Soundgarden 

Lyrics - personal experience

These lyrics deal with the general themes of pessimism, frustration, aggression, self-expression, and loneliness. Somewhat depressing, I suppose.

 

Partial Lyrics

Ty Cobb
Sick in the head sick in the mouth
And I can't hear a word you say
Not a bit, and I don't give a shit
I got the glass, I got the steel
I got the love to hate
All I need is your head on a stake
Hard headed fuck you all
Just add it on the hot rod death toll

(an independent, "fuck-you," maverick attitude)
Nazi Driver
Not a tear will be shed
The only color is red... red
I don't care if it takes some time
I'm gonna make it right
I'm gonna make it right
Turn the head 360 degrees
Bite the hand that feeds
I don't care if it tastes like poison
Rip the legs from the thighs
Feed the prison, save the eyes

(violent, evil, disjoint, chaotic)
Outshined
I got up feeling so down
I got off being sold out
I've kept the movie rolling
But the story's getting old now
I just looked in the mirror
Things aren't looking so good
I'm looking California
And feeling Minnesota

(feelings of weariness, obsoleteness, and distress)
Zero Chance
Why doesn't anyone believe
In loneliness
Stand up and everyone will see
Your holiness

They say if you look hard
You'll find your way back home
Born without a friend
And bound to die alone

(a glorification of the loner)
Drawing Flies
Leaning on the pedestal that holds my self denial
Firing the pistol that shoots my holy pride
Sitting here like wet ashes with X's in my eyes
And drawing flies

(general state of decay, disuse, and neglect)
Rusty Cage
Too cold to start a fire
I'm burning diesel burning dinosaur bones
I'll take the river down to still water
And ride a pack of dogs

I'm gonna break
I'm gonna break my
I'm gonna break my rusty cage and run

(overcoming one's oppressors)
Overfloater
I'm on the wire over and higher
Over the pretense over the (spire) why
On and connected I'm overfloating now
I'm overfloating alone

(a person progresses beyond the norm only to be frustrated and thwarted in his intentions)
Rhinosaur
I play, I'm sick and tame
Drawing the hordes
I wait, and show the lame
The meaning of harm
The skulls beneath my feet
Like feathers in sand
I graze among the graves
A feeling of peace

(an aggressive attitude fitting for a rhino)
Mood for Trouble
My mood was in full swing
My mood was in full swing
I wanted to be free
Free to want so stale
I did not want to hear
The perfect thing to say
Dying to squeeze out
The ugly truth for everyone to hear

(describes a emotional state of mind where a person gets "caught up" in things and fulfills his innermost destructive desires)
Blow Up The Outside World
Someone tried to tell me something
Don't let the world bring you down
Nothing will do me in before I do myself
So save it for your own and the ones you can help

Want to make it understood
Wanting though I never would
Trying though I know it's wrong
Blowing it to hell and gone
Wishing though I never could
Blow up the outside world

(a confused soul losing control over his internal tendencies towards destruction)
Bleed Together
You and me we're average
With simple minds and lungs, eyes and skin
You and me we're hopeless
We're nowhere hearts so tear it out
And open it

I'm giving blood tonight
I don't care how, don't care why
I'm giving blood tonight
I'm feeling just like I could give it all

(hopelessness and pessimism give way to uncontrolled passions and uncaring desires)

 

Full Lyrics
(these are particularly good examples)

Mind Riot
I was slipping through the cracks of a stolen jewel
I was tightrope walking in two ton shoes
Now somebody is talking about a third world war
And the police said this was normal control

And the candle was burning yesterday
Like somebody's best friend died
And I've been caught in a mind riot

I was crying from my eye teeth and bleeding from my soul
And I sharpened my wits on a dead man's skull
I built an elevator from his bones
Had to climb to the top floor just to stamp out the coals

And the candle was burning yesterday
Like somebody's best friend died
And I've been caught in a mind riot

I'm tied within
I'm luck's last match struck
In the pouring down wind

(as the title suggests, confusion of ideas, distress and sadness...very beautiful imagery)
Kyle Petty, Son of Richard
Heat is rising, feel it, I'm on my way
Tell me if you wanna take a hit
Right beside you came to fight so get out of my way
'Cause Daddy told me don't you ever take no fucking shit

[Chorus]
So get it right
I'm gonna get to you

Laugh laugh laugh laugh laugh laugh laughing as I spit your way
Faster than a fucking flash of light
Stomach's burning alcohol
I must have burned a bottle full
And you ain't got a chance in fucking hell tonight

(Chorus)

A hundred miles of chicken wire and feet of lead
Daddy didn't raise no fucking fool
I'm coming up on your right
Coming up on your right
Coming up on your right
Don't you fuck with me tonight

(well-chosen lyrics to represent a competitive, win-at-all-costs attitude)
Fell on Black Days
Whatsoever I've feared has come to life
Whatsoever I've fought off became my life
Just when everyday seemed to greet me with a smile
Sunspots have faded
And now I'm doing time
Cause I fell on black days

Whomsoever I've cured I've sickened now
Whomsoever I've cradled I've put you down
I'm a search light soul they say
But I can't see it in the night
I'm only faking when I get it right
Cause I fell on black days
How would I know
That this could be my fate

So what you wanted to see good has made you blind
And what you wanted to be yours has made it mine
So don't you lock up something that you wanted to see fly
Hands are for shaking
No, not tying
No, not tying

I sure don't mind a change
But I fell on black days
How would I know
That this could be my fate

(outstanding...the epitome of the depressed, gloomy state of mind)
The Day I Tried to Live
I woke the same as any other day
Except a voice was in my head
It said seize the day, pull the trigger
Drop the blade, and watch the rolling heads

The day I tried to live
I stole a thousand beggar's change
And gave it to the rich

The day I tried to win
I dangled from the power lines
And let the martyrs stretch
Singing

One more time around might do it
One more time around might make it
One more time around might do it
One more time around
The day I tried to live

Words you say never seem
To live up to the ones inside your head
The lives we make never seem
To ever get us anywhere but dead

The day I tried to live
I wallowed in the blood and mud with
All the other pigs

I woke the same as any other day you know
I should have stayed in bed

The day I tried to win
I wallowed in the blood and mud with
All the other pigs

And I learned that I was a liar
Just like you

(taking the initiative with hopes of new things, one ends up confused and dejected in a world that is, in reality, immoral and "ugly")

 

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