Bring It on Down Lyrics
What was that sound ringing around your brain?
Today was just a blur, you've got a head like a ghost train
What was that sound ringing around your brain?
You're here on your own who you gonna find to blame?
[Chorus]
You're the outcast
You're the underclass
But you don't care, because you're living fast
You're the uninvited guest who stays till the end
I know you've got a problem that the devil sends
You think they're talking 'bout you, but you don't know who
I'll be scraping their lives from the sole of my shoe tonight
[Instrumental break]
[Bridge]
Bring it on down, bring it down for me
Your head's in a fish tank
Your body and your mind can't breathe
[Bridge]
Bring it on down, bring it out of me
Your head's in a fish tank
Your body and your mind can't breathe
You're the outcast
You're the underclass
But you don't care, because you're living fast
You're the uninvited guest who stays 'till the end
I know you've got a problem that the devil sends
You think they're talking 'bout you, but you don't know who
I'll be scraping their lives from the sole of my shoe tonight
About
“Bring It On Down” is one of several songs from Oasis’s early period that evoke the feeling of living in working class council estate communities in Britain. With a pounding drum track and Liam Gallagher’s vocals high in the mix, later distorting as if through a megaphone, it’s one of the strongest album-only tracks. The lyrics present someone who feels excluded, paranoid and yet defiant. Oasis were particularly petulant and forthright in the Definitely Maybe-period as they felt American music – mainly grunge – had encourage Britain’s young people to feel downhearted and unconfident.
When Definitely Maybe was re-issued in 2014, Noel described the song as:
It was a tribute to The Stooges, the MC5 and punk rock.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Noel has said that the song is about:
… the uninvited guest who turns up at parties and nobody likes but everybody knows, who stays till the end.
He has later described the song:
We smashed it when we used to play it live. I love the guitar solo and the drop down in the middle. Alan McGee obsessed over the line about being the underclass and wanted that to be the first single. For my part, all those songs that have a political undercurrent are real because I was just writing them from the heart. I don’t sit down and think politics let’s get to the bones of this shit. But at that point I was unemployed, in rented accommodation, trying to make it in the world, living from one week to the next, not knowing if you’re gonna have enough money for a pizza. You are in a political situation even if you don’t realise it, cos that is the battleground, that is the essence of politics: accommodation, food and trying to make a living.
- 2.Shakermaker
- 3.Live Forever
- 5.Columbia
- 6.Supersonic
- 7.Bring It on Down
- 10.Slide Away