Why? - These few presidents

[jonahharper]

I am here because of Colour Revolt.

[FireFlySunsets]

nine people don't have the same musical taste as me and that's okay.

[cxbra]

"Although I haven't seen you in years, yours is the funeral i'd fly to from anywhere..."

[musicfreak4lifevmc]

I think it's about two immigrants who came here and were very poor. the dude thought going to heaven would be better than earth's situation so he killed her out of love. that's why he talk about having few presidents, because he was poor

[justjon451]

the smell of oven gas, it could be the girl pulled a "sylvia plath" and killed herself and her fighting depression her whole life with the kite string line, if she made it to heaven, and so suicides according to the judaeo-christians do not get to go to heaven and so it could be that not all the money could bribe a god to tell her side of the story how life was so hard for her and so he loves her and even on tour if she killed herself he would funeral go middle of america or wherever

[evilsnuggles]

why would anyone care what was meant by a songwriter, when perhaps, like many artists, he is offering many meanings that can be personal to the listener?

[thedoctorsfeziscool]

@modestkat87 No, "can" is correct.

[modestkat87]

@thedoctorsfeziscool You're right. I was thinking it was saying "Can't persuade no god" not as a double negative but as "Can't persuade a god". At least I had the message correct... that no god could be persuaded.

(I tried to delete the comment immediately after and couldn't just after I posted.)

[2009ratrat]

BELLFLOWER

[Mrphillycheesesteak]

the guy killed her and he killed himself cuz he realizes that he truely loved her

dang dude, too many paragraphs.

[vancolancolonial]

damn guys. this song is a lament about having someone and no longer having them, and not having it in you to fix what's wrong.

[neoContraVo]

herbal wisdom in a cup

[wolfincommand]

rabbot

[Carolinealiceb]

I've had this on repeat all week!

[Carolinealiceb]

even though i haven't seen you in years

yours is a funeral i'd fly to from anywhere .... best lines ever!

[DSTFJayTee]

i love this song so much...

[davidz0r]

hipster song?

[mmmaria10]

So so good!!

[thatsrachelle]

and if you're in heaven waiting

you made it there fighting

the tightest kite string

in a bad storm with lightning

that just kills me, it's so good. aaaaaah!

[MrL8MrR]

comment ne pas aimer cette musique ? =D

[ittooklongtomakethis]

the story of me and a girl I like

[ittooklongtomakethis]

@ittooklongtomakethis and she doesn't like me

[breakfreefromthesea]

<3

[canklescankles]

Art is anything you can get away with. Yoni Wolf knows this. Let him make art.

[blondiebabae]

Opal, you've moved on to another subject altogether...

[xobeccaleahox]

everytime i hear this song i just wanna go wild

[jthmjoey1]

im pretty sure half of these views are from me lol,

[MOMORPIGER]

This song is fucking amazing. There is nothing more to be said, you can all go home now.

[imyours121]

7 people are just jealous because they don't have any presidents in their pockets.

[mopsvonmiez]

This song broke my heart.

[jthmjoey1]

i become overwhelmed with feelings of depression and happiness when listening to this, such and amazing song, i think everyone has one of those people in there lives "even thou i Haven't seen you in years, yours is a funeral id fly to from anywhere"

[NDW160brah]

I wish this song lasted ∞(that is the infinity symbol)

I wish the song lasted forever.

It's that good.

[chaosunder]

Why?.... Is this song so good?

[clickhack6969]

She never had the chance to speak her mind(sad) so she killed herself and the broski realized this after she has died and wishes to hear her speak of her problems-- as if it would have avoided death.

[19stuart73]

who cares? I LOVE IT!

[emceebill]

anticon forever :)

[emosashiru]

this song is kinda nice lol

[regarizelT]

Is it just me or does this guy sound like the singer from The Mountain Goats? Just a bit.

[MrJesus400]

@regarizelT i love the mountain goats!

[RainOnTheWindow]

This song is so badass.

