My Favorite Song Lyrics Retrovertigo - Mr. Bungle

[brandice 0]

Here's one that's not really well known. (But I wish it was!) It's a beautiful song, with truly beautiful and meaningful lyrics.

 

Retrovertigo

(from Mr. Bungle's California Words and Music by Trevor Dunn)

 

Before you advertise

All the fame is implied

With no fortune unseen

Sell the rights

To your blight

Time-machine

 

While I'm dulled by excess

And a cynic at best

My art imitates crime

Paid for by

The allies

So invest

 

Now I'm finding truth is a ruin

Nauseous end that nobody is pursuing

Staring into glassy eyes

Mesmerized

There's a vintage thirst returning

But I'm sheltered by my channel-surfing

Every famine virtual

Retrovertigo

 

A tribute to false memories

With conviction

Cheap imitation

Is it fashion or disease?

Post-ironic

Remains a mouth to feed

 

Sell the rights

To your blight

And you'll eat

 

Now I'm finding truth is a ruin

Nauseous end that nobody is pursuing

Staring into glassy eyes

Mesmerized

See the vintage robot wearied

Then awakened by revision theories

Every famine virtual

Retrovertigo

[millertime 0]

thats umm.... i'm not sure. it uses a lot of words i dont even know... lol

[rejected 0]

I totally understood that, but the word I didn't understand was retrovergo, what's it mean? Very meaningful lyrics though.

[biscuitrat 0]

Vertigo is dizziness or nausea from dizziness, just so you know. Yay! It's an intelligent song!

[brandice 0]

Yay! I think the fella who wrote the song made up the word. A sort of dizziness from thinking back... I wonder what came first, the title or the subject of the song... hmmm.

[iGuest 3]

This song is one of the deepest I know of. Very thought over yet again, not too much. The reality is so there and I just don't know what to think about it. One of my favorites-lovely

[iGuest 3]

One%20of%20the%20best%20songs%20ever!

My Favorite Song Lyrics

 

I love this song and it really evokes strong emotion for me. I can't understand why this never got airplay. This is one of the most straightforward of all Bungle songs. Seriously it should be in those top 50 songs of all time lists. To me this is everything a true rock ballad should be.

 

I'd like to see this performed on American Idol.

 

-Christine

[rickyRconti 0]

agreed

[Sk_CrEw 0]

Yo a friend of mine and I started a crew in Brest (France) and we both can rap but I aint no good at writting in english lol so if someone could contact me by mail or by msn if they are willing to write some lyrics for me. My e-mail is mayhem_225@hotmail.com Thanks

Edited February 12, 2008 by Sk_CrEw (see edit history)

[iGuest 3]

Mr. Bungle - Retrovertical interpretation

My Favorite Song Lyrics

 

Replying to brandice

I have read over these lyrics many times. Perhaps I'm trying to read into them too much, but I don't understand what this song is about. Is it a love song? A song of regret maybe? Or something completely different?

 

-reply by Just_me

[iGuest 3]

Retrovertigo

My Favorite Song Lyrics

 

IGuest...

 

I asked the writer of the song, Trevor Dunn, exactly what the song was about...I always knew what it was about and what it meant to me (a helluva lot, I can never get thru listening to the song without crying at least once)...

 

Anyways, this is what Trevor replied to me on his website last year:

 

YOUR QUESTION:

Name: Tony A question regarding Retrovertigo, if I may ? Is that song written from a first person perspective ? And is that person you ?

 

If so, what is that persons viewpoint/state of mind with regard to the subject of the lyric ?

 

If it isnt written from a first person viewpoint, please feel free to tell me from what viewpoint it was written from and as I said, their state of mind with regard to the subject of the song...

 

MY ANSWER:

Yes, if I am remembering correctly, it is a first person perspective, that person being me. Without explaining too much, which I loathe in terms of lyrics, the state of mind was disillusionment with a world or society that values image and money over human life. While certain "retro" fashions and lifestyles are considered hip, the on-going tradition of human suffering continues. As the world progresses technologically, certain people value and emulate "the good ol' days", while others are born into poverty never having progressed past the dark ages. The title "retrovertigo" is a term I came up with to describe my nausea regarding this phenomena. At the time I was living in SF where swing dancing was making a come-back, silicon valley was exploding, vintage clothes were expensive, and the notion that anything could be bought or sold--a soul, a tragedy, the end of the world---seemed viable.

 

http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

 

-reply by Rilence

[iGuest 3]

Retrovertigo is the dizzying effect of looking back in the past.. And in doing so revisiting, maybe even reliving whatever it is thats there and, what the hell write a song about it and make some dough..

Mike Patton in my humble opinion is a genius and this is one of the most beautiful songs and one of my very favorite..

Just a thought.

[Aeon 0]

There are far too many songs that I absolutely love.

 

The two that stand out the most are 'Walk the Faded Line' by Lamb of God and 'Lateralus' by Tool/

 

Lamb of God - The Faded Line

 

Witness shame's parade, the pain of blame repaid

It's f*** hopeless

Accusations and denial.

Hopeless... demon of another day

Colorless... stoned, solid grey

Emptiness... of promises I made

So faithless... the tenants long betrayed.

 

Walk the faded line, cursed crawl of time

Silence, the only promise ever kept.

Familiar touch, a ritual to numb the cut

Salvation in vice

Anguish is realizing what could have been, but never was

It's emptiness that fills the cup

Devotion in the method of my fall.

Pointless...futility continuing

Endlessflowing corrupted vein.

Walk the faded Line, cursed crawl of time (x2)

Silence the only promise ever kept

It's f*** hopeless

Hopeless.(x2)

It's f*** hopeless

Hopeless

Tool - Lateralus

 

Black then white are all i see in my infancy.

red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me.

lets me see.

as below, so above and beyond, I imagine

drawn beyond the lines of reason.

Push the envelope. Watch it bend.

 

Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.

Withering my intuition, missing opportunities and I must

Feed my will to feel my moment drawing way outside the lines.

 

Black then white are all i see in my infancy.

red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me.

lets me see there is so much more and

beckons me to look thru to these infinite possibilities.

as below, so above and beyond, I imagine

drawn outside the lines of reason.

Push the envelope. Watch it bend.

 

over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.

Withering my intuition leaving opportunities behind.

Feed my will to feel this moment urging me to cross the line.

Reaching out to embrace the random.

Reaching out to embrace whatever may come.

 

I embrace my desire to

I embrace my desire to

feel the rhythm, to feel connected enough to step aside and weep like a widow

to feel inspired to fathom the power, to witness the beauty,

to bathe in the fountain,

to swing on the spiral

to swing on the spiral

to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human.

 

With my feet upon the ground I move myeslf between the sounds and open wide to suck it in.

I feel it move across my skin.

I'm reaching up and reaching out. I'm reaching for the random or what ever will bewilder me.

what ever will bewilder me.

And following our will and wind we may just go where no one's been.

We'll ride the spiral to the end and may just go where no one's been.

Spiral out. Keep going.

Spiral out. Keep going.

Spiral out. Keep going.

Spiral out. Keep going.

Spiral out. Keep going.