Blaine L. Reininger is an American composer and performer born in 1953 in P… Read Full Bio ↴Blaine L. Reininger is an American composer and performer born in 1953 in Pueblo, Colorado. Having studied violin from age 9, guitar from age 11, and music theory and composition through high school and into college, he left Colorado in 1976 for San Francisco. There, in 1977, as a consequence of his studies in electronic music at San Francisco City College, he started the legendary American cult band Tuxedomoon together with classmate Steven Brown.

In 1981, Reininger and the group left America to practice their art in Europe. Over the course of the next 26 years, many artistic collaborations took place and many albums were recorded. These collaborations, while mostly musical in nature, often moved into other fields such as dance, theatre, and film.

Since 2000, Tuxedomoon has been re-united and tours the known universe about once a year.
Reininger continues to live and work in Europe, having lived in Athens, Greece since 1998.

Blaine's two offical sites:
mundoblaineo.com
Myspace

Broken Fingers
Blaine L. Reininger Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

When the feeble rears its ugly head
And the light refuse the shine
Put your shoulder to the rock
And remember better times

Broken fingers talk
They grasp at straws
Thought I heard a voice in there

There's no one there at all

Oh, what have we done
To come to this?
Huddled on some foreign shore
Standing the abyss

Wake up in the afternoon
It's so hard to leave the bed
When you look up from the mud
You get kicked right in the head

Broken fingers talk
They tell us what to do
Guess I'll go out for a walk
It must be after two

Underneath gray Belgian skies

The ground is slick and wet
There must be some place else to live

Overall Meaning

The song Broken Fingers by Blaine L. Reininger is a melancholic piece that describes the struggles of a person trying to navigate through difficult circumstances. The first stanza talks about the feeling of helplessness experienced when life seems to be falling apart. The metaphor of the feeble rearing its ugly head symbolizes the problems that arise and the light refusing to shine suggests a sense of hopelessness. However, the singer is advised to put their shoulder to the rock and remember better times. This phrase suggests that instead of giving up, it's important to work hard and remember happier moments as a way of finding the motivation to push through tough times.

The chorus of the song emphasizes the struggle the singer is going through with the use of the metaphor of broken fingers. The broken fingers represent the inability to grip things fully or the sense of being handicapped. Listening carefully to the song, you can also hear the sound of a voice that seems to be talking but there is no one there. This could be interpreted as the singer's internal voice or the feeling of being alone in their struggles. The second verse describes the hopelessness that comes with feeling stuck in a rut. The singer wakes up in the afternoon and finds it difficult to leave the bed. Thinking about moving forward becomes overwhelming, and whenever they try to make a step, life appears to kick them right back down.

Line by Line Meaning

When the feeble rears its ugly head
When weakness comes to the forefront

And the light refuse the shine
And positivity is hard to find

Put your shoulder to the rock
Push through the tough times

And remember better times
And reminisce about happier moments

Broken fingers talk
Injury speaks volumes

They grasp at straws
Futile attempts to find a solution

Thought I heard a voice in there
Believing a solution may exist

There's no one there at all
Realizing there is no answer

Oh, what have we done
Oh, what mistakes have we made

To come to this?
To arrive at this point

Huddled on some foreign shore
Stranding in an unfamiliar place