Heartland

Posted: **21 Feb 2006, 10:50**

Quite often I've been wondering who/what Adam in the song is...

It's just like Adam says
It's not so hard to understand
It's just like always coming down on
Just like Jesus never came and
What did you expect to find

Is it a biblical reference, as a couple of lines later he mentions Jesus

Any clues

Posted: **21 Feb 2006, 12:49**

No idea!
I've always happily misheard it as 'Adams says' and imagined it was about some nugget of wisdom from Craig..

Posted: **21 Feb 2006, 13:30**

Maybe

had a premonition about working with Mr Whammy?

Posted: **21 Feb 2006, 13:59**

Obviousman wrote:Is it a biblical reference, as a couple of lines later he mentions Jesus

yep, i'd always assumed so

Posted: **21 Feb 2006, 16:26**

markfiend wrote:Maybe had a premonition about working with Mr Whammy?

If it's biblical reference, what could Adam have said then? A rant at the one from his rib for biting the apple?

Posted: **21 Feb 2006, 18:54**

czuczu wrote:No idea!
I've always happily misheard it as 'Adams says' and imagined it was about some nugget of wisdom from Craig..

likewise -as in "imagine the worst and get over it": "always coming down" (the worst part of taking drugs reference) "just like jesus never came" (devastating to believers if it were proven beyond doubt).

Posted: **21 Feb 2006, 18:55**

er..... I allas thought it was "... just like Alice said..."

Posted: **21 Feb 2006, 22:36**

James Blast wrote:er..... I allas thought it was "... just like Alice said..."

That's how I always heard it, but when I read the lyrics and realised it was Adam and not Alice, I figured it was a Biblical referance.

Posted: **21 Feb 2006, 22:46**

nick the stripper wrote:......when I read the lyrics and realised it was Adam and not Alice, I figured it was a Biblical referance.

Adams

You know it makes sense!

Posted: **22 Feb 2006, 00:18**

But if it refers to the biblical Adam, then what did he say, other than "A voice in my head tells me you oughtn`t to eat that apple"?
While writing this (which you can`t read cause I realized while writing I was thinking utter nonsense..

), I come to think that it might be about coming down from a heroin high. I recently got to know somebody who was strongly adicted to that stuff, and he told me how completely it satisfies all your need, how you feel sheltered an loved and well. In the lyrics of No Time To Cry, I find the world as is is set as an opposition against the ideal of love and a perfect world (Adam/paradise, Jesus/love; the drug/love-> Jesus=the drug?).
And, as a support to this, Adam was kicked out of paradise for not compromising to leave the apple on the tree. Thus not shaking the hand that fed him, if I understand that idiom right, which I think I do as we have similar in german. So the song may tell about waking up in mental disarangement and pain after the high. Or simply about falling out of love, which may have a similar effect. (actually the hormone that lets you feel happy and perfect when you are in love is an opiate, like heroin. The symptoms are similar, while being of completely different scales..)
Does that make sense to you?

Posted: **22 Feb 2006, 00:45**

for me NTTC is a positive/realist lyric and the sisters (being realists) don't write positive songs about heroin.
if it's about drugs at all then it'd be more in the vein (no pun intended) of "even when it's all gone to shit you can always hoof up 'the long white line' and cheer yourself up" or to put it another way "no point crying over spilled milk."

Posted: **22 Feb 2006, 01:46**

"A voice in my head tells me you oughtn`t to eat that apple"

"The voices pass with time"

Posted: **22 Feb 2006, 01:57**

Well, actually, I never saw it from that point, and yes, it makes good sense.. As it seems, I got stuck with the impression of the song I had that night and never quiet noticed that the llyrics could be more positive than the feeling I got from the music.

Thanks for that hint, Sire!

Posted: **22 Feb 2006, 02:14**

eotunun wrote: Well, actually, I never saw it from that point, and yes, it makes good sense.. As it seems, I got stuck with the impression of the song I had that night and never quiet noticed that the llyrics could be more positive than the feeling I got from the music.
Thanks for that hint, Sire!

Of course, The Sisters are positive punk.

Posted: **22 Feb 2006, 10:51**

Eldritch wrote:It's just a feeling
I get sometimes
A feeling
Sometimes
And I get frightened
Just like you
I get frightened too
but it's...

CHORUS

(no no no) No time for heartache
(no no no) No time to run and hide
(no no no) No time for breaking down
(no no no) No time to cry

Sometimes in the world as is you've
Got to shake the hand that feeds you
It's just like Adam says
It's not so hard to understand
It's just like always coming down on
Just like Jesus never came and
What did you expect to find
It's just like always here again it's...

