Feed The Monkey, Drown The Worm -or- Goin’ Home

Song Meaning

The narrator's immediate plea is for relief, a desperate "thirsty, oh lord" that sets a tone of exhaustion and perhaps a need for escape. This isn't just physical thirst; it's a deeper craving for an end to the current state, signaled by the repeated "Pour 'em and lay me on down." The imagery of "windmills and smokestacks" paints a bleak, industrialized landscape, suggesting a world devoid of natural solace. The core tension arises from a profound dissatisfaction with the present and a fervent desire to return to the city and its associated hustle, "poundin' that beat." The narrator frames their current existence as a "long list of failures," finding no comfort in the rural surroundings, even calling the "smell of these trees ain't that sweet." This rejection of the pastoral is stark, driven by a need to move forward and leave past regrets behind. The lyrics present a fascinating dichotomy between the desire for oblivion and the drive for future action. The narrator declares "Fuck all that's happened before this" and vows to "do all my looking ahead," but then immediately conflates living and drinking with a promise to "sleep if off after I'm dead." This suggests a self-destructive impulse, a belief that true rest or resolution can only come post-mortem, after a final, intense burst of activity. This intense, almost fatalistic outlook is amplified by the closing lines: "These are the last days of disco, the final farewell." The "fiddle is playing, that's the fire you smell" evokes a sense of impending doom or a wild, chaotic end to an era. The simple, yet loaded, "Goodbye, goodbye....... I'm going home" feels less like a peaceful return and more like a final, desperate escape from a world that has become unbearable, a surrender to whatever comes next.