Leave it to me to start a song with a German expression: Weltanschauung, meaning "worldview," or the attitude an individual has toward the world, or the way he interprets it or how his beliefs affect his relationship with the world. It's one of those deeply loaded expressions that someone like Hegel probably coined. I don't know why I put it in the song. Trying to be fancy, I guess. Understandably, lots of people think this song is about incest, but I didn't intend it that way. It's sexually charged, but it's really about a selfish father who has been left by his wife, how he tries to supplant the mother's views with his own, how ultimately the daughter becomes embittered, thanks to this badgering, cajoling jerk who happens to be her father.
-gg
lyrics
Weltanschauung, take your pick, turn around,
Every sight, every sound, nothing,
What I need: you to lean, back to back,
Just in case I overlooked something,
Lip-synched words, mother's mind, daughter's mouth,
Help me out: keep your thoughts to yourself,
Brush your teeth, kiss me once on the cheek,
And tell your mom to let you sleep in later.
Father with his sleeping daughter sacked out on his shoulder as he walks across the gravel and shuts the door.
Automatic pilot is the nickname he can tease her with to get back for the fact that she's always tired.
Chocolate milk, every day, that's all she wants,
Eat some food, look at me, sweetie,
Daddy feels abandoned by both of you,
Your mom, I guess she gave up, but I thought that you were...
Not the kind of girl who'd hold a grudge against a man who cannot stand his daughter's silence and broken stares.
When she's all grown up, she'll have a place inside her body that's reserved for every urge to kill men who want to sleep with her.
Ohhh, her toes and fingers are curled.
Don't cross her with your fatherly words:
"Sweetheart, angel, flirt."
credits
from Decline of Day,
released October 23, 2001
Music, lyrics: Greg Giles
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