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Tabbed By:atthedrivein87
This is a really good song, and easy to play.
G---------------------------------------
D---------------------------------------
A---------------------------------------
E-13-13-13-13-12-12-12-12-10-10-10-10-8-
Sometime later in the song it goes like this
G--------------------------------
D--------------------------------
A--------------------------------
E-13-13-15--12-12-14--10-10-12--8
Taken from The BassMasta -- http://www.bassmasta.net
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Sam Wanna Be |
#1 by Sam Gilleland at Jun 27, 1971 at 2:05 AM EST |
| This is about having to make difficult decisions, and the argument you have between the impulse and fly-by feelings of your heart and the intelligence and rationality of your brain...but the heart almost always wins. When he says, "My brain's the burger and my heart's the coal," he's literally saying his heart cooked his brain. When he says, "My brain's the weak heart and my heart's the long stairs," it's another metaphor about the heart doing in the brain, weakening it, troubling it. | |
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Ben Average |
#2 by Ben Braz at Jul 5, 1972 at 3:00 AM EST |
| This is so easy to understand... It is about this guy loving a girl... and he does all this stuff to impress her and he is using the metaphors to compare how his heart is controlling his mind by telling him to do stupid stuff to impress someone he loves... | |
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london calling Average |
#3 by london calling at Jul 23, 1973 at 10:35 PM EST |
| in line with that..."the ravens and seagulls push each other inward and outward, inward and outward"...possibly referring to that same battle between logic and emotion in the sense that a seagull is like your heart--stupid, driven purely by instinct--and the raven is like your brain--cunning, deceptive, etc...from a metaphorical standpoint, of course...or it could be that he just picked two birds that are both associated in literature with war and death...or all that could just be utter bullshit... | |
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Person Average |
#4 by Person at Nov 24, 1974 at 5:04 PM EST |
| this song is about being bored and just trying to figure out who you are and what your doing with it. meaning life. the metaphors show that. heart and brain and different . the heart shows the truth while the brain is confused. | |
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Richie Professional |
#5 by Richie Richards at Oct 13, 1975 at 9:05 AM EST |
| So considering the above posts... I guess you could say that Brock is writing about the ongoing battle to the death between our rational logic and or irrational emotions. | |
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Jessika ♥ Average |
#6 by Jessika ♥ at Nov 22, 1978 at 4:42 PM EST |
| i dont really find this song catchy but I dont think any of us know the real meaning of this song. Its just one of those songs that a person writes that only they get. But the lyrics are amazing. Sorry if i offended anyone saying this song isnt catchy. | |
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Chris Average |
#7 by Chris Essery at May 10, 1979 at 9:42 AM EST |
| i'd always had trouble figuring out the buffalo line; thinking about it now I'm sort of seeing it as the flipside of the "brain's the burger and my heart's the coal" bit. The heart cooks the brain and the brain trips the heart. "my brain's the weak heart and my heart's the long stairs" is my favourite though... | |
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Matt Average |
#8 by Matt at Jan 26, 1981 at 10:58 PM EST |
| Isaac Brock is a pure genius. I just want to get inside his head one day. I want to know what he thinks about. well to me...i see it this way. He is being motivated by his love for something. | |
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Paula Rhythm Player |
#9 by Paula at Apr 21, 1981 at 1:03 AM EST |
| Anna17 is on to something A) Stories can have animals doing things that they never do in real life. Have you seen the Lion King? I think Anna was implying that Modest Mouse may be familar with legends and myths of other cultures and was using that in the song. While yes, Native Americans did also kill Buffalo this way, their legends may have given buffalo emotions and reasons that would add depth to this song. B) There are native american stories about getting buffalo to run off a cliff in order to serve the community. The legend was that Buffalo came to the land refusing to be treated like a tool, so the bitterness may also come from the anger their bodies being used by the resourceful tribes. See http://www.earthbow.com/native/blackfoot/buffalodance.htm "They did not relish being turned into blankets and dried flesh for winter rations. They did not want their hooves and horn to become tools and utensils nor did they welcome their sinew being used for sewing." or also http://www.earthbow.com/native/blackfoot/buffalorock.htm Not that this really gives me much of a conclusion about the meaning, but the fact that the two things IN the story are the Buffalo and the cliff either mean that there is a story of a Buffalo going over the cliff without hunters (outside forces) chasing him, or we are to assume that there are always forces trying to drive you over the cliff? It feels like perhaps the brain is a dangerous thing when your bitter heart decides to act somewhat irrationally? You use your mind to establish goals and accomplish those things, so if your goals are being set by a bitter buffalo, perhaps the end result will not be positive | |
