Album: Throwing Copper (1994)

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• 
  
  
  
  
  in the moment I was losing my head
  
  and I was
  
  reachin' forward I was already there
  
  readin' too much and losin' my head
  
  this information caused a cut in the line
  
  now I'm remembering good and thinking so much it's so nice.
  
  the print is smaller than the ants in the grass
  
  I'll have to put it away now
  
  in the morning there are things to be read
  
  words to be said and food to be fed but I
  
  won't be there. I'll be clutchin' on a
  
  megaphone pointed at my head, would you be
  
  there, would you kindly, scream this word for word so loud and clear
  
  I can't remember it all, it needs to be clear, I tell you, if
  
  the feeling drops out of your voice, would you
  
  kindly pick it up
  
  this is how, I'll go out tonight
  
  dressed in blue, by the book tonight
  
  this is how, I'll go out tonight
  
  but I don't need a book.
  
  we're talkin' anchors, talkin' ships, we're
  
  talkin' seas, we're talkin' everything you need
  
  you should be workin' now, not only askin'
  
  how and the whereabouts of where you'll
  
  be. I don't suspect you will be thinking
  
  when the brain is dead and the mind
  
  has taken over, this is a skill, this
  
  is not a game, where have you been,
  
  are you with us? can you hear us? got
  
  the megaphone pointed at you
  
  
  Writer/s: CHAD ALAN GRACEY, CHAD DAVID TAYLOR, EDWARD JOEL KOWALCZYK, PATRICK DAHLHEIMER
  Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 7

• Phaedrus from Fort WorthI projected myself into the song and thought it was about an introverted reader of philosophical novels (I was reading a lot of Kerouac and Hesse) who was taking a deliberate step to socialize but not lose who he is: “dressed in blue” (blue=truth); “I don’t need a book” (socializing, getting one’s head out of books for a change). I really felt this song as part of my identity back in my early 20s.
• Bradley from WashingtonI always thought "dressed in blue" referred to a cop and that "but I don't need a book" meant it was a corrupt cop.
• Darin from Philadelphia, PaIn high school, Ed Kowalczyk worked at the Bookland. The 2 Bookland stores were mostly it for bookstores in York. They had a lot of magazines, romance, science fiction, and porn. The "other religion" section was very small. Ed used to mention Krishnamurti a lot in interviews. For some reason, Bookland had numerous Krishnamurti books. In the late 80s, they also would have had the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
• Nick from Melbournewhat a way to go...
• Dave from LondonAs an interesting other thought, not knowing the Tibetan Book of the Dead story years ago when I first heard it, I always read into 'this is how I go out tonight, dressed in blue by the book tonight' that it was like a young Christian man going out for the night, but all the things he wants to do/is going to do are contradictory to the teachings of his faith. Hence he's swamped in feelings of guilt and shame, while at the same time going out in seek of his pleasure. Maybe it's not meant at all, but would still be interesting.
• Cory from Lancaster, PaSecret Smadhi sold very well. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard top 200, and it sold well over 2 Million albums.
  
  The song is about Aldous Huxley who had "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" which is a Tibetan Budhism book on not just death but rebirth and life, read to him while he was fed LSD into his arm. Ed Kowalczyk has said he wanted to die like that, not prematurely but if he has a chance to set it up and rig it, it'd be like that.
• Chris from Altoona, PaThis song was about a man that wished to be read passages from "The Tibetan Book of the Dead" while being intraveneously fed LSD as he slowly passes away.

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