Everything Is Automatic by Matthew Good

Album: Underdogs (1998)

License This Song

lyrics

artistfacts

Songfacts®:

According to Good, this is about "the plasticity of things."
The lyric, "Those birds are singing..." is most likely a reference to a line towards the end of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five.

Comments: 3

Jet from SeatownAs stated below, the "possession obsession" that dominates our society is definitely the focus of this song. Also, Good is pointing out that we've become so desensitized to the fact that we are told through advertising what we should want or should be, no one ever has to think about what we really should try to attain or try to be - our goals are "automatic"ally presented to us by the media. I think the line "It's always what I wanted" reflects the fact that the media has us convinced that the next thing we buy will be the one that guarantees our happiness.
Simon from Montreal, CanadaThis is a song that explain how we define ourselves trought things we own. "I miss my lazy-boy, miss my tv... miss myself". Even if written in 1997, it's still actual now... and i can say it's even bigger today, just take a look at todays commercials "With this new car... now you're somebody" or "you can't live without this or that".
Elliot from Ottawa, CanadaThe line "Those birds are singing" was taken from the specific passage in the Vonnegut book:

"...because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like 'Poo-tee-weet?'"

see more comments

More Songfacts:

Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out The Barrel)Will Glahe

In 1939, a polka craze swept America thanks to "Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out The Barrel)."

BloodstreamEd Sheeran

Ed Sheeran's "Bloodstream" was written after an experience taking MDMA during a wedding celebration in Ibiza; it's basically about all the feelings that he got from that time.

"Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who is about a revolution, but it doesn't have a happy ending, since in the end the new regime becomes just like the old one. Pete Townshend thought that whoever was in power was destined to become corrupt.

Good TimesChic

The disco song "Good Tmes" by Chic was a huge influence on early rap, providing the bassline for "Rapper's Delight."

Dancing QueenABBA

ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson conceived "Dancing Queen" as a dance song with the working title "Boogaloo," drawing inspiration from the 1974 George McCrae disco hit "Rock Your Baby." Their manager Stig Anderson came up with the title "Dancing Queen."

Uptown FunkMark Ronson

The actress Michelle Pfeiffer gets namechecked in the 2014 megahit "Uptown Funk" ("Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold"). When it was released, "Riptide" by Vance Joy was on the charts; that song also mentions her ("Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you've ever seen").