Album: Broken Bells (2009)

License This Song 

• We're bound to wait all night
  She's bound to run amok
  Invested enough in it anyhow
  To each his own
  The Garden's sorting out
  She curls her lips on the bow
  I don't know if I'm dead or not
  To anyone
  
  Come on and get the minimum
  Before you open up your eyes
  This army has so many heads
  To analyze
  Come on and get your overdose
  Collect it at the borderline
  And they want to get up in your head
  
  'Cause they know and so do I
  The high road is hard to find
  A detour to your new life
  Tell all of your friends goodbye
  
  The dawn to end all nights
  That's all we hoped it was
  A break from the warfare in your house
  To each his own
  A soldier is bailing out
  He curled his lips on the barrel
  And I don't know if the dead can talk
  To anyone
  
  Come on and get the minimum
  Before you open up your eyes
  This army has so many hands
  Are you one of us?
  Come on and get your overdose
  Collect it at the borderline
  And they want to get up in your head
  
  'Cause they know and so do I
  The high road is hard to find
  A detour to your new life
  Tell all of your friends goodbye
  
  It's too late to change your mind
  You let loss be your guide
  It's too late to change your mind
  You let loss be your guide
  It's too late to change your mind (it's too late to change your mind)
  You let loss be your guide
  It's too late to change your mind (it's too late to change your mind)
  You let loss be your guide Writer/s: Brian Joseph Burton, James Russell Mercer
  Publisher: Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 10

• Christine from PittsburghThe lyrics led me to believe that the song is about being in the military . " this army has so many heads " and " this army has so many hands " .
• Matt from New HampshireI believe he's talking about seeking enlightenment, the high road is hard to find.
  Bound to wait all night, he's referring to a dark night of the soul.
  He was hoping that this relationship with this woman would be the dawn to end all nights, to end his depression and negative perceptions.
  The garden sorting out, it's the garden of eden. That's this process of awakening to a new life.
  A break from the warfare in your house, it seems he's left his home situation out of frustration and found someone more like him. To each his own. A soldier is bailing out.
  He seems to be saying that he knows he should do the hard thing and face the issues with his loved ones, but his depression is so extreme he doubles down and tries to move on, leaving his soul behind.
  He thought he was taking the high road. But really he was curling his lips around the barrel, about to forget everything loves and cares for.
  
  But he's taken a detour to that new life, probably in his love with this woman, who was questioning the same things and trying to end her depression. They worked at it together, using each other for self awareness.
  But it doesn't sound like she made it through.
  The recognition that it wasn't real love, that it was a trauma bond, an escape from reality, may have come too late.
  And at a certain point, it's too late to change your mind. Your loved ones will move on.
  And when loss has become your guide, always expecting it, that's all you're gonna get.
  I think the point was to recognize that the depression and the strominess in thier minds was thier own doing, always being stressed and not taking care of themselves.
  