[LewisShooterMcKay]

everytime i listen to that chorus...i always get chills =)

[theshiz909]

The song is saying that the person singing is trying to get his girlfreind into heaven after she killed herself buy paying god but its not working so he wants her to talk.

[circustiger1]

my personal opinion is that the song is about people you can't get along with anymore, and you've had some sort of falling out with, or perhaps just drifted apart... people you are not around anymore and do not want to be, but still care about in some vague, deep-seeded way. Hence, I would fly to your funeral from anywhere, simply out of respect for you and the things we once shared, but I really have no interest in forgiving you alive. The lyrics make it clear that they had fought in the past.

[tddorans]

close... I haven't heard the whole album but it seems like he broke up with his girlfriend. He is saying no amount of money would let me hear what you have to say because all you would want is my forgiveness and no amount of money would let me forgive you.

Good Friday off the same album is him saying he was caught off guard by the breakup and that his actions are him lashing out. The last line "see you when the sun sets east. don't forget me." is saying he'll never see her again. posting limit.

[HRouillier]

@circustiger1

I think you're close. There was defiantly a falling out(probably because she broke up with him for someone else "two first names and an ampersand"), but I think he'd go to the funeral out of pure hatred of this person. He simply wants to see her dead, but he knows he can't simply crush her on the street thoughtlessly like he did the wasp though he wants to desperately. He knows he can't kill her, but he wants to see her dead because he feels she deserves it.

[Saelglopur]

I hate it when you guys put more thought into what a person has written than the person who wrote it.

[BLWRNBW]

@Saelglopur wait, what?

[GnomesAmok]

@Saelglopur

I doubt it is possible that anyone here has done that with regards to what Yoni Wolf writes.

[johnnyjohn2005]

This song is incredable, at first i was like yeh yeh same old, but noooo give it the chance.

[DukeLacrosse13]

i remember it like it was yesterday, i was on the hunt for songs like "handelbars" and came across this...it was this exact song, i believe same video. I loved the sound of it and unlike todays pop, i felt something. Its music like this that evokes an emotion no other song could. And for this i thank the band for creating such a masterpiece.

[sjokkoice666]

so fuckin nice song !!! i use this in my next skate video =) check out stiffybergst !

[loranceb]

sounds like a better mgmt sound

[oi2simon]

yeah i think they do fall under the same classification or genre whatever with mgmt

[flanders243]

The song is clearly about killing someone, just listen to the words.

He compares her neck to 'the skinny neck of a Chinese bird", then later "my crooked Chinese fingers groped, the machinery of your throat", he's talking about a strangling the life out of someone here.

There there is the story about killing a wasp that hadn't stung him yet. An obvious metaphor about killing someone to avoid being hurt.

[flanders243]

Also the stuff about "there is no paved street worthy of your perfect Scandinavian feet", is basically saying the world isn't good enough for her. This is classic psycho stalker stuff.

Not to mention the rest... the song starts with 2 people in bed with the gas on. Obviously either a murder or suicide... Or even the chorus of the song... "These few presidents... can persuade no god, to let me let you talk". He's taking her fate out of god's hands and into his own.

it's an incredible song btw

[Drooopy3]

@flanders243 dude, i totally thought it said "pastry worthy of ur perfect scandinavian feet" and that metaphore was driving me nutts. Thanks for clearing that up. Do you know the crooked chinese finger meaning?

[leecahim]

leeca you Suck Anal Ehehhe

[rabbitwho]

Hey guys, come on, you'll get so much more out of life and art if you realise there's no right or wrong, and half the fun is seeing and understanding how other people see and understand the world.

If they wanted it to have a clear meaning they would have written it in clear and boring terms. The fact that we're having this discussion is proof of how great the lyrics are.

[smackie777]

@rabbitwho I agree. Yoni is the one person who truly understands his lyrics, unless he doesn't, in which case no one does. All these people sound pretty silly explaining the words that they didn't write.

[MAugustineP]

@rabbitwho Saying there is no right and wrong makes life boring, because once you take it to it's logical conclusion it means that nothing really matters.

