Soundgarden 

Lyrics - social/political sentiment

Soundgarden embodies a kind of realism, anti-conservatism, harsh individualism, and empahsis on freedom of expression.

 

Partial Lyrics

Blind Dogs
Run away
Now it's Halloween
The safe bet is on your knees
Bow your head to the Trinity
That's what blind dogs believe
But I've heard that before

(disgust with traditional religious authority)
Big Dumb Sex
Hey I know what to do
I'm gonna fuck fuck fuck fuck you
Fuck you
Ya I know what to do
I'm gonna fuck fuck fuck fuck you
Fuck you I'm gonna

(a humorous mockery of bands who avoid saying the word "fuck")
Boot Camp
Like babies on display
Like angels in a cage
I must be pure and true
I must contain my views
There must be something else
There must be something good
Far away

(against censorship and public control)
My Wave
Hate, if you want to hate
If it keeps you safe
If it makes you brave

Don't come over here
And piss on my gate
Save it just keep it
Off my wave

(a call for tolerance and mutual autonomy)
She Likes Surprises
Girlie dress and making her best
She makes up her hair for the 90s
Dirty shoes and hiding her blues
She's dying to lose what she's finding

(against pop culture and its associated pressures)
Holy Water
Bloody murder is the best I've heard her scream
Holy devil in the flesh some might believe
And they take thine majesty so seriously
It's the big lies that are more likely to be believed

Holy water is rusting me

(against religous bigotry)
Hand of God
The hand of God lays high above me
I'll be so good if you really love me
Let me feel your mighty crunch
As you rub me out like water, fire, coal, etc.

(the irony inherent in religion: that the relationship of man to God is one of bribery and tyranny)
Slaves & Bulldozers
Virgin eyes and dirty looks
On what I have and why I took
Counting all the hands I shook
Now I know why you've been shaking
Now I know why you've been shaking

So bleed your heart out
There's no more rides for free
Bleed your heart out
I said what's in it for me

(against unjust bondage, contracts, and situations)
Little Joe
Little Joe, just like your father
Your eyes will water, your guts will splatter
Those sticks and fire, sticks and fire, won't break your bones
It is a lie

(a call to throw off myths, traditions)
Ugly Truth
I don't think I really
Understand you
And I can't see why
I'd ever want to
And even if it isn't mine to say
I'll say it anyway
It's ugly

(self-expression and truth)
Gun
I got an idea
We can do it
All on our own
Nothing to worry
Regret must weigh a ton
Kick kick kick till the laws are broken
Kick kick kick till the boots are worn
Hit hit hit till the truth is spoken
Hit hit hit till the truth is born

(dedication to and execution of a goal)
Karaoke
You can steal it if you dare
Just might put you where you're goin'
(where you're goin')

I'm just a regular man
Now I'm a regular mess
Doesn't matter how you dress
Doesn't matter how you fit

(an attack on imitators)
No Attention
They're gonna tell you where to walk
When to smile and just what to say
They say have your own fun
Make your own mind
And don't make no waves

And I'll pay no attention

(against the authoritarian state)

 

Full Lyrics
(these are particularly good examples)

Hands All Over
Hands all over the Eastern border
You know what? I think we're falling
From composure
Hands all over Western culture
Ruffling feathers and turning eagles into vultures

Got my arms around baby brother
Put your hands away
You're gonna kill your mother, kill your mother
And I love her

Hands all over the coastal waters
The crew men thank her
Then lay down their oily blanket
Hands all over the inland forest
In a striking motion trees fall down
Like dying soldiers

Hands all over the peasant's daughter
She's our bride
She'll never make it out alive
Hands all over the words I utter
Change them into what you want to
Like balls of clay
Put your hands away
You're gonna kill your mother
And I love her

(the irony and injustice of man's destruction of the environment)
Jesus Christ Pose
And you stare at me in your Jesus Christ pose
Arms held out like you've been carrying a load
And you swear to me you don't want to be my slave
But you're staring at me like I need to be saved

In your Jesus Christ pose
Arms held out
In your Jesus Christ pose

Thorns and shroud like it's the coming of the Lord
And I swear to you that I would never feed you pain
But you're staring at me like I'm driving the nails

In your Jesus Christ pose
And you stare at me
In your Jesus Christ pose

Arms held out like it's the coming of the Lord
And would it pay you more to walk on water
Than to wear a crown of thorns
It wouldn't pain me more to bury you rich
Than to bury you poor
In your Jesus Christ pose

(against perversions of religious icons)
Flower
Along her vain parade
Along her veins

All of seventeen
Eyes a purple green
Treated like a queen
She was on borrowed self-esteem

She would do her dance
A painful masquerade
Spinning you into her web
Along her vain parade

In her uniform
Studded brass and steel
Kissing napkin lipstick stains
And smearing sincerity

Along her vain parade
Along her veins

Time crept up on her
She's early gray
Her reflection looks concerned
And flowers hit her grave

(the inevitable and deserved destruction of the fake and insincere)

 

 

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