Condition Oakland
Desperation Echoes: Unveiling Life's Naked Truths in Jawbreaker's Condition Oakland
Lyrics
I rode down to the tracks.
I traveled to the railroad tracks.
Thinking that they might sing to me.
Expecting a response from them in the form of a song.
But they just stared back.
Instead, they remained silent and unresponsive.
Broken, trainless and black as night.
The tracks were damaged, without trains, and dark.
Climbed out onto my roof.
I went up on my roof.
So I'd be a poet in the night.
Seeking inspiration to be a poet during the night.
Beat the walls off my room.
I expressed my frustration by beating the walls of my room.
I saw the big room that is this life.
I saw the vast expanse that is life.
This is my condition:
Summary of the narrator's emotional state.
Naked and hysterical,
Feeling exposed and emotionally overwhelmed.
Reaching to grab a hand
Trying to reach out for help or connection.
That I just slapped back at.
Rejecting the support offered.
This is my condition:
Reiteration of the narrator's emotional state.
Desperate, alone, without an excuse.
Feeling desperate, isolated, and without justification.
I try to explain.
Attempting to communicate.
Christ, what's the use?
Expressing frustration at the futility of explanation.
Read and I felt so small.
Reading something that made the narrator feel insignificant.
Some words keep speaking when you close the book.
Some words continue to resonate even after reading.
Drank and just about smiled.
Drinking and almost finding happiness, then recalling a past intimate moment.
Then I remembered us in that bed.
Remembering a shared experience in bed.
Put my ear to the door.
Listening at the door for sounds, hearing disturbing noises.
I just heard hot rods and gunshots and sirens.
Ambient sounds of fast cars, gunshots, and sirens.
People kill me these days.
Reflecting on the destructive nature of people nowadays.
There's keys in their eyes but they lock from the inside.
People have potential (keys) but remain closed off emotionally.
This is my condition:
Summary of the narrator's emotional state (repeated).
Naked and hysterical,
Feeling exposed and emotionally overwhelmed (repeated).
Reaching to grab a hand
Trying to reach out for help or connection (repeated).
That I just slapped back at.
Rejecting the support offered (repeated).
This is my condition:
Summary of the narrator's emotional state (repeated).
Desperate, alone, without an excuse.
Feeling desperate, isolated, and without justification (repeated).
I try to explain.
Attempting to communicate (repeated).
Christ, what's the use?
Expressing frustration at the futility of explanation (repeated).
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