"Builds the Bone" by the Hidden Cameras

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It's one of my favorite songs of the year so far, but I can't make any snese of it. Can anyone shed any light on its lyrics?

― Simon H., Tuesday, 10 August 2004 01:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I've had much the same trouble. AIDS at the end?

― Sean M (Sean M), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 03:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I was gonna ask this too, god that song is gorgeous

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 03:44 (twenty-one years ago)

I can make out the line "if I fall, I'll aim my feet at you", and a reference to "swallowing". Presumable the title phrase is a reference to an erection.

Still, it doesn'r quite add up.

― Simon H., Tuesday, 10 August 2004 04:38 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah I've got the song on repeat and am trying to transcribe the lyrics but Joel is mumbling like to put Stipe to shame on this one. The HC website doesn't have it up yet either. I'll post my transcription if I can make enough of it out.

this song has really been driving me nuts re: wtf is he talking about

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 05:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Ok this is the best I can do right now, it might be really wrong. We'll see how accurate it is when they put it on the website:

When I fall I'll aim my feet at you
I'll lay my knees up at length a breeze oh yeah
Too dumb to follow a moving target still
Bend my knees up for me to follow them

I've already touched it
It builds the bone oh
Though I'll never need it
It fills in my whole life

Darkness falls on cruising creek again
A hollow head a hollow head to boot
A primadonna primadonna man
Too shy to swallow but young enough to give

All will come to it
They say it builds the bone if
You ever stop needing it
It might be thrown into the falls of time

It might follow it might follow you
Chain my feet up rope my knees round you
It ain't my fault oh it ain't my fault oh no
It broke a hole it broke a hole on me

All is nothing
It creates a sword and
Takes no loving
And it relates to the end as one

ummm, I dunno. He had sex with some guy in a park and the condom broke? I think Sean might be OTM about this...

See if you guys can fix any part of this transcription that seems wrong to you.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 05:46 (twenty-one years ago)

These lines in particular I had trouble with:
I'll lay my knees up at length a breeze oh yeah (I'm really just guessing here)

Bend my knees up for me to follow them (same here)

A hollow head a hollow head to boot (total shot in the dark)

It creates a sword and (it create a sore and? But JG uses biblical imagery so I thought of sword, too)

oh Though I'll never need it/It fills in my whole life (Although I'll never need it it fills in my hole I know? the whole line? hahahahaha. Man this guy mumbles.)

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 06:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Thanks Aaron. I'm glad others were interested. And yeah, the song is impossibly beautiful, I wish more of thier output could match it ("we oh we" almost makes it)

― Simon H., Tuesday, 10 August 2004 15:16 (twenty-one years ago)

is this from a new album forthcoming?

― peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 15:19 (twenty-one years ago)

It's from Mississauga Goddam, which is already out in Canada and the UK but the US doesn't get it until September. In the meantime, it's easily available on slsk.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Pretty close, Aaron.

From the lyric sheet:

When I fall, I'll aim my feet at you
Aim my knees, floating through breeze
Too dumb to follow a moving target. Still,
damn my needs, too meek to follow them.

Have already touched it
It builds the bone
Although I'll never need it
It fills in the hole I know

Darkness falls and I'm cruising creek again
with a hollow head, a hollow head to boot
A pre-Madonna, a pre-Madon' moment
Too shy to swallow, yet young enough to get

All will come to it
They say it builds the bone
If I ever stop needing it
may I be thrown into the throes of toil

Let my fall, let my fall on you
Tame my feet, I'll rope my knees 'round you
It ain't my fault, no, it ain't my fault, oh no
You broke the whole, you broke the whole, oh you

All is nothing
It creates a sore
It takes my all to love it
and it relates to the end as we know

― brian patrick (brian patrick), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

So what's the "it" which "builds the bone"?

- it can be "touched"
- the narrator will "never need it" but then he says if he "ever stop[s] needing it," he should be made to "toil"
- it "fills in the hole"
- it "creates a sore" that "relates to the end"

― Sean M (Sean M), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 19:33 (twenty-one years ago)

a replacement lover? for whom the narrator has left his previous one, the one he really loved and not just lusted after, as is the case with this new one?

― willem (willem), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

awesome brian, I was hoping someone would have the CD w/lyrics already

So what's the "it" which "builds the bone"?

...getting fucked in the ass, Sean? I mean this IS Hidden Cameras we're talking about. I'm not so sure about the AIDS/broken condom thing now that I know the real lyrics.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 20:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it could be what willem is talking about but also filled with double entendres relating to anal sex, maybe?

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 20:09 (twenty-one years ago)

It just occured to me that this could also be a "Like a Virgin" type song as well.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 20:15 (twenty-one years ago)

also filled with double entendres relating to anal sex, maybe?

yes, definately.

― willem (willem), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 20:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I think we've (you've) solved it. :) Anal sex and a lost lover!

― Sean M (Sean M), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 21:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm downloading the whole album now to tide me over till Sept.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Tuesday, 10 August 2004 21:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I've got the whole thing now and listened to it a couple of times. It's a pretty good album.
I still haven't heard "Smell of Our Own" or "Ecce Homo" all the way through, guess I'll get those next.

― AaronHz (AaronHz), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 05:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Aaron, Smell of Our Own is better than Mississauga Goddam (which is very good, indeed), IMO. I think you'll love it! Haven't heard Ecce Homo in its entirity (a few tracks are available from their website), at a show last year the last copy was bought by a guy just in front of me, grrr. It was out of print back then, I believe it's available again now. If you ever get the chance, go see them live, it'll be awesome.

― willem (willem), Wednesday, 11 August 2004 08:52 (twenty-one years ago)

two months pass...

This is the song that's been hurting my heart lately.

Deffo one of my songs of the year.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Monday, 25 October 2004 01:34 (twenty-one years ago)

"Damn my needs/too meek to follow them"
T34R5

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Monday, 25 October 2004 01:47 (twenty-one years ago)

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