CHORUS

Everything will be alright
Everything will turn out fine
Some nights I still can't sleep
And the voices pass with time
And I keep
[repeat]
No time for tears
No time to run and hide
No time to be afraid of fear
I keep no time to cry

CHORUS

Posted: **22 Feb 2006, 13:07**

markfiend wrote:
Eldritch wrote:It's just a feeling
I get sometimes
A feeling
Sometimes
And I get frightened
Just like you
I get frightened too
but it's...

CHORUS

(no no no) No time for heartache
(no no no) No time to run and hide
(no no no) No time for breaking down
(no no no) No time to cry

Sometimes in the world as is you've
Got to shake the hand that feeds you
It's just like Adam says
It's not so hard to understand
It's just like always coming down on
Just like Jesus never came and
What did you expect to find
It's just like always here again it's...

CHORUS

Everything will be alright
Everything will turn out fine
Some nights I still can't sleep
And the voices pass with time
And I keep
[repeat]
No time for tears
No time to run and hide
No time to be afraid of fear
I keep no time to cry

CHORUS

I like the reference to Craig Adams. For years I thought the line was an in-joke about some nugget of wisdom from him. However, the lyrics say "Adam".

Sometimes in the world as is you've
Got to shake the hand that feeds you
It's just like Adam says
It's not so hard to understand
It's just like always coming down on
Just like Jesus never came and
What did you expect to find
It's just like always here again it's...

The song is obviously about not giving up, surviving in a hard world. More specifically, I see it as an oblique reflection of the pressures of the music business. The Sisters had been signed by a major label. Now they were in the process of coming up with a product. "The hand that feeds you" can be a reference to the record company. Even though Eldritch is tempted, he knows that it is not a good idea to bite the hand that feeds you. Out of necessity he shakes the hand that feeds him--at least for the time being.

In this context, the hand, can also be seen as a reference to the Invisible Hand of supply and demand, as theorized by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations. This would be a far-fetched reading if we were dealing with your average rocker, but Eldritch is not your average rocker, as we all know. He is fiercely intellectual, deeply interested in cultural and intellectual history, and very aware of the workings of capitalism.

The line "What did you expect to find" could be him telling himself that the frustrations that come with being signed to a major label should not come as a surprise, and that he should quit whining and bite the bullet.

Finally, Eldritch's health was fragile at the time. In the song, he acknowledges his fear and anxiety ("sometimes I still can't sleep"), but tells himself that "Everything will be alright / Everything will turn out fine." He is surely aware that the lines are cliches, but sometimes we only have cliches to get us through.

The lines in the song are a combination of the ordinary and the erudite, a little bit like the mind of a person like Eldritch perhaps.

Posted: **22 Feb 2006, 14:32**

Alternatively, it's just some lyrics he made up because they sound good and fit the music.

Posted: **22 Feb 2006, 16:05**

Hey, be careful Korin, don't go reading too much into the lyrics!

Posted: **22 Feb 2006, 16:12**

markfiend wrote:Hey, be careful Korin, don't go reading too much into the lyrics!

I for one am always amazed for what people find behind the lyrics, but it's most of the times an interesting read still

Posted: **23 Feb 2006, 00:26**

Dark wrote:Alternatively, it's just some lyrics he made up because they sound good and fit the music.

Yes, of course the words have to sound good and fit the music--but if that was all, Eldritch would be like 99.9% of the musicians out there--and he isn't. That's why we like him, right?

Posted: **23 Feb 2006, 18:56**

Doctor E wrote:Yes, of course the words have to sound good and fit the music--but if that was all, Eldritch would be like 99.9% of the musicians out there--and he isn't. That's why we like him, right?

Hear hear!
From all we know about Eldo it is not very likely that he, beeing an intelectual, would take the blame for writing crap-lyrics. He usually means what he says, even when saying it between the lines (which has a temporary aspect to it?

).
Maybe that the FALAA lyrics were a bit less refined, remembering that they seem to stem from a solo nightshift. But then, Andrew put some very personal thoughts in them, otherwise this quote from a concert would make no sense, when he refused to play Marian, saying something like "I can`t see a man crying, especially when the man is me!" So it is not just to sound good and fit the Music. It is not Status Quo.

Posted: **23 Feb 2006, 21:00**

Or perhaps he selected the lyric because it gave us so many potential lines of inquiry, all of which are bollocks. That's an equally impressive intellectual feat

Posted: **23 Feb 2006, 22:01**

Status Quo may make lyrics that don't provoke pseudo-intellectual debates, but they write some f**king good songs.

Posted: **23 Feb 2006, 22:27**

Down, Down is obviously an influence on Bury Me Deep

Posted: **23 Feb 2006, 23:50**

@ Motz and, Dark, Some people take the interpretation of lyrics very seriously, I think this a just as worthwhile a pastime as collecting dodgy vynal bootlegs. When respect is due, pay it, and lets have less of the atitude, it realy isn't nice, or for that matter attractive

Paul

Heartland

No time to cry

No time to cry

Re: No time to cry