[davesababe]

@MAugustineP Sounds like fun to me.

[ProfessaOFeensworth]

@MAugustineP

yet striving for the creation of a "right" and "wrong" as a means to avoid a pointless life its only looping its own pointlessness. lol. accept the mystery.

[GnomesAmok]

@MAugustineP

Well.. nothing really matters. We're all gonna die.

[thepenguin114]

@GnomesAmok That's precisely why everything matters. Make the most of your brief existence.

[GnomesAmok]

@thepenguin114

Thats the easy answer, yes

[iobjectifytom]

@rabbitwho This is the most accurate comment anyone has ever made.

[ProfessaOFeensworth]

@rabbitwho

thats possibly the most intelligent thing i've ever seen on a songs youtube comment list.

[redgus95]

@rabbitwho i just fell in love with your comment

[aura723]

@rabbitwho A profoundly lovely opinion

[rabidfish02]

@rabbitwho I disagree, there is right and wrong.

[blondiebabae]

@rabidfish02

Interesting. Since you disagree, yet don't compel him to "fix" or conform, you show there is no right or wrong while claiming the opposite.

Maybe right and wrong are just subjective designations, that have no real practical use...

To put it simply: "...and?"

[rabidfish02]

@blondiebabae The basis for right and wrong can be defined by a blanket statement only if it applies to most if not all cultures and belief systems. A good exapmle of something that is universally wrong in all cultures with very, very few exceptions is incest between direct family members. More specifically, since we are all commenting on this topic in English, it can be assumed that the general perception of right and wrong by people reading this post share slightly less broad"western values"

[blondiebabae]

@rabidfish02

Something can't be "Universally" wrong/right if it has even a few exceptions. There aren't any scientific deliberations to determine what "most" cultures or belief systems could agree on, those decisions are based on what seems obvious to you, hence a subjective decision.

Even "western values" can't be agreed on or defined. Gun control? Abortion? Marriage rights? Value systems aren't static things, they remain debated until they become irrelevant.

Thanks for the civil chat

[opalescentdarkness]

@blondiebabae The missing point is that the is NO culture or values system out of West. Value, as culture and even "West", are western inventions that put the ground of a planetarian domination. From this pov, relativism itself rest under the truth dispositive of the same domination stretegy. There is not only arrogance in the pretention of a summing up pov that should be objective about the regulation of all different povs. It also put the ground of this domination hiding it at the same time

[blondiebabae]

@opalescentdarkness

I feel like I made that point actually. The concept of "western values" is basically defined by your subjective opinion on what the majority of it's practitioners agree on. Hence, there is no real way to completely define it, as almost nothing about it is static, save the name. For instance, I would strongly disagree that planetary domination has anything to do with western values, yet I can tell that you probably believe that 100%

We can call each other wrong, then what?

[opalescentdarkness]

@blondiebabae I disagree about your definition: "values" - a post-kantian concept, cronologically the term isn't a philosophical question before - is the knowledge structure that innervates the power relations in a advanced capitalist system. This clarification is not additional: the ontological ground of capitalism is modern individualism, that grows out of the gardern of specialists just with the "public" death of God. This death is not the end of the God of faith, but the fall of every

[opalescentdarkness]

possible steady, enduring, universal ground and grounding. In the "void" of possibility of grounding the only power that can put a ground is Power itself: and the only possible (hidden) ground is relativism. The apparent choise of everybody about himself hide this ground and makes possible the kind of domination in which everybody thinks to choise and is chosen instead. In which everybody belives to be in command and is commanded instead.

The incompleteness you talk about is the hiding-place

[opalescentdarkness]

from which this ground - that hides itself right while it puts itself - unfolds in the world.

The deployment of capitalism all over the world is incomprehensible without the taking root of a strong-enough ground in the depthness of distinct-before worlds.

