The Getting By Lyrics
It's just small-town filling and just living the small town an—
Like my kids ride dirt bikes and motorcycles
And they just go across the street in the field and ride
I can watch 'em off my front porch, um
My one boy's into shed-horn hunting
So he'll take off and go park his truck out west and be gone all day, and—
They— The mountains are just in our backyard
That's the nice part about it
[Verse 1]
When I get up, she swears that she don't hear it
Says that I'm as quiet as a mouse
I comb my hair and throw some water on my face
And back out of the stillness of our house
Lately, my patience is in short supply
Nothing good seems to ever come from all this work
No matter how hard I try
[Verse 2]
You know I believe in the Son, I ain't no backslider
But my people were told they'd prosper in this land
Still, I know some who've never seen the ocean
Or set one foot on a velvet bed of sand
But they've got their treasure laying way up high
Where there might be many mansions
But when I look up, all I see is sky
Maybe it's the getting by that gets right underneath you
It'd swallow up your every step, boy, if it could
But maybe it's the stuff it takes to get up
In the morning and put another day in, son
That holds you 'til the getting's good
[Bridge]
Green ribbon front doors, dishwater days
This whole town is tied to the torso of God's mysterious ways
[Chorus]
Maybe it's the getting by that gets right underneath you
It'd swallow up your every step, boy, if it could
But maybe it's the stuff it takes to get up
In the morning and put another day in, son
That keeps you standing where you should
So put another day in, son, and hold on 'til the getting's good
[Outro]
Twice a day
Twice a day
Yeah, twice a day it comes through— my grandkids
When it comes through, they run out and they look down the road
Because they like to see it go by
About
In a promotional interview short film for the album, Brandon Flowers describes how the inspiration for this song came about:
I remember when I lived here, I would have been—I don’t know, 7th grade or 8th grade—and my mom was telling people about how my dad never wakes her up in the morning. [Chuckles]. He would get up at 3am to go to work about 20 miles north of here in a town called Payson. She said he was like a little mouse [laughs] because he was so quiet that he didn’t wake her up. And so that always stuck with me, because to me, my dad always had calloused hands, and this hard jaw, and whiskers, and everything was hard about him. And so her calling him a little mouse just stood out for me, and it made its way onto a song on the record called The Getting By.
And it was early seeds planted for me to be able to write about a working-class man. And my father represented that well to me, and I think the way that he provided for us and the way he went to work is something that I use to this day in my songwriting. When I go to work everyday, it is something that I learned from him. And I make sure that I have time for my kids, but I also make sure that I have time for my work. And so I think it all goes back to those experiences here [in Nephi, UT].
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Even though there is struggle, and even though there is strife and toiling, there’s still hope. That’s what makes these people who they are. They get up and go to work every day. I have a lot of respect for them, and I don’t feel that far removed from them. And I thought about people like my uncles and my dad and my nephews and my cousins. And really wanted to capture what I saw in their lives.
- 1.West Hills
- 2.Quiet Town
- 4.Cody
- 5.Sleepwalker
- 10.Pressure Machine
- 11.The Getting By
