[Verse 1:]
Honest where I start from
I try and impart my wisdom
A combination of truth and fear
That’s the way it’s always been
My father and his before him
At times we hurt the …
[Verse 1]
Oh, pity me
I’m so alone and so blue
My friends have all gone away
Their friendliness too
[Pre-Chorus]
It was I on my own
With no need to belong
And I wanted to die
That’s when …
[Verse 1]
Got some money, got some cash
I’m rich and now I’m sad
And I wonder if I’m sad about the money that I have
Got some boats on my plane
At the hotel …
[Intro]
Yeah
Polishin’ a goddamn sword, you know what I’m sayin’?
Polishin’ a sword (Uh, uh, uh, uh)
Concrete Family, Concrete Industries, Concrete Boys up, always, never down
(And this beat from Cash, not from …
When the only sound in the empty street
Is the heavy tread of the heavy feet
That belong to a lonesome cop
I open shop
When the moon so long has been gazing down
On …
This is a song about somebody else
So don’t worry yourself, worry yourself1
The devil’s right there right there in the details2
And you don’t wanna hurt yourself, hurt yourself3
Looking too closely
Looking too closely
No no no no!4
Put your arms around somebody else5
Don’t punish yourself, punish yourself6
Truth is like blood underneath your fingernails7
And you don’t wanna hurt yourself, hurt yourself
Looking too closely
Looking too closely
No no no no!
No no no no!
You don’t wanna hurt yourself, hurt yourself
You don’t wanna hurt yourself, hurt yourself
No no no no!
I could be wrong ’bout anybody else
So don’t kid yourself, kid yourself
It’s you right there, right there in the mirror8
And you don’t wanna hurt yourself, hurt yourself
Looking too closely
Looking too closely
Yeaaah
Looking too closely
You don’t wanna hurt yourself
You don’t wanna hurt yourself, hurt yourself
Looking too close
Fink sings about somebody living in denial, especially someone who has a cheating lover.
If this person wanted, he or she could easily discover whether the partner is cheating.
However, he or she refuses to discover whether the partner is cheating in an effort to maintain surface-level happiness and avoid being traumatized.
Fink explores the mentality of those whose partner is cheating: don’t examine the details too closely or you might get hurt.
In other words, take refuge in another person.
Don’t blame yourself if your partner is having an affair.
Discovering the truth is painful. Being in denial at least maintains some level of satisfaction.
Again, the message Fink sends in this song is that the mentality of those who are in denial about a cheating partner is to maintain surface-level happiness and avoid the truth.
2 user explanations and meanings
Anonymous
We dont want to get too close to what can be hurtful. The devil is looking at the details and we dont wanna hurt ourselves. We just dont wanna look to close at the potential things but to look closer at life and more eternal things.
Anonymous
Don’t stare at yourself in the mirror and decide you are defective, or engage in thinking about your every detail and imperfection instead of yourself as a whole person. “Put your arms around someone else” so you are thinking of them, being with them, and not looking inward. (Other-centered instead of self-centered.) You can experience someone and be reassured it’s probably the the way people experience you – without a magnifying glass seeking faults.