So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
I got it bad
You don't know how bad I got it
You got it easy
You don't know when you've got it good
It's getting harder
Just keeping life and soul together
I'm sick of fighting
Even though I know I should
The cold is biting
Through each and every nerve and fibre
My broken spirit is frozen to the core
I don't want to be here no more
Wouldn't it be good to be in your shoes
Even if it was for just one day?
Wouldn't it be good if we could wish ourselves away?
Wouldn't it be good to be on your side?
The grass is always greener over there
Wouldn't it be good if we could live without a care?
You must be joking
You don't know a thing about it
You've got no problem
I'd stay right there if I were you
I got it harder
You couldn't dream how hard I got it
Stay out of my shoes
If you know what's good for you
The heat is stifling
Burning me up from the inside
The sweat is coming through each and every pore
I don't want to be here no more
I don't want to be here no more
I don't want to be here no more
Wouldn't it be good to be in your shoes
Even if it was for just one day?
Wouldn't it be good if we could wish ourselves away?
Wouldn't it be good to be on your side?
The grass is always greener over there
Wouldn't it be good if we could live without a care?
I got it bad
You don't know how bad I got it
You got it easy
You don't know when you've got it good
It's getting harder
Just keeping life and soul together
I'm sick of fighting
Even though I know I should
You don't know how bad I got it
You got it easy
You don't know when you've got it good
It's getting harder
Just keeping life and soul together
I'm sick of fighting
Even though I know I should
The cold is biting
Through each and every nerve and fibre
My broken spirit is frozen to the core
I don't want to be here no more
Wouldn't it be good to be in your shoes
Even if it was for just one day?
Wouldn't it be good if we could wish ourselves away?
Wouldn't it be good to be on your side?
The grass is always greener over there
Wouldn't it be good if we could live without a care?
You must be joking
You don't know a thing about it
You've got no problem
I'd stay right there if I were you
I got it harder
You couldn't dream how hard I got it
Stay out of my shoes
If you know what's good for you
The heat is stifling
Burning me up from the inside
The sweat is coming through each and every pore
I don't want to be here no more
I don't want to be here no more
I don't want to be here no more
Wouldn't it be good to be in your shoes
Even if it was for just one day?
Wouldn't it be good if we could wish ourselves away?
Wouldn't it be good to be on your side?
The grass is always greener over there
Wouldn't it be good if we could live without a care?
I got it bad
You don't know how bad I got it
You got it easy
You don't know when you've got it good
It's getting harder
Just keeping life and soul together
I'm sick of fighting
Even though I know I should
Lyrics submitted by sage_morphine, edited by eucalypt
Wouldn't It Be Good Lyrics as written by Nik Kershaw
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
It's purely about "the grass" being "greener" on the other side. How we imagine things would be better "if only..." instead of loving what we have and who we already are.
I always loved this song and the video from the eighties. Now, I hear something that I didn't at a younger age.
It's a two-sided dialogue. One party is telling how they are struggling and unhappy: restless.
The other party is the chorus: Those who think it would "be good" to be the first party.
The former tries to explain their eror, but the chorus remains unchanged each time. I imagine a celebrity and their fans. Artists make their work look easy, and fans imagine that it truly would be all "good" if they could live their imagined perceptions of a celebrity's life.
The video was always eerie and omenous to me, and now I see a bit more... The character constantly reflects and carries the experiences of others right within his person. It's not something he can control, and yet it is what drives him. Others wish they could be in his place, though he tells them that it's not all that they imagine it to be. He lives, like an alien, among others and eventually must return to from wherever he came, possibly as only energy when he finds a device that can take him home.
It's a pretty somber theme to me.
-Phase
A very nicely written and well thought out summary. I never thought of the artist/performer angle, but so many other polar positions... I feel like the cold could be perceived failure, and the heat could be perceived success - the one who watches the success wants it but the one who experiences it wishes they didn't have it. But the lyrics are so visceral and physical. "The cold is biting through each and every nerve and fibre." "The heat is stifling, burning me up from the inside." These have to be two of the best lines ever written. They say the same thing from opposite sides. The whole song is a perfect balance of emotional imbalances. Love it.
Adore this song...
When I first heard the song, I was a kid. I thought about WWI, how there were the Germans facing the British in the trenches, and how each side felt.
"I got it bad You don't know how bad I got it"
and
"You must be joking You don't know a thing about it"
Both sides have an idealised image of life on the other side. My childhood interpretation doesn't fit with the video, but it still means something to me.
The video has more than a passing resemblance to The Man in the White Suit
On first considering the lyrics recently, without remembering the video, is that it’s about mental illness, namely depression.
I\'ll be out in left field with this.\n\nAs a person who is autistic / Asperger\'s, these lyrics resonate hard with me. \n\nThe whole feeling of being an alien in the midst of people who you can talk to, but you either can\'t understand or those who can\'t understand you.\n\nTrying to \'fit in\' in an alien landscape.
this song reminds me of the breakfast club