He certainly did earn that reputation.
Going round in circles,
Directions all messed up
I go to ground on a bottle of wine
And drown myself in the flood.
My frozen toes are beginning to melt
I believe I'm catching a cold.
Got oil on my feathers and I can't fly
Gotta go back to your love.
I'm a clown without a circus
There's no one to see my act.
I can laugh and sing and stand on my head,
Nobody knows where I'm at.
It's hard to be convincing
When these blues don't give an inch.
I ain't exactly losing,
But I'm beginning to feel the pinch.
(chorus)
My days are long and lonely,
And I feel so insecure,
There ain't nothing funny, I'm losing you honey.
I can't laugh anymore.
I can't laugh anymore.
Going round in circles,
Compass is all messed.
I'm going to ground on a bottle of wine,
Drown myself in the flood.
My frozen toes are beginning to melt
I believe I'm catching a cold,
Got all of my feathers and I can't fly,
Gotta go back to your love.
Old Chang surely told me
Not to mess with what you got.
But I went stomping all over your head
Like a bull in a China shop.
(chorus)
I'm a clown without a circus,
There's no one to see my act.
I can laugh and sing and stand on my head,
Nobody knows where I'm at.
Going round in circles,
Directions all messed up.
Going to ground on a bottle of wine
Drown myself in the flood.
Directions all messed up
I go to ground on a bottle of wine
And drown myself in the flood.
My frozen toes are beginning to melt
I believe I'm catching a cold.
Got oil on my feathers and I can't fly
Gotta go back to your love.
I'm a clown without a circus
There's no one to see my act.
I can laugh and sing and stand on my head,
Nobody knows where I'm at.
It's hard to be convincing
When these blues don't give an inch.
I ain't exactly losing,
But I'm beginning to feel the pinch.
(chorus)
My days are long and lonely,
And I feel so insecure,
There ain't nothing funny, I'm losing you honey.
I can't laugh anymore.
I can't laugh anymore.
Going round in circles,
Compass is all messed.
I'm going to ground on a bottle of wine,
Drown myself in the flood.
My frozen toes are beginning to melt
I believe I'm catching a cold,
Got all of my feathers and I can't fly,
Gotta go back to your love.
Old Chang surely told me
Not to mess with what you got.
But I went stomping all over your head
Like a bull in a China shop.
(chorus)
I'm a clown without a circus,
There's no one to see my act.
I can laugh and sing and stand on my head,
Nobody knows where I'm at.
Going round in circles,
Directions all messed up.
Going to ground on a bottle of wine
Drown myself in the flood.
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings, edited by CptAlpha
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Like a lot of the other comments are saying, I think this mainly about voyeurism. If the song was about his girlfriend, then why would he use the word spy. If you are a spy it means you shouldn't be caught, that is kind of the whole point, and if you are a voyeur, the whole point of the pleasure you get from it, is the fact that the other people don't know you are watching them. See a bit of a connection there?
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Both as a standalone and as part of the DSOTS album, you can take this lyric as read. As a matter of public record, Jourgensen's drug intake was legendary even in the 1980s. By the late 90s, in his own words, he was grappling with massive addiction issues and had lost almost everything: friends, spouse, money and had nearly died more than once. "Dark Side of the Spoon" is a both funny & sad title for an album made by a musical genius who was losing the plot; and this song is a message to his fans & friends saying he knows it. It's painful to listen to so I'm glad the "Keith Richards of industrial metals" wised up and cleaned up. Well done sir.
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
For a long time, I thought the song was about a person feeling lost after a breakup. The bewilderment was always so obvious to me "going round in circles, compass is all messed up" "Got oil on my feathers and I can't fly" (oil possibly representing his hate during the relationship, because when you're in love, everything seems light: it's as if you were flying), and also, well the chorus just states that his days are "long and lonely". The clown metaphor (which I found extremely moving, by the way) was, still back then to me, a pure example of his loneliness despite his many efforts and commitment ("I can laugh and sing and stand on my head: nobody knows where I'm at"); sometimes when you want to impress your crush, you become a whole unrecognisable person, like putting on a mask or 'putting on an act'. I also find it interesting that later on he says "I can't laugh anymore" when he specifically said it was part of his act, which means one thing: he lost his ability to amuse. He lost a part of his identity. And I find the "old Chang surely told me" part rather self explanatory. The reason the relationship didn't work out was his own fault.
And then, I realised something not too long ago: all of the song is a description of a pilot landing a plane (and let's be obvious: the album's cover shows it all, and after a bit of research, I found a few photos of the whole band with pilot suits on. I wonder though what drove the band so much for flying, but maybe this is the concept of the album?? Idk) and I find it explains everything. His trajectory is going in circles because he probably broke his compass. He is on a bottle of wine because he feels dizzy after flying so much. The clown without a circus is basically the pilot saying "I'm making all of these circles around in the air like a stage performance, but no one's watching anyway". And well, the "my frozen toes are beginning to melt, I believe I'm catching a cold" part is obvious. The bull in the China shop part is because his aircraft was hard to control as he tried reducing speed on the landing runway, maybe? In any case, the pilot metaphor somehow makes more sense I find.
An amazing song!!! And the rest of the album is stunning!! Pure prog at its best!!!
@CptAlpha<br /> <br /> Great interpretation Cap !<br /> <br /> Mostly everything you wrote makes absolutely sense.<br /> There's one little thing I would like to add though.<br /> "But I went stompin' all over your head" obviously means that he treated his partner badly. "Like a bull in a china shop" just means really, really badly and has not really anything to do with the aircraft. Don't you think ?<br /> <br /> Unfortunately I can identify myself with the lyrics which makes the song even sadder . . . but just for me.<br /> <br /> Watch and Chance must have been the band's summit, at least in my eyes. It was the first "real" music that I was listening to at the age of 7 and 9. English not being my native language, I didn't grasp a word at that time, but I devoured the music.