1
Where is Mona?
She's long gone
Where is Mary?
She's taken her along
But they haven't put their mittens on
And there's fifteen feet of pure white snow?
Where is Michael?
Where is Mark?
Where is Mathew
Now it's getting dark?
Where is John? They are all out back
Under fifteen feet of pure white snow
Would you please put down that telephone
We're under fifteen feet of pure white snow
I waved to my neighbour
My neighbour waved to me
But my neighbour
Is my enemy
I kept waving my arms
Till I could not see
Under fifteen feet of pure white snow
Is there anybody
Out there please?
It's too quiet in here
And I'm beginning to freeze
I've got icicles hanging
From my knees
Under fifteen feet of pure white snow
Is there anybody here who feels this low?
Under fifteen feet of pure white snow
Raise your hands up to the sky
Raise your hands up to the sky
Raise your hands up to the sky
Is it any wonder?
Oh my Lord
Oh my Lord
Oh my Lord
Oh my Lord
Doctor, Doctor
I'm going mad
This is the worst day
I've ever had
I can't remember
Ever feeling this bad
Under fifteen feet of pure white snow
Where's my nurse
I need some healing
I've been paralysed
By this lack of feeling
I can't even find
Anything worth stealing
Under fifteen feet of pure white snow
Is there anyone else here who doesn't know?
We're under fifteen feet of pure white snow
Raise your hands up to the sky
Raise your hands up to the sky
Raise your hands up to the sky
Is it any wonder?
Oh my Lord
Oh my Lord
Oh my Lord
Oh my Lord
Save yourself!
Save yourself!
Help yourself!
Yeah, save yourself!
Save yourself!
Save yourself!
Help yourself!
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Save yourself!
Help yourself!
Help yourself!
Yeah, yeah, yeah
She's long gone
Where is Mary?
She's taken her along
But they haven't put their mittens on
And there's fifteen feet of pure white snow?
Where is Michael?
Where is Mark?
Where is Mathew
Now it's getting dark?
Where is John? They are all out back
Under fifteen feet of pure white snow
Would you please put down that telephone
We're under fifteen feet of pure white snow
I waved to my neighbour
My neighbour waved to me
But my neighbour
Is my enemy
I kept waving my arms
Till I could not see
Under fifteen feet of pure white snow
Is there anybody
Out there please?
It's too quiet in here
And I'm beginning to freeze
I've got icicles hanging
From my knees
Under fifteen feet of pure white snow
Is there anybody here who feels this low?
Under fifteen feet of pure white snow
Raise your hands up to the sky
Raise your hands up to the sky
Raise your hands up to the sky
Is it any wonder?
Oh my Lord
Oh my Lord
Oh my Lord
Oh my Lord
Doctor, Doctor
I'm going mad
This is the worst day
I've ever had
I can't remember
Ever feeling this bad
Under fifteen feet of pure white snow
Where's my nurse
I need some healing
I've been paralysed
By this lack of feeling
I can't even find
Anything worth stealing
Under fifteen feet of pure white snow
Is there anyone else here who doesn't know?
We're under fifteen feet of pure white snow
Raise your hands up to the sky
Raise your hands up to the sky
Raise your hands up to the sky
Is it any wonder?
Oh my Lord
Oh my Lord
Oh my Lord
Oh my Lord
Save yourself!
Save yourself!
Help yourself!
Yeah, save yourself!
Save yourself!
Save yourself!
Help yourself!
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Save yourself!
Help yourself!
Help yourself!
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Lyrics submitted by Forevergreen, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Fifteen Feet of Pure White Snow Lyrics as written by Nicholas Cave
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Don't be unimaginative. Just because it's about coke use doesn't mean it can't be about something else also. I have never done cocaine, and yet I can relate to it. Sometimes I feel like being "under fifteen feet of pure white snow" - in deep, deep depression, like a sense of total hopelesness, like a catastrophe had just occurred in my psyche. Eclusion from God, one could say.
The idea about cocaine didn't even pop into my mind before I read this. I guess if you want something to be about cocaine it's about cocaine. For me it symbolised the cold war and life in the Soviet Union and it's satellite Communist states.
If I may:
" Where is Michael? Where is Mark? Where is Matthew? Now it's getting dark... Where is John? They're all out back Under fifteen feet of pure white snow "
throughout the USSR an extensive 'cleansing, assimilation and persecution' programme was taking place. People and families would disappear over night and (the ones who wouldn't be killed on the spot) would get exiled to gulags in the north-eastern part in russia (Syberia). These regions are known for it's atrocious cold weather (down to -50 Celcius) and extensive snowfall.
"I waved to my neighbour My neighbour waved to me But my neighbour Is my enemy"
In my belief in a way this could be about cold war, but mainly about the atrocities, distrust and alienation of people to one another throughout communist times.
"I can't even find Anything worth stealing Under fifteen feet of pure white snow"
Completely unfair distribution of resources due to which most people would have to queue for long hours and still couldn't get such products as meat and bread in any market.
His constant questions throughought the song like:
"Is there anybody Out there please?" "Is there anyone here who doesn't know? We're under fifteen feet of pure white snow"
Reflect upon the iron curtain and that little information would leave the Union, and an expensive propaganda campaign was always in place. But most people knew that everything was falling apart and that they were forsaken (under 15 feet of pure white snow) The video, the abandoned rooms, the soviet paraphernalia seem to support this argument as does the way that they are all dancing similarly to a certain tune and then everything "falls apart".
I guess I see what I want to see, but I just think that Nick Cave would not simply limit himself to the simple topic of "cocaine" even though that might be one of the themes of the piece.