Pardon me the lack of synthesis and the poor english

[artsfestoriginals]

@opalescentdarkness shutup

[opalescentdarkness]

@artsfestoriginals Original

[darmohnayeeeeeeee]

@rabbitwho i love you,. lololololol.

[AloraElaine]

Who cares what it means? Take it as you want lets not hate on a page with such a good song.

[trexcock]

He didn't kill her, retard. "You couldn't pay him enough to not kill her?" First of all, "These FEW presidents", and secondly, "frowning in MY pocket". His money.

[saculaicrag]

He's saying that his money is useless now, and that he has no power over whether she lives or dies. He clearly doesnt kill her.

[mountainmooney]

lol at your small brains...he killed her...he kills her like a wasp even though her sting won't go away...and you couldn't pay him enough to not kill her

[cojezd]

win.

[machiinate]

Ill just put it bluntly good song. :D

[MrEdgarwalter]

@machiinate good choice of words

[brstanek]

And as for the meaning, well, I only have 500 characters so I'll try to make it quick.

1st 1/2, 1st verse: Ne notices how domestic they've become without being married (YOUR house) while eating dinner (pray to nothing = grace). 2nd 1/2, I'm not sure yet. Chorus: He was dependant financially on her, and is now poor (these FEW presidents) but even that won't have him go back to her. 2nd part of chorus: He'd be happy to see her dead.

[brstanek]

I'm pretty sure "i'm stung as i was, still i stomped it" is supposed to be "UNSTUNG as I was...". At least I think that makes more sense, though I'm not sure exactly which is correct since different sites seem to say different things.

[emmad0123]

here's how i see it: she killed herself, and he was there, hence "the smell of our still living human bodies and oven gas" i think that they were both going to kill themselves("and i'f you're in heaven waiting"), she died first and then he decided he wanted to live, but she was already dead. he feels guilty and he wishes he could pay to get her back. that's my read on it, it's perfectly open for interpretation though. the only one who really knows what it means is the one who wrote it.

[DukeLacrosse13]

the president part makes me think he killed for money but there is a strong guess its about suicide. reply if u no plz this is my first time listening and wow its great

[FlammableStudio]

i think its about his ex killing herlsefl and the presidents are money in his pocket and how he wish he could pay god for her back but it wont happen

[DukeLacrosse13]

most likely, after listening 50 more times i think dif. thinkgs

[robdibbles]

love this. he says funny shit

[manualmaschine]

man i really love this song! but i'm convinced it's about killing somebody... does anybody agree?

[rafpilot]

Suicide, I think.

[AloraElaine]

Yeah its about him killing somebody.

[jmsnb1986]

no, its abouth his ex killing herself and how badly hes willing to pay to get her back

[DMTZombie]

it sounds more like he killed his wife then is killing himself. but he regrets it.

[DopeFreshie]

i belive the lyric is unstung as i was ...because he says still i stomped it if he was stung he wouldnt have said still rite? cause itd b obvious y he stomped so yea just throwin tht out there if im wrong im wrong if im rite can someone agree with me so i dont look lke a douche lmao

[peskasker]

you're right, still a douche though

[DopeFreshie]

y a i douche i came off as undouuche as possible

[ChadwickLynch]

We actually don't know what you're trying to say because you aren't spelling anything correctly or using grammar. Sorry mang.

[AloraElaine]

I have to listen to this song once a day. I am about as black as snow :D It really dosnt matter what pigmentations  your skin is. Music is universal.

[antihero170]

"even though i haven't seen you in years, your funeral is one i'd fly to from anywhere"

so eloquent

[hoek88]

Yeah, I love that line too.

[Booopper]

awesome song, and i'm a filthy nigger as well

[peskasker]

I love this song.

and i'm half black...from the waist down.

[maramz1806]

Awesome song! And I'm black.

[evilstuffs]

I agree! also, i am black

[AndthentherewasJason]

i too am a black man.......not really..

