Lyrics To Top Three Hit Tracks

The Living End songs have walked the path once paved by acts like The Clash and Green Day in which a strong social message is an upbeat, fun song. Let´s look at three of their main hits lyrics (there are many, many more).

PRISONER OF SOCIETY

Well we don’t need no one to tell us what to do

Oh yes we’re on our own

And there’s nothing you can do

So we don’t need no one like you

To tell us what to do

We don’t refer to the past

When showing what we’ve done

Our generation gap

Means the war is never won

The past is in your head

THE FUTURE’S IN OUR HANDS!

 

Cos I’m a brat

And I know everything

And I talk back

Cos I’m not listening

To anything you say

 

And if you count to 3 (one, two, three)

You’ll see it’s no emergency

You’ll see I’m not the enemy

Just a Prisoner of Society

This lyric belongs to the highest-selling single in Australia for its decade and is a statement of protest. The teenage angst, the misunderstanding, and the feeling of being caught in society´s old rules that no longer apply are very legit. I remember listening to it for the first time and being blown away by it screaming that I was a prisoner of society too!

WAKE UP

I’ve been buried in the sand,

I’ve come down with no place to land

I don’t need you to understand it’s not what I had planned

All the hunger, all the yearning

With the lifeline, that you’re burning

Poison lessons that you’re learning

The road ahead is turning

Suicidal education (wake up, wake up)

It got sold to our generation (wake up, wake up)

Wake up to the, manipulation (wake up, wake up)

Wake up to the situation (wake up, wake up)

Suicidal education (wake up)

An obvious and robust statement about the hidden curriculum of education and much like Pink Floyd´s “The Wall” it warns the world about what kind of individual we are trying to form by sending our children to school. I think this lyric is especially up to date nowadays with all the Ritalin being prescribed to adolescents and young children with ADD.

WHITE NOISE

All that I’m hearing from you

Is White Noise (White Noise)

White Noise (White Noise)

If looks could kill

I’d be in trouble right now

Time stands still

When you’re around

Well, I gave you all my time,

And you gave me all your lies.

And you’ve just come around

to say goodbye.

Now here we stand

With our hearts in our hands

Squeezing out all the life

All that I hear

Is a message, unclear

What else is there to decide?

All that I’m hearing from you

Is White Noise (White Noise)

White Noise (White Noise)

You promised me your soul

But then left me in the cold

No warning and without a reason

You’re placing yourself

in a world of mistrust,

Making excuses

it’s not you, it’s us.

But how can something unspoken

seem so loud.

And now

The operator comes on the line

Says hurry up man

‘cos you aren’t got much time

White Noise

White Noise

All that I’m hearing from you

Is White Noise

All that I’m hearing from you

Is White Noise

White Noise

I must say there´s something magnetic between me and this song. I´m a die-hard fan of the early records, but I was always blown away by this fantastic tune. The White Noise concept is completely awesome because it´s based on randomness and it is usually present where there´s absence of other sound forms (think about the “rainy screen” of a TV with no signal). The sentence “How can something unspoken seem so loud” is amazing and to me, it applies directly to those relationships in which everything is already said, but you live it every day again. White noise between two people is a fantastic concept.

Did I say already I love this band? Well, I do.

Recent Posts

Leave a Comment