Song
ADAMS Lyrics


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Ek balsem jou met heuning en kaneel
Daar’s laventel in jou hare en die silwer van jou jare
Wat daar doer op die hoop randjies speel

Die nyalas wei nog daar teen jou kamer
Hulle ken ook daai plek waar jy nou rus
Kyk maar mooi jy sal hul spoortjies daar kry
Ons maak jou kruiwa vol daisies as die lente weer kom
Dan huil ons hulle nat met ons trane totdat hulle weer blom (Ma kom bêre vir jou)

Hier by Totius o by Opperman en Eugene Marais
Tussen die digters se woorde en my laaste akkoorde
Want jy’s nou in die hemel en hierdie song is net vir jou
Ek lê jou neer tussen Opperman en Eugene Marais

Ek ruik nog die skaapboud daar in jou kombuis
Jou kondensmelk mosterd was my gunstelling
Jy’t my geleer van die Here en saam het ons Neil Diamond gesing

Ons maak jou kruiwa vol daisies as die lente weer kom
Dan huil ons hulle nat met ons trane totdat hulle weer blom (Ma kom lê jou neer hier by die digters)

Hier by Totius o by Opperman en Eugene Marais
Tussen die digters se woorde en my laaste akkoorde




Want jy’s nou in die hemel en hierdie song is net vir jou
Ek lê jou neer tussen Opperman en Eugene Marais

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to ADAMS's song SONG are a beautiful tribute to a loved one who has passed away. The singer reminisces about the special moments spent with this person, describing how they would use honey and cinnamon to soothe their wounds, and how the silver strands in their hair would catch the light. The imagery throughout the song is vivid and poetic, with references to nyalas grazing outside the person's bedroom window and the smell of roasted lamb in their kitchen.


The lyrics also reveal the deep sense of loss felt by the singer, as they imagine the person's absence in the coming spring when they would have picked daisies together. However, despite the heartache, there is a sense of peace as the singer lays their loved one to rest in the company of great poets such as Totius, Opperman, and Eugene Marais.


Overall, the song conveys a sense of profound love, gratitude, and loss, celebrating the memories and legacy of the departed loved one. Making peace with their passing, the singer chooses to remember them with warmth and fondness in their heart.


Line by Line Meaning

Ek balsem jou met heuning en kaneel
I soothe you with sweet honey and cinnamon


Daar’s laventel in jou hare en die silwer van jou jare
There is lavender in your hair and the silver of your years


Wat daar doer op die hoop randjies speel
That plays on the edges of the heap


Die nyalas wei nog daar teen jou kamer
The antelopes still graze there by your room


Hulle ken ook daai plek waar jy nou rus
They also know that place where you now rest


Kyk maar mooi jy sal hul spoortjies daar kry
Just look closely, you'll find their tracks there


Ons maak jou kruiwa vol daisies as die lente weer kom
We'll fill your wheelbarrow with daisies when spring comes again


Dan huil ons hulle nat met ons trane totdat hulle weer blom (Ma kom bêre vir jou)
Then we'll wet them with our tears until they bloom again (But come bury you)


Hier by Totius o by Opperman en Eugene Marais
Here by Totius or by Opperman and Eugene Marais


Tussen die digters se woorde en my laaste akkoorde
Between the words of the poets and my final chords


Want jy’s nou in die hemel en hierdie song is net vir jou
Because you're now in heaven and this song is just for you


Ek lê jou neer tussen Opperman en Eugene Marais
I lay you down between Opperman and Eugene Marais


Ek ruik nog die skaapboud daar in jou kombuis
I still smell the lamb shank there in your kitchen


Jou kondensmelk mosterd was my gunstelling
Your condensed milk mustard was my favorite


Jy’t my geleer van die Here en saam het ons Neil Diamond gesing
You taught me about the Lord and together we sang Neil Diamond


Ma kom lê jou neer hier by die digters
But come lay you down here by the poets




Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS

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Most interesting comments from YouTube:

