Correct lyrics to No Bones

[no_bones]

I looked around on a bunch of sites, looking for the correct words to No Bones. I ended up using two of them and try to work out my own version.

I used:
Hey babe, thought maybe
Can’t feel, not today
Wish it didn’t faze me
Can’t handle it either way

With life surrounded
Entombed in war
Don’t lie to her
No bones, No bones

The vast expanses
It can’t be to grand
To go together outside
Hey babe, can’t do it

Can’t put you there again
can’t feel, can’t go through it
If there only was a way
If there only was a way

With life surrounded
Entombed in war
Don’t lie to her
No bones, No bones

The vast expanses
It can’t be too grand
Or I’ll send them back

and

Hey babe, thought maybe
Can’t feel right today
Wish it didn’t faze me
Can’t handle you thier way

Will I surround you, entombed and warm
Don’t lie to her, no bones, no form
The vast expanses will leach you dry
you’ll shiver all summer

Hey babe, can’t do it
Can’t put you there again
Can’t feel
can’t go through it
If there only was a when
If there only was a when

Will I surround you, Entombed and warm
Don’t lie to her, no bones, no form
The vast expanses, the need to grind
they’ll summon

My version now looks like this:

Hey babe, thought maybe
Can’t feel, not today
Wish it didn’t faze me
Can’t handle either way

Will I surround you, entombed and warm
Don’t lie to her, no bones, no form
The vast expanses will leach you dry
To grow together now "sayonigh"

Hey babe, can’t do it
Can’t put you there again
can’t feel, can’t go through it
If there only was a way

If there only was a way

We lie surrounded, entombed and warm
Don’t lie to her, no bones, no form
The vast expanses will leach you dry
they "soundohmigh"

Please, help me correct it and fill in the "blanks". It drives me insane not knowing the correct words to the best dino song ever.

[andyfest]

After listening intently to three different versions, this is what I hear but the last word in the vast expanses verse is really hard to make out. It might even just be a moan…

"no_bones" wrote:

Hey babe, thought maybe
Can’t feel, not today
Wish it didn’t faze me
Can’t handle either way

Well I surround it
Entombed and warm
No lie to hurt
No bones, No form

The vast expanses
The need to grind
To grow together
No time ___ (line? mine?)

Hey babe, can’t do it
Can’t put you there again
Can’t deal, can’t go through it
If there only was a way

If there only was a way

Well I surround it
Entombed and warm
No lie to hurt
No bones, No form

The vast expanses
The need to grind
No time ___ (line? mine?)

[NoBonesGuy]

I wrote the second lyrics version, and they are correct. I had to listen a bazillion times to make out
“The vast expanses will leech you dry”, which I am 100% sure is correct (although I misspelled it, so did you guys). I am 100% on “You’ll shiver all summer”. It is correct phoneme by phoneme, and it makes sense in context. I don’t understand how people insert extra syllables. J sings punk songs like a country singer, with an artificial drawl. He stretches syllables obscenely.

I am Reasonably sure about “The need to grind, they’ll summon”, I would be 100% if it weren’t for the off pronounciation of summon, it would be ok, but it is a reasonable fit.

In order to make out the lyrics, you have to understand them. The song is consistently addressed to a woman, from a male narrator (perhaps a stand in for some hard drug like heroin). The song is revealing that the narrator will not protect the woman from “the vast expanses” (like the water in “the water”). The line “no bones, no form” is a J-ism for no tentpole, no tent. It’s actually quite poignant, and in the abstract style people liked back then, like Michael Stipe’s early lyrics.

The shivering in the summer is actually a pretty good construction, which calls to mind some sort of drug withdrawal, either literally or as a metaphor. The summer is like youth, or just shivering in warm weather, which is sickness itself. It’s very eerie, again abstraction. This type of lyric was used at that time, for example, in “Hippie hole” by the Faith Healers UK, they say “take some of this, shake for hours.”

“If there only was a when” is a rhyme fill to “can’t put you there again”. I agree that “if there only was a way” makes more sense, but singers sometimes throw in a nonobvious soundalike word, just to add diversity and perhaps fix an imperfect rhyme. The sense is surely “If there only was a way” in either interpretation, only the phonemes are “if there only was a when”. It depends on whether you are transcribing the sound, or the meaning.

I am sorry, but J-Mascis is definitely drawling out “right”, and the construction “can’t feel right” is correct in a country style song for this situation. The construction, “can’t feel, not today” is limp and powerless, especially considering that he is feeling a lot by singing this! He just can’t feel “right”, meaning feel the right emotion.

As for “can’t handle either way” or “can’t handle you their way”, I lean towards the latter, even though it is the weaker of the two. The reason is that this is a second person song— there is a person this is sung to, and I think the intent with the “they” is to produce an abstract feeling of other people, who are just the typical, while he would like to be then exceptional.

[empire3]

I’m not great at deciphering lyrics or even singing the right words, but I thought I’d post this.
All the Japanese albums have the lyrics printed inside in English and Japanese -I’m not saying it’s right, and I don’t know even if J supplies them, but this is exactly how they are written in the booklet(capitals, spacing etc)

Hope it helps.

No Bones
Hey babe, thought maybe can’t feel,
not today wish it didn’t faze me can’t handle either way with life
surrounded entombed in war don’t lie to her, no bones, no
bones the vast expanses, it can’t
Oo grand to go together outside hey babe, can’t do it can’t put
you there again can’t feel, can’t go through it if there only was a
way if there only was a way [solo]
with life surrounded entomb
War don’t lie to her, no bones,
no bones the vast expanses, it can’t be too grand or I’ll send
them back

[gkay44]

Good work folks. This blows my theory tho, where I imagined the line was “no bones, no phone”.

[dharmabum72]

Hey folks,

First thanks for making me listen to one of my all time favorite songs over and over for the first time in a while.

While I can’t decipher the whole thing, a few lines I’m pretty sure of

Hey babe, thought maybe
Can’t feel that today
Wish it didn’t faze me
Can’t handle either way

Well I surround you
Entombed in woe
No laughter
No bones, no bones

Anyway, I still hear “no laughter” and “Entombed in woe”
all i really have to add. Great forum.

[Author]

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