Sometimes It Feels Like

Song details

Bad Religion original
Yes
First released
1989
First release
No Control (album)
Songwriter
Brett Gurewitz

Lyrics

Sometimes It Feels Like

There's a specter in the corner of an illustrated page And a lonesome muted stripling with a rapt remedial gaze. The poverty of his language and the wealth of his emotion Bring him endless murky musings and unexpected frustration. Angst and madness weave the fabric of his life. Tomorrow might be better but right now it feels like... There's a panther wild and proud behind the doors of a redolent cage, And an underdeveloped intellect filled with impotent and static rage. And don't think you're exempt if you earn good weekly wages, 'Cause your neighbor's going crazy and insanity's contagious. I know there's so much you want to say, But your tongue gets in the way and sometimes it feels like... I know there's so much you want to say And the tumbrel of your mind gets in the way. It's the same for everybody to degrees. We all get that foggy freeze and sometimes it feels like...

Versions & recordings

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64release versions
#79

79th most featured song

76documented shows
#88

88th most played song

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Song Interpretations

What do you think this song is about? Share your interpretation and explain your reasoning.

3

SayYourPrayersJul 26, 2011
I think this is just a song about the frustration that comes from being unable to express oneself, and the anger at not being taken seriously.
legacy memberJul 11, 2004 · edited Sep 5, 2010

I think that the #@#$%$% (I believe in the recorded song this is translated with some guitar pyrotechnics) is an attempt to convey the ultimate impossibility of making sense of reality. The verses describe the conflicts and contradictions of an individual's experience, and ultimately, when one attempts to figure out 'how it all works' or 'why are we here' one merely becomes confused and aggravated, 'and sometimes it…

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I think that the #@#$%$% (I believe in the recorded song this is translated with some guitar pyrotechnics) is an attempt to convey the ultimate impossibility of making sense of reality. The verses describe the conflicts and contradictions of an individual's experience, and ultimately, when one attempts to figure out 'how it all works' or 'why are we here' one merely becomes confused and aggravated, 'and sometimes it feels like @#$%$#%$.'
legacy memberJul 11, 2004 · edited Sep 5, 2010

I suppose that this song demonstrates how anxiety, mental illness (here maybe schizophrenia), and lack of education (especially in language and logic) can run together, as would water colors, till it becomes impossible to mark any clear distinction. In the case of someone's psych, it becomes hard to differentiate among all of the problems mentioned in the first sentence. We've all seen this romantic frenzy in other…

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I suppose that this song demonstrates how anxiety, mental illness (here maybe schizophrenia), and lack of education (especially in language and logic) can run together, as would water colors, till it becomes impossible to mark any clear distinction. In the case of someone's psych, it becomes hard to differentiate among all of the problems mentioned in the first sentence. We've all seen this romantic frenzy in others, and have at some point felt it to some extent ourselves. Our intuition assures us that we can just 'know' without being able to say exactly what or (more importantly) how we 'know.'

Further, it seems impossible to bring forth any argument, much less one that isn't entirely pathological, or one filled with fallacies in logic. Brett shows almost a certain pedantry in vocabulary, then points out that 'it's the same for everybody to degrees', probably meaning that nobody is immune, not even he.

Another thing that I found interesting is the #&%#*@$...it reminds me of how in some romantic periods of literature, writers would question the efficacy of language. Some would even go so far as to 'draw' poetry; i.e., the poetry didn't actually consist of words but rather untranslatable symbols, which left the reader only with the possibility of abstract guessing at a meaning (Fischesnachtgesang is an example).