@Nak_Su_

LYRICS
I never thought I'd die alone
I laughed the loudest, who'd have known?
I trace the cord back to the wall
No wonder it was never plugged in at all
I took my time, I hurried up
The choice was mine, I didn't think enough
I'm too depressed to go on
You'll be sorry when I'm gone
I never conquered, rarely came
Sixteen just held such better days
Days when I still felt alive
We couldn't wait to get outside
The world was wide, too late to try
The tour was over, we'd survived
I couldn't wait 'til I got home
To pass the time in my room alone
I never thought I'd die alone
Another six months I'll be unknown
Give all my things to all my friends
You'll never step foot in my room again
You'll close it off, board it up
Remember the time that I spilled the cup
Of apple juice in the hall
Please tell mom this is not her fault
I never conquered, rarely came
Sixteen just held such better days
Days when I still felt alive
We couldn't wait to get outside
The world was wide, too late to try
The tour was over, we'd survived
I couldn't wait till I got home
To pass the time in my room alone
I never conquered, rarely came
Tomorrow holds such better days
Days when I can still feel alive
When I can't wait to get outside
The world is wide, the time goes by
The tour is over, I've survived
I can't wait 'til I get home
To pass the time in my room alone



@lewie895

This is the suicide letter blink 182 received that inspired ‘Adam’s Song’. It’s actually fake as fuck.

To the man and woman who chose to conceive a child, the result of which was me, when it fit in with their five year plan;

To the teachers who never really cared, no matter what they say;

To my fellow geeks, dweebs, et. al., who will no doubt receive more abuse upon my passing, as my tormentors will no longer have me to kick around; 

To my fellow students who made my life a living nightmare when they should have focused on their education;

To those who never cared, never spoke, probably never knew my name;
To the one true friend, whose caring was the only thing that prevented this even from happening sooner;

To the God, if he does exist, who chose to play a cruel, cruel joke on me when he placed me where he did and surrounded me with so many uncaring faces;

To all of you, goodbye.

I am leaving a world to which I never truly belonged or fit in. Do not weep for me, or mourn my passing. I say this not because I expect to be missed, but to allow those who truly did not care go on with their lives with a clean conscience and dry eyes. I know you don’t want to weep for me. So don’t. But I do ask you to listen to the final words of a young man who has taken charge of his own destiny. 

Perhaps my parents might feel something inside which causes them to shed tears. They may pretend that it’s sorrow for their “loss”, but I hope it is something else. Perhaps sorrow for bringing a child into this world when they really didn’t have the time or desire to raise him. I wasn’t the product of love, born of a desire to prepare another human being to grow and lead the human race. I was merely the next acquisition, the next task, the next project on their list of things that bring significance. 

No child should be brought into this world for the mere purpose of being just another possession. I am not an asset to be cataloged and listed on your tax forms beside your house and car, or fought over during your divorce proceedings. I am a human being. I’m sorry that it took this to make you realize that. If you don’t yet get it, then I’m even sorrier. 

What about my teachers? Will they be sorry to see another student become a statistic? Certainly the administration and Principal Chowning will mourn, as my death will not reflect well on them as an institution. Well, I apologize for making the statistics for your administration worse. But I don’t expect an apology for the false sympathies of people like Mrs. Dunfee, and the broken promises of others like Mr. Richman. 

As for my fellows students, those who made a more significant impact on my life, I know better than to expect my tormentors to mourn.

But if I’m going to address those who belittled me, I’d be remiss if I failed to include the ladies in my life. I guess that’s not entirely accurate, as the ones I refer to fall in two basic categories: those who refused to be in my life, and those who I would rather have excluded from my life. In the former category, Melinda Tunney, Jessica Silvers, and dear Kimmy Vanover, whose laughed in my face after I asked her to the homecoming dance, humiliating me in front of I don’t know how many other classmates. In the latter category are too many to mention, though I must single out Rebecca Cull and Vanessa Dietrich for their tremendous dedication to the cause of destroying any shred of self-esteem I might dare to foster. Why can’t you accept the things that make other people different rather than insisting everyone conforms to your will? 

