There is a line in 'The Big Lebowski' where Walter Sobchack says "Well you're right, Dude, I got to thinking."

Well I got to thinking about song lyrics. I got to thinking about how I have not seen anything on the AMN pertaining to lyrics. So I decided to yet again subject AMN readers to my inane blatherings.

I took three songs from the AMN sound clips page and typed out what I thought the lyrics were. I am not guaranteeing that the lyrics are correct. My apologies to the lyricists if I got the lyrics wrong. I think it important to note here that when I tried to randomly select one of the tunes, almost every time I couldn't make out the lyrics.

When we record our own music we know what the lyrics are but I wonder what would happen if we asked someone to try to make out the lyrics. I bet they would come up in the mix. I am not saying this is right or wrong, right-side up or upside down, just that it is interesting. Overboard was the randomly selected tune. I wanted to write about Mistakes and In Case of Emergency.

From there I just randomly commented on the lyrics. Sometimes it is in the first person, sometimes third, mostly questions, and always pop psychologist meets bohemian wannabe-hep cat-jive turkey.

No one should read too much into my comments. I don't know the lyricists personally or anything about their lives. I just read the lyrics and thought out loud, no more no less.

Max Power Trio Cheating Blues Mistakes Steppin' Stone For More Soundclips Of Bands, Click Here

Mistakes - By, Max Power Trio

Eddie Don´t leave me
Lord knows it´s not my style no
Just find someone who can talk me down
now
Some down now, someone was bound to lose (it had to be me)

C´mon Eddie, stick around. It´s not my style to be alone. The first two lines seem innocuous and innocent but the third line changes all that with find someone who can talk me down now. We all know what this means: someone is in a very, very, dangerous place and they need some help out of it.

My friend has changed
He´s got jesus christ running through his veins now
And I know he can´t stay high forever

Friends change. Your buddie gets married so it is no longer boozing all weekend. Fine. But when your friend changes and has jc running through his veins, well, this is radical. What does jesus christ actually represent here? Did Eddie find religion or is it heroin running through his veins? Is Eddie trying to stay high forever? Does his day evolve around being high? He can´t stay high forever but is he going to burn out rather than fade away?

Cut out the dramatics my friend
I´ve been forsaken (forsaken)

Is Eddie acting? Is our writer thinking that Eddie´s problem are shit compared to a guy who´s been forsaken? ( for-sake to renounce or turn away from entirely)

Somebody show me the way out of here
Fill my head with those pretty lies
And make the truth disappear

Our writer can´t find the way out. Trapped! Like a rat! Is he trapped because Eddie or someone else lied?

I could never die
I´ll be alright or am I mistaken?
Am I mistaken?

Was the lie immortality? Is our writer going existential here? Or is the writer just "feeling" invincible? Either way there is doubt because he thinks he could be mistaken.

Maybe someday I´ll be free
Maybe then this will be long forgotten
Maybe it´s too late to think about the mistakes I´ve made

Maybe someday but right now you´re not free. If you are not free, what are you a slave to? Maybe we´ll look back and laugh but there is the possibility that we´ve reached a point of no return –we can´t go back. We´ve made our bed and now we have to get in it every night.

I remember when the night washed in
When I swallowed my fear in my good friend´s bedroom
Anyway, I´ve grown
I don´t mind just being alone sometimes
I will survive
I´ll be alright or am I mistaken?
Am I mistaken?

Our writer has grown and matured. He faced a fear. But in what way did he face it? What did he actually swallow? Was he afraid to do a drug and literally swallowed his fear? Or has he faced his fear of being alone? He says he´ll survive but draws us into doubt again by telling us he could be mistaken. Is he mistaken about what he swallowed? Is he mistaken about thinking he could handle being alone?

Maybe someday I´ll be free
Maybe then this will be long forgotten
Maybe it´s too late to think about the mistakes I´ve made

We just don´t know if it is too late but we´ve got to live anyway. There is closure but it isn´t very satisfying, which is like life.

Southeast Engine - Demo (2001) In Case Of Emergency Surgeon General's Warning Fool's Dilemma For More Soundclips Of Bands, Click Here

Southeast Engine - In Case Of Emergency

It´s ok it´s alright
There´s no one within sight
And we turned out all the lights and locked the doors
There´s no one within miles
We should be all grins and smiles
There´s no one here to hurt us anymore

He´s drawing us in here. Turning out the lights and locking the doors? This can´t be good. People only do this when they are afraid of someone or something or afraid of someone or something seeing them doing something nasty. But he lets us know that it´s all over because "There´s no one here to hurt us anymore." Doesn´t this mean that they have been hurt before though? Intriguing.

And the walls are covered in a brand new coat of paint
And the sound that lingered once has gone away

Aren´t you wondering why the walls had to be painted? I am. What´s the sound that´s gone? Was it screams or was it those little sounds we find endearing when we are in love? Hmmmm?

