This song is about being so in love with life, that you even dig the death part. It's about accepting the whole universe, with the ugliness and everything. It's about Nietzsche's "Eternal Return".
"I don't mind the sun sometimes, the images it shows / I can taste you on my lips and smell you in my clothes / Cinnamon and sugary and softly spoken lies"
The singer is ok with all of this, taking it all as part of the deal. As Dr. Hunter used to say: "Buy the ticket; take the ride." The singer describes people who have no detachment from life, who just go all in, balls to the wall. They're not self-conscious; they're not second-guessing themselves.
"They were all in love with dying, they were drinking from a fountain / That was pouring like an avalanche, coming down the mountain."
"Some will fall in love with life and drink it from a fountain / that is pouring like an avalanche, coming down the mountain."
They are in love with life. They are therefore also in love with dying, because they fully accept that to live is to be dying; as soon as we're born, we start dying. The contrast of these two lines (in love with dying/in love with life) indicates that life and dying are the SAME THING. The lack of self-consiousness explains the song's most memorable line:
"You never know just how you look through other people's eyes."
In a way, this is trivial. Of course you never know. The point is that the characters listed in this song don't CARE.
"Some will die in hot pursuit while sifting through my ashes."
Some people over-analyze life. They try to figure it out, as if from the outside, sifting through its ashes, instead of falling in love with it. They can't taste life on their lips, smell it in their clothes, because they're caught up in trying to understand it, which is detached.
Of course the song is about drugs, as many have remarked. It's the Butthole Surfers for Chrissake. Drugs can get you past the whole self-conscious analysis that keeps you from being "in love" with life and death. The drugs intensify the experience of life, and they hasten (and sometimes resemble) death. The singer knows that these people die, sometimes horribly, but he doesn't mind the images that the sun shows him. He has experienced death and life, and he is in love with it all.
This song is about being so in love with life, that you even dig the death part. It's about accepting the whole universe, with the ugliness and everything. It's about Nietzsche's "Eternal Return".
"I don't mind the sun sometimes, the images it shows / I can taste you on my lips and smell you in my clothes / Cinnamon and sugary and softly spoken lies"
The singer is ok with all of this, taking it all as part of the deal. As Dr. Hunter used to say: "Buy the ticket; take the ride." The singer describes people who have no detachment from life, who just go all in, balls to the wall. They're not self-conscious; they're not second-guessing themselves.
"They were all in love with dying, they were drinking from a fountain / That was pouring like an avalanche, coming down the mountain."
"Some will fall in love with life and drink it from a fountain / that is pouring like an avalanche, coming down the mountain."
They are in love with life. They are therefore also in love with dying, because they fully accept that to live is to be dying; as soon as we're born, we start dying. The contrast of these two lines (in love with dying/in love with life) indicates that life and dying are the SAME THING. The lack of self-consiousness explains the song's most memorable line:
"You never know just how you look through other people's eyes."
In a way, this is trivial. Of course you never know. The point is that the characters listed in this song don't CARE.
"Some will die in hot pursuit while sifting through my ashes."
Some people over-analyze life. They try to figure it out, as if from the outside, sifting through its ashes, instead of falling in love with it. They can't taste life on their lips, smell it in their clothes, because they're caught up in trying to understand it, which is detached.
Of course the song is about drugs, as many have remarked. It's the Butthole Surfers for Chrissake. Drugs can get you past the whole self-conscious analysis that keeps you from being "in love" with life and death. The drugs intensify the experience of life, and they hasten (and sometimes resemble) death. The singer knows that these people die, sometimes horribly, but he doesn't mind the images that the sun shows him. He has experienced death and life, and he is in love with it all.