Sure, some did offer friendly gestures. Nicole Edwards often would greet me and ask about my life. Not that I ever felt comfortable enough to tell her anything; I never trusted her enough to give her the chance. What was the purpose? Did you really give a flip about the shy, quiet kid who sat behind you in 8th grade history? Or was it all about creating an illusion that you care, just to guarantee my voting for you as a class officer. 

I can only conceive of one person in this world who will truly be sad at my parting. Marty, my best friend, you talked me out of this decision three times before. You even called 911 after I swallowed a bottle of pills. That is why I did not tell you anything this time, and why I do this in secret, alone. I wish you were coming with me on this great adventure, into the final frontier. Where ever I go, yours will be the one face I carry with me. The one soul I will miss. Yours is also the only forgiveness I ask and beg for as I depart from this life. I love you, and always will.

There’s another group I have not yet addressed: those not like me who left me alone. Or I should say ignored me. I appreciate your sparing me any further harassment, but your inaction, your withheld hellos and how are yous did more to hurt than any name calling. Your inaction effectively excluded me from student life, from the human race. You left me isolated and alone, and no words I could say can convey to you the suffering you caused. I could name names, but in doing so, I would do more now for you than you ever did for me in life. 

I do not know if what awaits me at the end of this gun. Will there be a void? Or will I come face to face with God? I just don’t care any more. If you’re anything like your people, I wouldn’t want to know you. You preached to love one another, yet I’ve felt everything except love from Christians. Even if I could know you were different, well, I still reject you. You have left your “followers” to treat people like me poorly. You have allowed so many of the people you “love”, including me, to suffer. So you want me to trust you with my life? I don’t want to spend eternity with a careless deity like you, or with the company you keep. 

As my final moments tick away, I wonder what impact these words will create. It depends first on this web site being found, as I doubt whether school administration will want such venom spoken publicly about their lack of caring. Still, the Internet is a remarkable place where even the least significant individual can be heard. Will anyone listen? Will anyone take action? Will students pause and pay attention to the hurting hearts around them? And even if they do, will it be a temporary salve for their egos, to convince themselves they’re really not bad people or will real change happen? 

My heart certainly goes out to my fellow outsiders. With me gone, some of you will certainly feel more of the pain and hurt that I did. No one understands you. No one cares how your day is going. No one bothers to get to know you as anything more than a nerd, a geek, a loser. You can do nothing for their social status, save the occasional boost to the ego they get from putting you in your place. Some of you, like Andy Riker, will find outlets in writing. Some, like James Moon, will have an escape in art. Some, like Sean Gilbert, will live their lives pursuing unicorns that they will never, ever catch. I never had a talent to lose myself in, or a dream or unicorn to chase, and so I have taken the path most dreaded. Some of you may soon join me, and I look forward to welcoming a brother or sister to the land where you will never suffer the loneliness and rejection that faces you now.

Farewell forever. I am going to another place. Where, I do not know. But logic dictates that it can only be an improvement. Perhaps my passing will only prove a footnote in a school yearbook. Then again, perhaps the sacrifice of one might bring hope to others. If my death makes life for one person a little more bearable, or a little more enlightened, do I really die in vain? 

“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one.”

- Adam Krieger



@nemonull5935

@mojo master

I think you need to look at the whole verse to get the idea of what that line is about.

Up until the apple juice mention the implication is that the person is starting to isolating and possibly will resort to suicide. The apple juice is not of great importance, is rather just another minor mistake him/her did. So, when he say that Mom wasn't at fault for that, it's more like he/she is referring to the outcome of his life.

The song was made after Blink 182 received a letter from the parents of a boy who killed himself because he suffered bullying in school and thought his life was of no importance to anyone.

