Mistaken For Strangers Lyrics
You have to do it running
But you do everything that they ask you to
'Cause you don't mind seeing yourself in a picture
As long as you look far away
As long as you look removed
[Refrain]
Showered and blue-blazered
Fill yourself with quarters
Showered and blue-blazered
Fill yourself with quarters
[Chorus]
You get mistaken for strangers by your own friends
When you pass them at night
Under the silvery, silvery Citibank lights
Arm in arm in arm and eyes in eyes glazing under
Oh, you wouldn't want an angel watching over
Surprise, surprise, they wouldn't wanna watch
Another un-innocent, elegant fall
Into the un-magnificent lives of adults
[Verse 2]
Make up something to believe in your heart of hearts
So you have something to wear on your sleeve of sleeves
So you swear you just saw a feathery woman
Carry a blindfolded man through the trees
Showered and blue-blazered
Fill yourself with quarters
Showered and blue-blazered
Fill yourself with quarters
[Chorus]
You get mistaken for strangers by your own friends
When you pass them at night
Under the silvery, silvery Citibank lights
Arm in arm in arm and eyes in eyes glazing under
Oh, you wouldn't want an angel watching over
Surprise, surprise, they wouldn't wanna watch
Another un-innocent, elegant fall
Into the un-magnificent lives of adults
You get mistaken for strangers by your own friends
When you pass them at night
Under the silvery, silvery Citibank lights
Arm in arm in arm and eyes in eyes glazing under
Oh, you wouldn't want an angel watching over
Surprise, surprise, they wouldn't wanna watch
Another un-innocent, elegant fall
Into the un-magnificent lives of adults
About
“Mistaken for Strangers” is the second track on The National’s 2007 album, Boxer. It was the album’s first single. It is also the namesake of a 2013 documentary about the band, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City.
Furthermore the documentary of Matt Beringers brother Tom about the band and the High Violet tour is named “Mistaken for Strangers”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OeSAUNvpvY
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
There are lots of moments on the record about friends disappearing and losing friends and stuff like that. The line [“So you swear you just saw a feathery woman carry a blindfolded man through the trees”] alludes to the idea of someone’s spirit being taken wherever it goes after death. I’m not actually very religious, but it’s a metaphor—being taken to heaven by an angel. But it’s not so much about the spirit as it is about having seen something unbelievable, and the need to tell someone that there are things out there that are amazing, ‘I’ve seen something I need to tell you about.’ I think that’s what that’s about. A lot of the lyrics I write involve images that just swing the song in a way that feels really good to me and there isn’t a literal explanation. They’re not riddles for the listener to solve.“ – Matt Berninger in an inteview
- 1.Fake Empire
- 2.Mistaken For Strangers
- 3.Brainy
- 5.Green Gloves
- 6.Slow Show
- 8.Start a War
- 9.Guest Room
- 11.Ada
- 12.Gospel