The Last Straw/Happy Ending Lyrics
A typewriter cackles out a stream of memories
Drying out a conscience, evicting a nightmare
Opening the doors for the dreams to come home
We live our lives in private shells
Ignore our senses and fool ourselves
To thinking that out there that someone else cares
Someone to answer all our prayers, all our prayers...
Are we too far gone, are we so irresponsible
Have we lost our balls, or do we just not care
We're terminal cases that keep talking medicine
Pretending the end isn't quite that near
We make futile gestures, act to the cameras
With our made-up faces and our PR smiles
And when the angel comes down, down to deliver us
We'll find out that after all, we're only men of straw
But everything is still the same
Passing the time and passing the blame
We carry on in the same old way
We'll find out we left it too late one day
To say what we meant to say
Those problems seem to arise the ones you never really thought of
The feeling you get is similar to something like drowning
Out of your mind, you're out of your depth, you should have taken soundings
Clutching at straws, we're clutching at straws, we're clutching at straws
And if you ever come across us don't give us your sympathy
You can buy us a drink and just shake our hands
And you'll recognise by the reflection in our eyes that deep down inside we're all one and the same
We're clutching at straws
We're still drowning
Clutching at straws
We're still drowning, yeah
Clutching at straws
I'm still drowning
We're clutching at straws
I'm still drowning
[I. Happy Ending]
About
In this final song of the album, Torch calls the people out on their hypocrisy, pretending that everything’s fine and retreating to the safety of their personal bubbles, while all around them atrocities happen non-stop: the rise of Neo-Nazism, sexual depredations disguised as sexual revolution, impoverishment of the working class and other maladies of the age mentioned throughout the album. Torch may be a drunk, but at least he’s an honest drunk who can’t close his eyes to the sorry state of the world, no matter how much he tries to drown his vision in booze. In the end, it’s him who ends up drowning. Literally, figuratively or not at all? That’s for you to decide. The ending of the album is very cryptic, to say the least.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 4.Going Under
- 8.Torch Song
- 10.Sugar Mice
- 11.The Last Straw/Happy Ending