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maniak Rhythm Player |
#10 by maniak phoenix at Jul 11, 1981 at 12:13 AM EST |
| this is a very catchy song...always gets stuck in my head *L*... i love it | |
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Zach Average |
#11 by Zach DeLaRocha at Mar 19, 1982 at 3:49 AM EST |
| I love how this song is so mellow, I like the metaphores..defintly a good song. | |
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Adam Average |
#12 by Adam Nickel at Jul 19, 1983 at 11:01 PM EST |
| Challenge: Show me another songwriter who can do a heart/burger metaphor and not sound like a complete idiot. | |
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stephen Wanna Be |
#13 by stephen k at Apr 21, 1986 at 3:58 PM EST |
| and bitter buffalo - hes personifying the buffalo to represent something, heart or brain or what have you | |
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Jonoz Average |
#14 by Jonoz Moe at May 21, 1988 at 5:52 PM EST |
| um..i don't think buffalo's commit suicide..especially to "sacrifice themselves to the Gods" (my guess is they really don't comprehend all of that sorry)..there really isn't any other animal other than humans that do that. in order to kill buffalo, however, the native americans charged them off of cliffs. perhaps the writer feels that his heart is the "bitter buffalo" in that it is being forced off the cliff, the brain's fault. | |
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Grimani Wanna Be |
#15 by Grimani at Oct 7, 1988 at 1:12 AM EST |
| ha ha ha | |
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st3fan Average |
#16 by st3fan sanchez at May 28, 1990 at 5:03 PM EST |
| i knew this childrens author who wrote a book about a buffalo in a can, and then they actually marketed and sold little tin cans with buffalo stuffed animals in them. i always think of that in passing when i hear this one. but seriously, about the songs meaning, its staight-forward. how much clearer could the words be? take it like it is. | |
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Fink Lead Player |
#17 by Fink James at May 6, 1993 at 9:11 AM EST |
| its just about the everlasting conflict between rationality and emotion....very wellworded and slightly written like an onlooker, not one directly involved....very nice touch, and a lovely schitzophrenic song in a marvelous way | |
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Kevin Wanna Be |
#18 by Kevin White at Oct 3, 1994 at 12:41 PM EST |
| The first half of the song is comparing one's brain to a burger and the heart to the coal. In this line Issac is conveying the idea that sometimes we let our emotions, our heart, get the best of our rational selves, our brains. but to rebutt this claim In the second half of the song Issac employs the Bitter Buffalo metaphor. He is conveying the idea that sometimes people give up on what they belive in their heart because of something their rational brain says. Issac says. Don't be rational, let your buffalo heart love and don't allow it to be bitter because of what your head tells you. | |
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Bill Lead Player |
#19 by Bill at Aug 13, 1995 at 11:45 PM EST |
| "we tore one down, and erected another there " okay, modest mouse stole that lyric from the pixies, from the song 'dead'. | |
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Tradition Average |
#20 by Tradition Funk at Sep 27, 1997 at 6:44 AM EST |
| Again, i thought it was "my heart's the long stares.." like when you have a crush/whatever on someone and you can't bear the looks. again, whatever. | |
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Bryan Average |
#21 by Bryan at May 3, 1998 at 4:16 PM EST |
| i took a quiz one time, and it told me that this song described my brain. true. | |
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Marco Average |
#22 by Marco Torskyj at Jan 24, 2000 at 2:59 PM EST |
| I always connected bitter buffalo metaphor with this old Native American story I heard as child...about buffalo that would sacrifice themselves to the Gods by charging off cliffs. On this, I assumed that the song balanced the heart and brain's abilities to destroy eachother. The brain can be fried by heart's passion while the heart despairs (commits buffalo suicide) before the brain's sheer reason. | |
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Diexis Lead Player |
#23 by Diexis at Jan 23, 2001 at 8:07 PM EST |
| its refreshing. good metaphors. even tho i dont quite understand some of them. | |
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Chris Frickin L Average |
#24 by Chris Frickin LaBenne! LaBenne at Apr 24, 2002 at 12:51 AM EST |
| exactly akmoose isaac = god .. | |
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emma Average |
#25 by emma davidson at Oct 8, 2002 at 4:44 AM EST |
| i think that you guys who state that the lines "my brain's the burger and my heart's the coal" and "my brain's the cliff, and my heart's the bitter buffalo" conflict eachother, stating the hearts' control over the brain and the brains' over the heart. To me these lines are clearly the same message. My brain's the burger and my heart's the coal? I'd say it's obvious that the heart is frying the brain. In other words the heart is fucking the brain up, fucking it over. You're losing rational thought due to your heart cooking your brain. And as for "my brain is the cliff and my hearts a bitter buffalo." I guess the image of a heart running over a brain is lost to you guys... Let's but it this way, my heart is bitter from being overpowered by my brain, so it is now run over my brain, contradicting rational thought, committing suicide to follow it's own desires. | |