[burningskype]

such a good song

[joetaff]

this is a great song- i'm black btw

[ThisIsWarPro]

ahahhahahahahahah

[badbrunner]

its a suicide note hes talking about how beautiful she is and how he blames hiself for her death and money wont bring her back

[nameik64]

this song goes hard-im black

[snickers2455]

i also adore this song (^^^)

[AndyTheAsianKid]

I adore this song.

[billmossII]

I thought i had a pebble in my sock

I pulled it off and shook out a wasp

it would fly to you from anywhere

[meatisburger]

there's still triphop hipster in the neighborhood.. thats nice.  Oaklanders need some local flavour and bullet proof vests apparently. i love this fucking town

[skwcrew]

haha so true

[skwcrew]

so true haha

[Zoloph21]

Is it about killing someone...? "my crooked Chinese fingers groped

the machinery of your throat

and now these few presidents

frowning in my pocket

can persuade no god

to let me let you talk, oh

these few presidents

drowning in my pocket

can persuade no god

to let me let you off"

[310BPM]

no. it's about a girl.

the presidents are money, obviously.

and he's talking about how buying the girl stuff doesn't get him anywhere.

at least, that's what i think. i could be completely wrong.

[Ancaja123]

An Omnichord is used in this song right? During the part about the funeral he'd fly to from anywhere?

[BlameTheSpam]

keyboard set to Omnichord no?

[pencildives]

Yeah, that's definitely an Omnichord.

[Jakesbn]

Listen to the cover by Colour Revolt...awesome

[99Maic]

You lied.

[lifthelm]

he did!

[xmadisonmassacre]

This song made me laugh the first time I heard it, even though it's a suicide note.

An amazing, AMAZING song.

I could listen to it every day.

[SkiMarySkiHigh]

I made this out to a south korean girl i met in iowa and a sexy swed i had known for years but havent seen in at least two years... i love you jenna smith CSU

[stevieboy4]

that's so touching that you would leave a youtube comment dedicated to her...

[99Maic]

haha

[brandonian13]

amazing song and solid cd

[furyofchiba]

(insert reply here)

[akjerstad]

these lyrics evoke the most beautiful suicide note ever written to god asking for another to be resurrected for the a few crumpled bills. big a plus plus three thumbs up. (insert exagerated praise here)

[TeggDougland]

Does Why? sound like They Might Be Giants rapping to anyone else?

[TheTriggy]

As much as I love TMBG, no.

[WhiteHairedMaster]

Yes. Good call.

[JoannieBear]

:D i don't see much negative comments about this song, because this song is brilliant!

[kennychiwa147]

man i freaking love this song.

[janejanejane7]

"There is no pavement worthy of your perfect scandanavian feet"

There are no ears worthy of this exquisite song

[TheTriggy]

Wow so good

[Friedegger]

If we write up a list of criterion for the perfect song of the genre, this comes tops in almost all relevant categories.

[superbusetcie841203]

punaise c top bien se truc merci morgane et flo

=)

[WatermeloenSam]

yeess ^^

[maddyhh]

this song has a place in my memories

[canekvejarbadillo]

thats bullshit

[WatermeloenSam]

listening to this over and over and over and over.... :D

[icelos69]

another classic

[Denzil11114]

um this isnt a classic this is a form of rap that is modern

[icelos69]

"a form of rap that is modern", thanks nutsack! way to be concise!

[Denzil11114]

wow your insult was that of a 5 year old good job at failing

[ChadwickLynch]

do you realize where you are arguing?

On the video "These few presidents". Thats right. On a video song page. Do you realize how calling someone else a five year old is funny now?

chill dude.

[ChadwickLynch]

do you realize where you are arguing?

On the video "These few presidents". Thats right. On a video song page.  Do you realize how calling someone else a five year old is funny now?

chill dude.

[Morchelix]

omg, this is so good, cant believe it. listened to it so often in the last weeks...

[blackavar41]

i like that

[Indiedoll91]

good, real good

[penenator]

yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

[nas2694]

ooops!sorry!i pressed the wrong button!!!i wanted the other one!omg i m a creep...

whyyyyyyyyyyyy??????