I hope that was of help.



@TenThumbsProductions

@@michaelkreibick769 Let me explain what I mean, and we are going to take a deep dive into the song too, I just taught it on Ukulele and I have it learned and ready for a guitar tutorial too, so it is fresh in my mind and I enjoy talking about music.

To start, clearly not every fan took thier life, I would have a hard time writing about my opinion about the song if I was dead. That isn't what I meant by every fan relating to it, or feeling like they were singing to each one of us, I simply was referring to being a teenager and feeling sad, lonely, and depressed, and the lyrics of this song just felt like Blink knew were I was coming from, how I felt and like they were singing to me. They sang like they could relate to the way I felt and they sang like they knew how I felt. I know a lot, 10s of thousands of people, listened to this song and felt the exact same way.

So now that we have established what I meant by relating to the song, it is time to take a deep dive into the actual song. This is all stuff I learned researching it as I was learning to play it. When I teach a song on my channel, if I have time, I like to research the origin story, I find that by dropping interesting facts about the song through the tutorial it helps resets people's attention span, keeping them engaged in the tutorial longer and making it more likely for them to learn the song.

The song isn't about a kid named Adam, in the sense that it isn't just a first person story that a kid name Adam is telling leading up to his suicide. This song is about the loneliness that Mark felt on tour and even more so the feeling that he had as the tour was ending and they were returning home, Tom had a girlfriend, Travis had a girlfriend and Mark was going back to California to pass the time in his room alone as he was the only single person in the badn. He even mentions the tour in the lyrics "The world is wide, the time goes by
The tour is over, I've survived" The rough draft of the song even had lyrics saying something like "I couldn't wait to get off the plan to pass the time in my room alone" but they changed it.

So, who is Adam? Adam is nobody, the title of song was inspired by a sketch from Mr. Show.

My personal interpretation. I always so it as a song of hope. The person in the song talks about suicide but never actually says he killed himself. There is no part where he say this is it, or time to kill myself, and that lack of resolution always made me feel like Adam worked it out, he felt blue, thought about suicide, but gave it time and life got a little easier and he felt a little happier, then it continued to get easier and he continued to get happier. Mark echoed that sentiment after a fan killed himself from Columbine with the song on repeat. A year after the shooting as survivor took his own life. In the tragedy he lost his best friend. When Mark heard the news he said "I was actually out shopping, and management called me up and told me the story of what happened, and I was like, 'But that's an anti-suicide song!' It felt awful. I mean, the things that the kid had had to go through in his life were very saddening, and then to end it that way was really depressing. But 'Adam's Song', the heart of the song is about having hard times in your life, being depressed, and going through a difficult period, but then finding the strength to go on and finding a better place at the other side of that."

So, there you have it. My two cents on this amazing song and what I meant by first short comment. I love music, I love talking about it, I love playing it. Like I said we just taught this on Ukulele and we will be playing it on guitar either next week or the week after if you play either and want to learn. Great band, great song, great album. Take care dude and have a great day. I may have misinterpreted what your comment was and what you were saying too, but it is all good because we get to talk about music, something I really love to do. Strum on man!



All comments from YouTube:

@RobertIDK

Blink-182 had absolutely no chill putting this song right before All The Small Things

@untitled568

Those songs are night and day

@Trohawkk

yup. adam song slowed is fucking heavy

@creativechau

it's very blink actually. Just forget about the pain and let's party!

@roonilwazlib3089

Life’s shyt.. own it and sing ✌🏻

@pickingacoustic4460

True

69 More Replies...

@archiewilson4196

"I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make others happy, because they know what its like to feel absolutely worthless and don't want anyone else to feel that way."- Robin Williams

@krzysztofwojtaszko5269

A beautiful quote...

@bxnkroll

it's insane. it's a sad world overall for nice people

@mayburnwright3434

That man died to soon God rest his soul.

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