@PauPau
@PauPau I think you got it. Very accurate analysis
[Comment Removed]
I think this song is pretty obviously about cocaine. I also think it's not really just about use cocaine considering, as mackka pointed out, Nick Cave doesn't really write songs that are just about how much drugs suck. I think that the biblical referencing with the names relates to a loss of faith due to the drug use, and the isolation mackka pointed out is literal isolation due to friends dying, paranoia from the drug, and spiritual isolation from losing God. The loss of faith motif is continued when the cry for help, "oh my Lord", changes to "save yourself! help yourself!", meaning that God cannot help you until you help yourself, ie kick the drugs.
Which is really over-analyzing things I think, because really this is just what happens when Nick Cave, a complex writer fascinated by religion, writes a song about how much drug use sucks.
I did cocaine once; never again. I can definitely relate to this song, especially:<br /> <br /> Doctor, Doctor<br /> I'm going mad<br /> This is the worst day<br /> I've ever had<br /> I can't remember<br /> Ever feeling this bad
@JohnApricot - Nick used to wake up everyday in London, go to church to purge himself of the guilt of being a drug addict. Ten he would walk down to meet his 'man' to score enough heroin (he snorted it) and amphetamine to last him the day. He would go back to his shack of a place back in those days and just do his drugs all day. Wake up, rinse and repeat the day before drug addled behavior. When he met his now wife Susie, she had one condition if she were to marry him. She said "I'll marry you as long as you never go back to church." In the song off of the same album 'Oh My Lord'. Nick's first line is as follows: <br /> <br /> "I thought I'd take a walk today<br /> It's a mistake I sometimes make<br /> My children lay asleep in bed<br /> My wife lay wide-awake<br /> I kissed her softly on the brow<br /> I tried not to make a sound<br /> But with stony eyes she looked at me<br /> And gently squeezed my hand<br /> Call it a premonition, call it a crazy vision<br /> Call it intuition, something learned from mother<br /> But when she looked up at me, I could clearly see<br /> The Sword of Damocles hanging directly above her...,". <br /> <br /> Going out for a walk for a junkie means going out to use. Nick is also quoted saying something to the effect of "I'm not the type of rock artist who will tell you how bad drugs are. They were actually pretty good." The songs he writes speaks about the pitfalls of illicit drugs, but he is not the preacher type against drugs.
The beauty of this song, like so much of Cave's work is that it can be understood and appreciated on such a multitude of levels. It draws a vivid portrait of isolation, regardless of the cause.
The russian letters in the beginning of the video translates " Former Central Committte of the Kazakh Communist Party"
Really doubt it mate. I think Nick Cave's a bit beyond writing songs about how bad cocaine is. But if it works for you, go with it.
I remember I was watching the video of this song with my father and he recognized the man on the hanging picture (in the video) to a political tyrant I think of the Czech republic? I forgot the details of what he told me that day, including the name of the dictator, but it pointed that the meaning of this song is linked to a historical massacre that took place during a regime.
It's the picture of Konstantin Chernenko, the last leader of Soviet Union, before Mikhail Gorbachev. That makes me think that song is about living in communistic country.
FYI, the hanging picture is of Soviet Premier Konstantin Chernenko. He was the last of the old guard before Gorbachev took office.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Chernenko - it's pretty obvious once you compare.
For me it is clearly a song about drug use (cocaine) and the reactions that nick must have experienced the withdrawal of his drinking problem. Even here he can not resist his own dark spot to suppress
This is incredibly well thought out song.
Chernenko aspect of the song, along with critique of communist regime is evident, but I was puzzled by the evangelical singing during the song, so I dug deeper... as in googled it.
Apparently, there's an anti-theistic meaning to it as well. Phrase pure white snow is reference to the verse “Come now, and let us reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” Basically, the song is about how bound and imprisoned one feels when under the weight of imposed ethical standards.
By having this ambiguous meaning, song clearly makes an analogy between religion and communism (or rather, communistic regime), which I think is brilliant, even if we disregard how great the music itself is.
And while I'll admit that "snow" is slang for cocaine (as are about a hundred different words), this is where any possible relation to the topic ends, if for nothing else then for a fact that cocaine is one drug that doesn't make you depressed or alienated. Or at least that's just me and six other people I know.
source: yaledailynews.com/weekend/2001/04/13/cave-spreads-the-not-so-good-news/
Also, I think it's obvious that verses such as "They're all out back<br /> Under fifteen feet of pure white snow" referring to evangelists, and "but my neighbor is my enemy," referring to "love thy neighbor," and "I can't even find<br /> Anything worth stealing" referring to "Thou shall not steal" are anti-theistic comments that support the idea of being buried under all the "whiteness."
It never ceases to amaze me how people are able to read the meaning they want into almost anything. I find this interpretation a bit of a stretch, for instance, but then - since it is in line with currently fashionable thinking - many would find it quite plausible. And then again, most ardent 'anti-theists' I came across have serious trouble admitting that some of the worst atrocities that committed in the 20th century happened under militantly atheistic regimes and that paradigm 'power corrupts' applies to people irrespective of their religious or ideological adherences. <br /> <br /> As for the song - it is open to multiple layers of meaning, but the most evident is alienation, loneliness, weight of your own problems - something closer to the frozen heart of Hell in Dante's Inferno, than any political statement.<br /> <br /> Although drug addiction and people who died alone in the Gulags of the frozen north, often after being denounced to the KGB by their next door neighbours, are the themes that also spring to mind.
He obviously wanted to distract your attention from the real meaning of the song :)