  Thats why he says get your loving up, collect it at the borderline, before you open up your eyes.
  Without that love, when he opens his eyes he sees his family as having abandoned him, never trying to understand him.
  But with it, he realizes that he never understood himself, so how could they? If he's always stressed all the time he's not being himself.
  The borderline is the place between sleeping and waking, the hypnagogic state.
  When we reach this state, it blends our thoughts and our feelings, it balances our bipolarness, brings clarity.
  Around 33 years old our "third eye" tries to awaken if not already. It sees deeper into things. But without having balance, it sees destruction without a counter balance, which does exist naturally.
  With love the third eye will see thay balance and guide us through the middle of life, away from the extremes, and into our purpose and true nature.
  That road is indeed, hard to find. Yet we were made for it.
• Vt Vegan from VermontI'm obsessed with this song. While I know it was not intended to be about this... I can't stop thinking about how perfectly it relates to the jab. "Come on and get the minimum, BEFORE you open up your eyes." You had a choice to give up your personal health to the multi-headed army that wants "to get up in your head". You let loss & fear be your guide, and its too late to change your mind. Your body doesn't need an assortment of gene therapy & toxic garbage to fight off a "virus" you have never seen nor proven to exist. All the vaxxed people I know are constantly getting sick now and we see so many dying from heart attacks & cancers. But the beauty of these lyrics is the poetry is so good it transcends a specific meaning like I am giving it now and can be applied to so many situations and thoughts. Perfect song, love it!
• Chip from High PointTo me, this song evokes mental imagery of lost souls drowning in addiction...So much of the lyrics make perfect sense to me when viewed in this light...even the name of the song conjures up drug usage taken to the extreme... When a person starts using recreational drugs it might be experimentally at first, but at some point it usually crosses over from being a fun experience to a "comforting" one...where the usage covers over emotional pain or distracts the user from what is "wrong" in their life and is no longer a "recreational" experience, but a "needed" one that helps them deal with unpleasant aspects of their life they wish to avoid... "Tell all of your friends goodbye..." a more perfect lyric can not be found to express the usual consequence of becoming an addict when describing the self imposed isolation the addict experiences in their now "normal" daily routine of "using" their drug(s) of choice...perhaps I'm biased because of my past, but nearly everthing lyrically, in this song, speaks to me as different aspects a drug addict encounters regularly during their time of "darkness"... when the emotionally "dead" walk... or even when those that OD'd and "crossed over" to the other side of life and are now really D.E.A.D. do they, as ghosts, hear us? Do they try and communicate? Once you become an addict, isn’t it a foregone conclusion that you won't be changing your mind about whether to "use" or not? So, taken in it's entirety, I see and feel like this is a lament about watching a friend or lover change from who you knew at one time into something almost unrecognizable at their worst depths of living hell they've voluntarily chosen to immerse themselves and everyone they know in...
• Royal from Misplaced On The East CoastBetter late than never! 2020 & I'm hearing this for the 1st time...THANK YOU SPOTIFY!!! I'm trying to dissect the lyrics, but I'm not winning this one. O-well, this makes me listen more & love it deeper!
• Mike from MiamiI agree with Peri. I'm pretty sure its "loss" not "laws". Which goes along with the 'fear based decision making' principals.
• Peri The Blue Fairy from The AshesI thought it was, "It's too late to change your mind...You let LOSS be your guide"...To me THAT actually makes more sense if this is a lament -- and I believe it is...
• Ginger from MarsThis song is about whatever we want it to be about. It's a haunting melody with cryptic words, which stir my hidden emotions from deep within the four corners of my soul.
• Bill from Schererville, InI really enjoy this song and its melody. I could listen to it over and over. I am not quite sure what the song is about though.
• Zane from Chippewa Falls, WiThis is a good song to listen to if you are not doing anything and just sitting back

More Songfacts:

Video GamesLana Del Rey

The game Lana Del Rey sings about in "Video Games" is World of Warcraft - her ex used to play it all the time.

Ice Ice BabyVanilla Ice

The first rapper with a #1 hit was Vanilla Ice with "Ice Ice Baby" in 1990.

PossessionSarah McLachlan

Sarah McLachlan's "Possession" contains passages from letters a stalker sent her. He sued her for $250,000 and committed suicide before the trial.

Susie QCreedence Clearwater Revival

Creedence Clearwater Revival's first single was a cover of a rockabilly song called "Susie Q." When it became a hit, group leader John Fogerty went into a songwriting frenzy so they wouldn't be one-hit wonders, resulting in hits like "Proud Mary" and "Lodi."

I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)The Four Tops

The Four Tops' "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" was written by the Motown team of Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland and Eddie Holland. The phrase "Sugar pie, honey bunch" was something Dozier's grandfather used to say when he was a kid.

No Woman No CryBob Marley & the Wailers

Bob Marley gave the songwriting credit for "No Woman No Cry" to his friend Vincent Ford, who ran a soup kitchen in Trenchtown, the area of Kingston where Marley grew up.

Editor's Picks

Kim Thayil of SoundgardenSongwriter Interviews

Their frontman (Chris Cornell) started out as their drummer, so Soundgarden takes a linear approach when it comes to songwriting. Kim explains how they do it.

Shaun Morgan of SeetherSongwriter Interviews

Shaun breaks down the Seether songs, including the one about his brother, the one about Ozzy, and the one that may or may not be about his ex-girlfriend Amy Lee.

Weird Al YankovicFact or Fiction

Did Al play on a Beach Boys record? Did he have beef with George Lucas and Coolio? See if you can spot weird but true stories.

Best Band LogosSong Writing

Queen, Phish and The Stones are among our picks for the best band logos. Here are their histories and a design analysis from an expert.

Carl SturkenSongwriter Interviews

Hitmaker Carl Sturken on writing and producing for Rihanna, 'N Sync, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, Donny Osmond, Shakira and Karyn White.

Matt SorumSongwriter Interviews

When he joined Guns N' Roses in 1990, Matt helped them craft an orchestral sound; his mezzo fortes and pianissimos are all over "November Rain."