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Interek
#50656 Sat, 16 Oct 04 12:30 PM
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There is a song of Nirvana called "On a plain". The refrain goes like this:
I'm on a plain
I can't complain
I'm on a plain
What is the expression "I am on a plain" used for? What does it mean in this case?
Thanks for answers.
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Joined on
Sat, Oct 16 2004
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Mister Micawber
#50661 Sat, 16 Oct 04 12:59 PM
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I don't know the song-- I don't even know the group; but could they be singing 'I'm on a plane'?
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Joined on
Wed, Aug 4 2004
Yokohama
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'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'
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Interek
#50670 Sat, 16 Oct 04 02:13 PM
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Thanks for answering. No, they sing "plain"; I put into here a copy of the entire text of the song. Hopefully this will make easier to understand the context the expression was used in:
ON A PLAIN
I'll start this off without any words
I got so high that i scratched 'till i bled
I love myself, better than you
You know it's wrong, so what should i do?
The finest day that i ever had
Was when i learned to cry on command
I love myself, better than you
You know it's wrong so what should i do
I'm on a plain
I can't complain
I'm on a plain
My mother dies every night
It's safe to say "Don't quote me on that"
I love myself, better than you
You know it's wrong, so what should i do?
The black sheep got blackmailed again
Forgot to put on the zip code
I love myself, better than you
You know it's wrong so what should i do
Somewhere i have heard this before
In a dream my memory has stored
As a defense i'm neutered and spayed
What the hell am i trying to say?
It is now time to make it unclear
To write down lines that don't make a sense
I love myself better than you
You know it's wrong so what should i do
I'm on a plain
I can't complain
I'm on a plain
I can't complain
I'm on a plain
I can't complain
I'm on a plain
I can't complain
I'm on a plain
I can't complain
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MrPedantic
#50672 Sat, 16 Oct 04 02:32 PM
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Hello Interek
It presumably means the geographical feature, i.e. in this context,
a flat slightly dull landscape (in a metaphorical sense).
As intriguing, but less explicable, is the phrase 'neutered and spayed'.
MrP
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Joined on
Tue, Oct 12 2004
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...opella forensis / adducit febris...
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Mister Micawber
#50673 Sat, 16 Oct 04 02:32 PM
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Thanks for going to the trouble of posting the whole song, Interek. The logic of lyrics is not my forte, but knowing the relative combined illiteracy of songwriters and lyric transcribers, I would still warrant that it is 'I'm on a plane', meaning 'I'm on an even keel', 'I'm at a smooth, level emotional period, where I am satisfied with myself'. I can think of no rationale, either in or out of context, for 'plain', except that it is misspelt.
Perhaps a hepper member will have a better explanation.
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bratannia
#51128 Tue, 19 Oct 04 11:14 PM
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Given "I got so high that i scratched 'till i bled," (2nd line) I would say one possibility for "I'm on a plain" is "I'm holding steady and smooth on my heroin/coke buzz for the day and I'm not coming down for a good long while yet."
Various recriminations and self-critical thoughts are possible: "I love myself, better than you" -- I realize it was greedy and self-indulgent of me just to drug myself up again; guess I love myself more than (I love) you. "You know it's wrong, so what should i do?" Yes, woman who loves me, we both know it's wrong but that hasn't stopped me, has it? So what can I do about it? I'm blackmailed by my addiction, can't stop, I try to post myself out of this system but I just get returned to my own doorstep -- don't know the zip code for getting delivered from this condition. My mother 'just dies' every night because she knows I am doing this again (or maybe she's already actually dead and I blame myself each night), but I'm neutered and spayed, I have no force left against this addiction.
Have I ever messed it all up. I can write about it, but it still makes no sense.
But hey, right now, I'm on a plain, I can't complain.
Chilling. The cry of a man becoming a ghost.
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Joined on
Fri, Apr 9 2004
Amsterdam
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nona the brit
#51184 Wed, 20 Oct 04 07:33 AM
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Like the man says,
'It is now time to make it unclear
To write down lines that don't make a sense'
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Joined on
Wed, Sep 22 2004
England
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The name says it all.
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bratannia
#51412 Thu, 21 Oct 04 09:22 PM
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Paul Simon wrote an easier one a generation earlier:
I knew a man, his brain was so small,
He couldn't think of nothing at all.
He's not the same as you and me.
He doesn't dig poetry.
He's so unhip that
When you say Dylan,
he thinks you're talking about Dylan Thomas,
Whoever he was.
The man ain't got no culture,
But it's alright, ma,
Everybody must get stoned.
(A simple desultory philippic)
Youth cultchah -- whatever generation it may be, you either rise to the challenge of understanding what it all means or you don't. One person's meaningless gibberish is 100,000,000 Nirvana fans' high profundity -- even though the same fans may chuckle about the whole thing when they're 50, and maybe even conclude that it didn't really "make a sense" after all.
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asdf_user
#65827 Thu, 06 Jan 05 05:18 PM
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I think that there is no explanation to nirvana
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Joined on
Thu, Jan 6 2005
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