Adam Remnant, lead singer for Southeast Engine

Hey Hey, and the smoke that fills the room
Is captured by the moon
It´s trying to shine it´s light on you and me

Now he goes graphic, which makes me quit thinking about the freshly painted walls and picture cigarette smoke rising in some log cabin as it´s captured by moonbeams.

What do you think?
What do you need?

Penny for your thoughts. Sometimes in relationships we are dying to know what the person is thinking. Sometimes we really don´t want to know. Sometimes we want to hear them articulate what they need because then we know we can give it to them and they won´t leave us. It´s not the questions here that intrigue so much as the between-the-lines info that is sure to be conveyed in the answer.

And can you tell by the way I talk
You are not what I need

"Can you tell by the way I talk You are not what I need?" What is he saying to her? Is he trying to make it obvious that he doesn´t want her but she is deliberately not picking up the clues?

Well I know there's no TV
Not a single luxury
But a telephone in case of an emergency

Take me as I am. If you want the nice home and the nice car, you´re gonna have to find someone else. Is that the purpose of the lyrics here? Or is it to reinforce the aloneness stressed at the beginning of the tune? And the enigmatic But a telephone in case of an emergency closes it out, leaving me wondering if something sinister is in the works or if she just needs to realize that while she won´t get the luxuries, she´ll get the necessities.

Don´t take yourself so seriously, she said
You know you´re better off dead
Than to be stuck here inside this place with me

So she speaks. But I think it is he who says "You know you´re better off dead than to be stuck here inside this place with me."
Stuck is a curious word don´t you think?

Well its been one year since I fell in love w/you
Now I´m over you
And I still think you don´t believe I´m true

The cat is out of the bag. He´s over her but what are they doing together? Alone? Was it because he cheated? Did she just accuse him of cheating? Maybe he is over her, doesn´t love her, but is still with her. Maybe he´s biding time.

And the ceiling is textured in a way I couldn´t describe
And your magazines left are no longer subscribed
You caught my eye

Are we now going to find out why the walls had to be painted? This is the most interesting line of the song for me: And our love is just a light switch away. This line is filled with possibilities. Is it just sex? Turn the lights out and go at it sex? Or is it deeper, a I can´t see you and love you at the same time sick kind of thing?

Hey Hey and the blood dripping down your face
Is no longer misplaced
As the moon shines its light down on me

OK, this is serious. There is blood dripping down her face. Blood doesn´t drip for nothing you know. I don´t think she cut herself shaving. What did he do? You know you´re wondering? Wonder some more because he then says the blood Is no longer misplaced.
So there was blood before but now it´s not misplaced. What was the blood misplaced for? The moon now isn´t shining on ‘us´, it´s only shining on me. Something bad has happened.

What do you think?
What do you need?
And can you tell by the way I talk
You are not what I need
Well I know there´s no TV
Not a single luxury
But a telephone in case of an emergency

Bear with me now but maybe he´s looking over her and sarcastically saying to himself: What do you think? What do you need?
I tried to tell you I was not what you need but you had to keep at me, now look what you made me do.

Troy Gregorino - Gackle Tree (2003) Iowa Song Overboard She Said For More Soundclips Of Bands, Click Here

Overboard – Troy Gregorino

Here I go
I´m overboard just like you said
And here I go
I fall for you again and again

I´ll bet few of us have ever actually ever gone overboard. A canoe doesn´t count folks. I think this is overboard into deep water, into an ocean you don´t experience at resorts and vacation spots. He´s fallen again and again which makes me think that he´s helpless to it, which is a pretty nasty feeling.

Is this what you had in mind?
When you said
If you don´t call me anymore
It´s because you´re dead

She´s either manipulative or she´s very sick. If I stop calling I´m dead? Is she suicidal? Is she using suicide threats to keep him? Why is he fallen for her if she is either of these? Is he sick too?

Here I go
I´m overboard just like you said
Here I go
I´m overboard and you know I can´t swim

So let´s say we actually go overboard, tis ok as most of us learned to swim at the local YMCA in grade school but we now learn he´s overboard and moreover, he can´t swim. Sink or swim my friends. When humans sink it ain´t good.

My hands can´t reach the depth of your heart
Hiding in the dark
And my feet don´t touch the ocean floor
Anymore

Do you really want to reach the depths of her heart? Careful what you wish for. Her heart is in the dark and there´s a reason. If you can´t swim and can´t touch the ocean floor you are in trouble.

Here I go
I´m overboard just like you said
And here I go
I fall for you again and again

I cannot break the surface of
Your bittersweet love
I cannot break the surface of
Your bittersweet love

Here I go
I´m overboard just like you said
And here I go
I fall for you again and again

Is this what you had in mind?
When you said
If you don´t call me anymore
It´s because you´re dead

Her love is bittersweet alright. The kinda love where you love her and she continues to tell you and show you how fucked up she is and, ergo, how fucked up you are. Have you been there too?