Richard Buckner is an American singer songwriter born in California, reside… Read Full Bio ↴Richard Buckner is an American singer songwriter born in California, resident in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada for a number of years, and currently living in Brooklyn, NY. A critically-acclaimed artist most often associated with the Alternative Country movement, Buckner has in recent albums eschewed his initial acoustic approach and displayed an increasing interest in more abstract music styles.

Buckner began his career with the acoustic "Bloomed" (1994), a lyrically dense suite of songs recorded in Lubbock, Texas and heavily influenced by that state's tradition of whisky-soaked poet/troubadors, probably best embodied by Townes Van Zandt. In 1996, he released the major label "Devotion & Doubt," with members of Giant Sand backing him, displaying a more adventurous, almost avante garde approach to songwriting and arranging.

Since then, he has returned to recording for smaller labels, to continued critical acclaim and cult status. His 2000 album The Hill - his first for Chicago-based indie label Overcoat Recordings - features poems from Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology (1915), which Buckner set to music. The album plays as a single track, nearly thirty-five minutes long. He returned in 2002, first with the "teaser" EP Impasse-ette, then a full-length entitled Impasse one month later. In early 2003, his self-released, self-titled album was reissued by Overcoat, and was his final release for the label. In 2004, an edited version of Richard Buckner's song Ariel Ramirez, from the album Since (1998) was featured in one of the television ads for Volkswagen's Touareg.

He is currently aligned with North Carolina-based indie label Merge Records, who have released four of his albums so far: 2004's Dents and Shells, 2006's Meadow, 2011's Our Blood, and 2013's Surrounded, as well as the 7-inch single Willow (b/w Lost). He also recorded an album with Jon Langford (most notably of The Mekons) called Sir Dark Invader vs. The Fanglord (2005) for Buried Treasure Records.

Surrounded
Richard Buckner Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

You just won't lie down.
Even closing your eyes, you can't let it go,
Surrounded inside.

Leave it alone.
You don't get it back
Undoing the scenes you can't explain,
Whatever you dream

That you've buried away.

It seems like you're there as someone removed
And left in their place with nothing to do.

Bound to the switch.
Railing again at the thought of the fight
For well-earned dissent
Undeserved at the time,

As you've been shown, the motion has gone
A shade of the night, only leading you on.

Overall Meaning

The song "Surrounded" by Richard Buckner seems to talk about someone who is struggling to let go of something that has been bothering them, something that they have buried away. The first line, "You just won't lie down" suggests that the singer is urging the singer to let go and move on. However, the second line "even closing your eyes, you can't let it go" suggests that the singer is having a difficult time doing so. They feel surrounded inside, trapped by their thoughts and emotions, unable to escape.

The lines "Leave it alone. You don't get it back. Undoing the scenes you can't explain" suggest that the singer is trying to undo something that has already happened, something that they can't explain or fix. The lines "Whatever you dream that you've buried away" suggest that the singer is holding onto something from their past, something that they have buried deep within themselves.

The lines "It seems like you're there as someone removed and left in their place with nothing to do. Bound to the switch. Railing again at the thought of the fight" suggest that the singer is feeling disconnected from their surroundings, as if they are just a shell of their former self. They feel bound to their thoughts and emotions, unable to break free. They are railing against their own mind, struggling to find a way out.

Overall, the song "Surrounded" seems to be about the struggle to let go of something from the past, something that is keeping the singer trapped and unable to move on.

Line by Line Meaning

You just won't lie down.
You refuse to give up and keep fighting.

Even closing your eyes, you can't let it go,
It's hard to forget about the situation even when you try to ignore it.

Surrounded inside.
Feeling trapped and unable to escape your own thoughts.

Leave it alone.
Stop trying to fix the situation.

You don't get it back
You can't undo what's been done.

Undoing the scenes you can't explain,
Trying to make sense of what happened.

Whatever you dream
No matter what you imagine in your head.

That you've buried away.
Things you've hidden away in your mind.

It seems like you're there as someone removed
You feel like you're there but disconnected from reality.

And left in their place with nothing to do.
Feeling stuck and unsure of how to move forward.

Bound to the switch.
Stuck in a situation you can't control.