on the floor like a dying human... Does this make it human?
The questions (do you? did you? etc...) are asked to the liquid engineer to check if he also experienced those feeling... and so on.
More generally this is a song questioning our own existence as humans, what make us human? "Who are [we]?" who where our own "liquid engineer"????
An amazing song!
for the full/corrects lyrics: ninwiki.com/…
the first verse is probably teh place where the brain washing tales place (see paragraph). The place where the make us grow is a mental institute.
Pulling the wires from the wall... he could be talking about being pressident (or something like it) and trying to dish some hardcore reality to America or the world, or about the end like his idol tells him (paragraph below)
My mallory heart is sure to fail could probably be somewhat related to the end is near thoery. crawl
around on the floor could mean that he belives the end is near and hes gone crazy, beliiving the thing his idol tells him about the end (through words, music, etc.)
The sound of metal i want to be you could mean that he is kind of at a medeokre state of his career like a musician or telecaster telling about the end on youtube (metal=technology=youtube) and its helping him be like his idol.
The rest probably is talking about the after pulling the wires from the walls interpretation; (pause i messed up but think of it like a story and pulling the wires from the walls is a flashback to right before the frist verse) now the story continues: he was addicted to the metal, technology, wutevr, and (after giving up hope of the hardcore reality dishing) an (i need my treatment tommarow) AA type meeting is tomarrow and hes being brainwashed at a mental institute. singing hes an American (being a member of this false hope orginization). plug me in turn me on is probably describing the brainwash proccess.
Who are you and how can i... (the whole verse) is probably one of the liquid engineers who (hes frightend of and doesnt know) brain washes him and likes the "metal" note: the brain washing is probably about how the end isnt neer and everythings ok but for him its not for all the attempts to be like his idol was really just a plea for help about a mental problem at which the mental institute hes at doenst understand.
And in teh end, he accepts the brainwashing and belives no one dies. But, doesnt know if he loves the docters or nooeds the docters for the teatment, hes questiong this because he might have gone too long without a meeting.
this is just my undersstanding but Az iz has a really great one too, i dont think mines that accurate but it still sounds to reasonable.
anywho thats my take on it.
Well done to the obvious Gary Numan fans for sorting things out.
This is a Numan song and the meaning, as correctly pointed out, is nothing to do with politics or anything to do with Americans.
It paints a picture of a future with androids etc.
The 'Mallory' is a type of battery and 'liquid engineering' is from a British car ad of the 70's selling motor oil!
I'm sure Numan would have a good laugh at this!
The song dates from 1979 and was on Numan's 'The Pleasure Principle' album. If you haven't heard the original I think you owe it to yourself to do so.
'I could crawl around the floor just like I'm real' was originally in an earlier Numan song called 'We Have a Technical' now available on the re-issued album 'Replicas'.
Oh dear...