Lyrics to Smiler With Knife

Thanks. maybe this is a bit far-fetched but i wonder whether the lyrics can also be understood as a dialogue. Direct speech of the presumed surgeon in red, of the patient in green.

See in me the side of you
That sometimes makes you jump with fright

Smiler with knife: "it's your big night"

Sinking bed, all warm and clean
Only sadness waits for me

Smiler with knife you're just in time
You're just in time


Press the blade against my skin
Never to make love again

Smiler with knife it's alright

Surrendered will I am before you
I am sick to death of life

Smiler with knife, alight, (a light?)
Alight


If such things weren't meant to be
Then they would never come to me

Smiler, oh, don't worry so

Slam-in one-shot gentle pain
Someone calling out my name

Sex and love are not the same
Are not the same

Time has frittered long and slow
All I am and was will go
But where to?
And why now?


When my last breath falls away

Smiler trust me when I say
You'll be OK
You'll be OK


Just a feverish guess, and not consistently logical.

That is actually a highly intriguing way of looking at it. I'll have to take a further gander at that dialogue-like post and the rest of this thread when I get home! I'm excited! Shame it has to wait. :(
 
thats still a neat interpretation i didnt think of. so good job right or wrong
 
I was concerned when I first heard the lyrics. I heard it as a patient. Why you wouldn't be able to make love again and how you can love and not have sex still confused me in the context of the song, but seeing him cry while singing this worries me.
 
In fact, the more I think about it, I'd say that along with The Public Image and I Can Have Both, this is about as close as you're ever going to get to a description of the actuality of the man himself. Of course, it's just one reading, but it looks to me like a factual retelling of an operation to have something removed, something very male and personal. "You're just in time" - I mean - whoah - did the surgeon get there just before it really was too late? I can see how that would shake anyone to the foundation. A band mate of mine had the very same thing happen to him. He wore baggies for quite some time afterwards - he had to, he had no choice. The good news is he's totally back to ruddy health now.

P.
 
In fact, the more I think about it, I'd say that along with The Public Image and I Can Have Both, this is about as close as you're ever going to get to a description of the actuality of the man himself. Of course, it's just one reading, but it looks to me like a factual retelling of an operation to have something removed, something very male and personal. "You're just in time" - I mean - whoah - did the surgeon get there just before it really was too late? I can see how that would shake anyone to the foundation. A band mate of mine had the very same thing happen to him. He wore baggies for quite some time afterwards - he had to, he had no choice. The good news is he's totally back to ruddy health now.

P.

You hit the nail on the head. Suddenly the sweatpants and baggy jeans make so much sense.

Wonder what the hell happened? If you wrote a song like that, people will wonder.
 
yes this is about the baggy pants and the weird object that people thought he had in his pants. still to vague to know but that could all add up. either way again good job
 
yes this is about the baggy pants and the weird object that people thought he had in his pants. still to vague to know but that could all add up. either way again good job

The object? I'm trying but can't come up with an answer to all of this. Any nurses/doctors here?
 
That is actually a highly intriguing way of looking at it. I'll have to take a further gander at that dialogue-like post and the rest of this thread when I get home! I'm excited! Shame it has to wait. :(

Almost all his songs are conversations between two people; the female and male half of the hermetic androgyne. The surgery is when they meet.

powers10-6.jpg
 
The object? I'm trying but can't come up with an answer to all of this. Any nurses/doctors here?
link me to the speculation about an object in his pant.......... Can't believe I just said that......
 
I think it's plausible that the lyrics could tell the story of someone being operated on and lying (dying) in a hospital bed. It fits quite well with verses 2, 3, 4, 7 and 8. But verses 1, 5 and 6 don't fit this interpretation at all. But still – it's intriguing to interpret the lyrics as being about someone lying on his/her deathbed in a hospital. But to think it's about an operation for prostate cancer just seems too... prosaic, too precise.
 
When I first saw a man who wears designer clothing come on stage in white sweatpants I knew something was going on.
 
When I first saw a man who wears designer clothing come on stage in white sweatpants I knew something was going on.

It's going to feel so awesome. ADIDAS...where the S is sleep afterwards.

8RebisFire.jpg
 
When I first saw a man who wears designer clothing come on stage in white sweatpants I knew something was going on.

this did cause some speculation but maybe theyre designer sweatpants.

the pics were either in the fink thread or in one the is he sick threads i cant remember now. someone said it was probably a music player and ive no reason not to think so or to think otherwise. love to link it but im not searching the forum or anything. im currently watching a two month old singing her brett andersons slow attack. were on summer as she rocks back and forth. beautiful. maybe it was in the thread where people said he looked short cause he wasnt standing on the curb
 
Back to the song for a mo - I detect the cadence of Brian and Michael's Lowry tribute 'Matchstalk Men And Matchstalk Cats And Dogs' in the verse, especially the opening.



P.
 
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Well - I like that very much. Now, if you take that dialogue, examine the lyrics, those to I'm Not A Man, and the baggy sports pants, I would suggest an excision of some part of the male reproductive system - testicles, prostate. That's only one interpretation, I know. And a jigsawed one at that.

*EDIT* - and the highly emotionally-charged performance of this song suggests a real personal meaning. Has he lost something important to him?

P.


An abortion? Maybe the person in bed is a woman. Oooooh! I had a professor who always drilled into us, for four years, that "THE SPEAKER IS NOT ALWAYS THE POET!" Sting is also another song writer who plays around with the "speaker." It makes analyzing song lyrics more fun.

The sex change/testicle loss thing is highly intriguing as well. Holy heck...that really works... Hmmmmm.....

UncleSkinny, how are your bones today? Feeling any better?
 
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An abortion? Maybe the person in bed is a woman. Oooooh! I had a professor who always drilled into us, for four years, that "THE SPEAKER IS NOT ALWAYS THE POET!" Sting is also another song writer who plays around with the "speaker." It makes analyzing song lyrics more fun.

The sex change/testicle loss thing is highly intriguing as well. Holy heck...that really works... Hmmmmm.....

UncleSkinny, how are your bones today? Feeling any better?

I agree, the testicle/prostate thing is a good angle when considering the lyrics, more emotion on stage and the baggy pants.

How awful.
 
I thought the same thing - I enjoyed reading all the interpretations here and have not yet figured it out myself but the fact that he was so emotional during the song tells me it's likely not the Nicholas Blake angle (but it could very well be and kudos who wrote that)
but rather something very personally related to the lyrics. This is one of my fav. songs on WPNOB but definitely mysterious about the meaning.



Well - I like that very much. Now, if you take that dialogue, examine the lyrics, those to I'm Not A Man, and the baggy sports pants, I would suggest an excision of some part of the male reproductive system - testicles, prostate. That's only one interpretation, I know. And a jigsawed one at that.

*EDIT* - and the highly emotionally-charged performance of this song suggests a real personal meaning. Has he lost something important to him?

P.
 
An abortion? Maybe the person in bed is a woman. Oooooh! I had a professor who always drilled into us, for four years, that "THE SPEAKER IS NOT ALWAYS THE POET!" Sting is also another song writer who plays around with the "speaker." It makes analyzing song lyrics more fun.

The sex change/testicle loss thing is highly intriguing as well. Holy heck...that really works... Hmmmmm.....

UncleSkinny, how are your bones today? Feeling any better?

Good thanks, had a good energetic table tennis workout, so all good.

P.
 
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